United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2001-10-30 monographic deposited born digital 14 p. GA 1.13:GAO-02-192T https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-192T P0b002ee1803a072b f:d02192t DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-192T machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-192T GAO-02-192T Employment or training programs Funds management Grant administration Grant monitoring Veterans benefits Veterans employment programs DOL Disabled Veterans Outreach Program DOL Local Veterans Employment Reps Program Testimony A02396 The Department of Labor's (DOL) Disabled Veterans' Outreach Program (DVOP) and Local Veterans' Employment Representative (LVER) program are grants programs that allow states to hire staff members to serve veterans exclusively. The DVOP and LVER programs are mandatory partners in the new one-stop center system created in 1998 by the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which requires that services provided by numerous employment and training programs be made available through one-stop centers and gives states the flexibility to design services better suited to local workforce needs. Although the DVOP and LVER programs must operate within the one-stop system, WIA does not govern the programs--and the law that governs them does not provide the same flexibility as WIA. Because Congress sees employment service for veterans as a national responsibility, it established the Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS) to carry out the national policy that veterans receive priority employment and training opportunities and that disabled veterans and Vietnam-era veterans be made a special priority. In order to make better use of DVOP and LVER staff services, VETS needs the legislative authority to grant each state more flexibility to design how this staff will fit into the one-stop center system. VETS also needs to be able to hold states accountable for achieving agreed upon goals. Veterans receive priority employment service at one-stop centers as required under the law, but the effectiveness of the services, as indicated by the resulting employment, cannot be determined because VETS does not require states to collect sufficient data to measure outcomes veterans achieve from these services. VETS does not adequately oversee the DVOP and LVER program grants because it does not have a comprehensive system in place to manage state performance in serving veterans. VETS has not adequately adapted the DVOP and LVER programs to the new one-stop environment and determined how best to fit them into the one-stop system. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-192T/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-192T.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-192T/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-192T.pdf GAO-02-192T https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-192T Testimony GAO-02-192T; Veterans' Employment and Training Service: Greater Flexibility and Accountability Needed to Better Serve Veterans; Employment or training programs Funds management Grant administration Grant monitoring Veterans benefits Veterans employment programs DOL Disabled Veterans Outreach Program DOL Local Veterans Employment Reps Program