02-12417. Wagner-Peyser Act Final Planning Allotments for Program Year (PY) 2002

AGENCY:

Employment and Training Administration, Labor.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

This notice announces the final planning allotments for Program Year (PY) 2002 (July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2003) for basic labor exchange activities provided under the Wagner-Peyser Act.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Timothy S. Felegie, Office of Workforce Security, 200 Constitution Avenue NW., Room S-4231, Washington, DC 20210. Telephone: [phone] (this is not a toll-free number).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

In accordance with section 6(b)(5) of the Wagner-Peyser Act, 29 U.S.C. 49e(b)(5), the Employment and Training Administration is publishing final planning allotments for each State for Program Year (PY) 2002 (July 1, 2002, through June 30, 2003). Preliminary planning estimates were provided to each State on March 8, 2002. The Secretary of Labor distributes funds in accordance with formula criteria established in section 6(a) and (b) of the Wagner-Peyser Act. The Secretary uses Civilian labor force (CLF) and unemployment data for Calendar Year 2001 to make the formula calculations.

The total amount of funds currently available for distribution is $761,735,000. The Secretary may set aside up to three percent (3%) of the total available funds to assure that each State will have sufficient resources to maintain statewide employment services, as required by section 6(b)(4) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. 49e(b)(4). In accordance with this provision, the Secretary has set aside $22,372,050 for administrative formula allocation. These funds are included in the total planning allotment. The Secretary distributes the funds that are set aside in two steps to States that have lost in relative share of resources from the prior year. In Step One, States that have a CLF below one million and are below the median CLF density are maintained at 100 percent of their relative share of prior year resources.

The Secretary distributes the remainder in Step Two to all other States losing their relative share from the prior year, but which do not meet the size and density criteria for Step One. Postage costs incurred by States during the conduct of employment service (ES) activities are billed directly to the Department of Labor by the U.S. Postal Service. The total final planning allotment reflects $16,000,000, or 2.1 percent of the total amount available, withheld from distribution to finance postage costs associated with the conduct of ES business. Under section 7(b) of the Act, 29 U.S.C 49f(b), ten percent of the total sums allotted to each State shall be reserved for use by the Governor to provide performance incentives for public ES offices and programs; services for groups with special needs; and for the extra costs of exemplary models for delivering job services.

Differences between preliminary planning estimates and final planning allotments are caused by the use of Calendar Year 2001 data as opposed to the earlier data (12 months ending September 2001) used for preliminary planning estimates.

Signed at Washington, DC, this 8th day of May, 2002.

Emily Stover DeRocco,

Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training.

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