Comment on FR Doc # 2010-13870

4. The Veterans staff workload has been steadily increasing due to North Dakota’s low unemployment rate during the past 18 month. This has brought an influx of Veterans to the state. There has been an increase in the workload due to assisting veterans in overcoming barriers such as housing, transitional skills, child care, and transportation 5. Given the current staffing levels we are required to make unpopular and uncomfortable decisions about how staff spends their time. We are forced to choose between travel to rural areas or they can stay in office and serve the steady stream of veterans who come to the office and seek services in person, this particularly affects the native American veterans who live on the 5 reservations we serve. 6Based on the US-DOL re-focusing effort, LVER and DVOP duties cannot overlap, therefore, additional staff will be necessary to carry out the intent of the Jobs for Veteran’s State Grant. Smaller states in particular will find it hard to specialize as “only” a DVOP or LVER. 7. States that provide the highest measurements in the performance measures should be rewarded with higher funding levels. • Smaller states have a greater percentage of budget to “overhead” costs than larger states. That is not reflected in the funding formula, and should be so reflected. • With the advent of PTSD and TBI in returning veterans, we need additional funding to create and implement an education program to employers which will assist them in recognizing and appropriately dealing with these issues. 8.Yes, states who are spending their grant allocations and consistently requesting additional funding should be considered for higher base funding since there are obviously additional needs in that state.