throughout America is going to be part of the change, and I look forward to working with you, Mr. Chairman. Senator HARKIN. That is coming out this summer? Secretary MARTIN. Yes; we will make sure you get a copy. Senator HARKIN. I appreciate that. It was just a policy question, but do you have anything else to add, Madam Secretary? I appreciate your spending the time. I will submit the rest in writing. Secretary MARTIN. Thank you. JTPA OVERSIGHT Senator HARKIN. I had one question on oversight of job training programs. We have gotten a lot of incoming fire on fraud and abuse in job training and oversight of job training and people abusing the system. I will just submit that one in writing. Secretary MARTIN. Thank you. One of the things—I am going to note that I think the amendments will make some difference-is that some of the information you are getting is actually coming from the Department of Labor. Senator HARKIN. I am sorry. Secretary MARTIN. Some of the information is actually coming from the Department of Labor. We are carefully examining these and making sure our inspection system is up to snuff, and that is helping us find out what these amendments should be. I want to assure you that we want the system to work, and it will only work if it is carefully examined and holds to the standards we all would want it to. Senator HARKIN. Thank you, Madam Secretary. Secretary MARTIN. Thank you. Senator HARKIN. I see that our distinguished colleague from Arkansas has joined us. Senator BUMPERS. Madam Secretary, with your indulgence, I will submit my questions. Colin Powell is a big hero; I had to go out and talk to him first. Secretary MARTIN. I would never mind taking second place to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Senator HARKIN. I suppose that is where all the cameras are, right, Senator Bumpers? [Laughter.] Senator BUMPERS. Look for all the politicians and then you will know where the cameras are. [Laughter.] Madam Secretary, I will submit a few questions to you in writing. Secretary MARTIN. Thank you. Senator BUMPERS. You can respond at your leisure. Secretary MARTIN. Thank you, and thank you for stopping in. I understand that-and I am sure I fall into this categorypeople do not always like testifying. I must tell you, I think the dialog is just really good for me, and I hope it is useful for the Members of the House and Senate. Thank you for asking me. Senator BUMPERS. How does it feel to be sitting on the other side of the table? Secretary MARTIN. Not bad, Senator, if you want to know the truth. [Laughter.] I want to tell you that each morning when I wake up-I found that true when I was in the House too-but I am so excited to go to work. I just want to make things better. So I am very grateful to the President and to the Senate for making it happen, especially to Senator Simon, without whose help I could not do it. [Laughter.] Senator BUMPERS. Since we are just philosophizing, if I were going to make a criticism of Members of Congress in these hearings, it seems to me that people on this side of the table are often unnecessarily combative and confrontational. And I suppose that comes from maybe a desire for publicity or camera, sound bytes, or whatever. But we are really here to try to elicit information on which to make decisions. And I have never thought those attitudes ever served any useful purpose. It does not cost anything, it just means I am going to be nice to you. I am not like those other guys. [Laughter.] Secretary MARTIN. Well, all your colleagues on the subcommittee this morning followed that excellent advice you just gave. They were very congenial. I found it not just useful, but also very good to be here. Senator BUMPERS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator HARKIN. Thank you, Senator Bumpers. Thank you, Madam Secretary. Secretary MARTIN. Thank you. QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY THE SUBCOMMITTEE Senator HARKIN. There will be some additional questions from various Senators which we will submit to you for your response. [The following questions were not asked at the hearing, but were submitted to the Department for response subsequent to the hear QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY THE SUBCOMMITTEE WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE Question: The glass ceiling project focuses efforts on only a small number of women who have reached the top levels of their profession. What can the Department do to expand this project to enhance the mobility and opportunity of all women workers so that they are fairly considered for promotion at all levels? Answer: The "glass ceiling" project is intended to insure that women and minorities meet no barriers to moving from entry level jobs to middle management and up as high and as far as their talents and abilities take them. The project is just one of several efforts of the Department to ensure equal employment opportunity for women at all levels. OFCCP has at least three other activities underway designed to enhance the employment opportunities for women through affirmative action: 1. Routine compliance reviews: OFCCP conducts between 5,000 and 6,000 compliance reviews each year. A focus of every one of these is to determine that there are not barriers to the advancement of women and that the contractor is making good faith efforts to take affirmative actions to ensure equal employment opportunity. 2. Women in nontraditional jobs: The Department has been examining the barriers and opportunities for advancement of women in the construction and aerospace industries. The two task forces are making specific recommendations to improve the affirmative action compliance of these two industries. 3. OFCCP and BAT joint enforcement: The OFCCP and the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training will join forces to improve the enforcement of the equal employment opportunity requirements of 29 CFR Part 30 for apprenticeship programs. These two agencies will draw upon the expertise and experience of the Women's Bureau to enhance the affirmative action results of these efforts. The "glass ceiling" project is only one part of our total enforcement strategy designed to enhance the employment opportunities for women as well as minorities, individuals with disabilities and Vietnam era and disabled veterans at all levels of employment. EFFORTS TO PROMOTE NONTRADITIONAL TRAINING FOR WOMEN Question: What efforts will the Department undertake to promote nontraditional training efforts for women to address the continued occupational segregation of women in traditional female training and jobs? Answer: The Department is in the early stages of launching a multi-faceted initiative to help women gain access to the skilled trades. The Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training (BAT), the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), and the Women's Bureau have been charged with developing and implementing an aggressive program to increase the recruitment and retention of women in apprenticeship programs in the skilled trades. Through this initiative, the Department hopes to remove the barriers prohibiting women not only from entering, but also from successfully competing in the skilled trades once employed. The initiative contains four major components: enforcement, education and technical assistance, recruitment, and retention. Increased enforcement of laws protecting equal opportunity in apprenticeship for women will be attained by granting enforcement authority to the OFCCP in addition to normal enforcement efforts by BAT. This action will strengthen equal opportunity employment review due to the additional resources available at OFCCP. In the area of education and technical assistance, the Department: (1) will, through the Women's Bureau, publish a Directory of Non-traditional Training and Employment Programs for Women, listing by State the various programs and organizations that assist women in obtaining skilled, non-traditional jobs and related training; and (2) will, through its Workforce Quality Clearinghouse, operated by the Women's Bureau, list preapprenticeship and apprenticeship programs for women and "how-to" curriculum guides to assist those who wish to establish their own in-house programs. Enhanced recruitment of women into the skilled trades will be attained through the coordinated efforts of BAT and the Job Corps program, with a particular emphasis on preparing and referring female Job Corps participants into apprenticeship opportunities. In order to encourage retention and placement of women in skilled trades, the Department will undertake a number of activities, including: (1) the development of a manual for tradeswomen outlining rights and ways to deal with infringement of rights, a set of policy guidelines for employers and a set of policy guidelines for unions; and (2) the establishment of the WIN (Women in Non-traditional Jobs) Award in the Women's Bureau to recognize successful programs and individuals in non-traditional jobs. OVERSIGHT OF JOB TRAINING PROGRAMS Question. As probably everyone knows, through recent reports of the Department's Inspector General, there are grave concerns about job training program operations, especially at the local level. Money set aside for job training is allegedly not getting to those who are most in need of training. Instead, funds are being lost to unnecessary and unreasonable procurement, service provider profits, and duplication of services. For example, according to Inspector General reports, job training money went to purchase $640,000 worth of equipment that was not used for program participants, as in the case of one university; or it went out as reimbursements of almost $700,000 for placing merely 8 people into longshoremen jobs, as in the case of a west coast program. Are these isolated cases of fraud, or is there some systematic problem that needs to be fixed? Answer. The incidents are isolated. In a program as large as JTPA, whose funding since its inception through the current program year totals over $24 billion, there are bound to be some questioned costs. Despite sensational reports to the contrary, abuses are not widespread and the disallowed costs are taken seriously. When problems are identified either through ETA's regular oversight and monitoring activities, an OIG audit or any other means, immediate action is taken to correct the situation. In the three areas cited in the question, several actions have been taken by ETA to correct deficiencies. PROCUREMENT We proposed amendments to JTPA which would have addressed issues concerning contracting and procurement. Although the amendments were not enacted, another proposal is currently being formulated. If included in the new package, these provisions would strengthen JTPA's fiscal integrity and would be a significant step forward for us in bringing an orderly and uniform approach to procurement practices in the JTPA system. O Since the amendments to JTPA were not enacted by the 101st Congress, and we were anxious to act quickly to correct program deficiencies, we decided to move ahead on regulatory reforms and published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) which includes provisions on procurement. The ANPR also contains a program income requirement that would specify that income under a program administered by a public or private non-profit entity may be retained by the entity only to continue to carry out the program, and the conditions under which such income may be used. Each entity would be required to maintain records sufficient to determine the amount of income received and the purposes for which it was spent. DUPLICATION OF SERVICES JTPA statutory provisions call for coordination of services and activities and linkages of resources to maximize the |