Title 29-LABOR

RULES AND REGULATIONS

cordance with the spirit of the public policy set forth in the above mentioned section, interested parties may submit written comments, suggestions, data, or arguments to the Assistant Secretary for Manpower, U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C. 20210, within 45 days of the publication of the regulations contained in this part. Material thus submitted will be evaluated and acted upon in the same manner as if this document were a proposal. Until it is revised, however, it shall remain effective, thus permitting the public business to proceed expeditiously.

The new Part 55 reads as follows:

Subpart A Application for and
Requirements of Grants

Labor

PART 55 GRANTS UNDER THE EMERGENCY EMPLOYMENT ACT OF 1971

Subtitle A of Title 29, Code of Federal Regulations, is hereby amended by adding thereto a new part designated Part 55. The new Part 55 sets forth the regulations of the Secretary of Labor for making grants under the Emergency Employment Act of 1971 (Public Law 92-54).

The Emergency Employment Act of 1971 was designed to increase employment and was made effective by Congress on an emergency basis. The effective implementation of this Act is not possible without regulations to enable the intended recipients of Federal financial assistance to know the requirements and how to proceed. Compliance with the notice and public procedure requirements of 5 U.S.C. 553 would involve a delay in making available the assistance provided by this Act; we find that under the circumstances such delay would be impracticable and contrary to the public interest. Accordingly the new Part 55 shall be effective upon publication in the FEDERAL REGISTER.

It is the policy of this Department that rules relating to public property, loans, grants, benefits, or contracts shall be published for comment notwithstanding the provisions of 5 U.S.C. 553. See 29 CFR 2.7 published in the July 10, 1971 FEDERAL REGISTER, 36 F.R. 12976. In ac

$55.1 Definitions.

As used in this part and in grant instruments entered into pursuant to this part:

(a) "The Act" means the Emergency Employment Act of 1971.

(b) "Compensation" means the wages or salary payable to any participant, but does not include fringe benefits or supportive services provided to him.

(c) "Eligible Applicant" means any unit of Federal, State, or general local government, or any public agency or institution which is a subdivision or consortium of Federal, State, or general local government, or an Indian tribe on a Federal or State reservation, or combination of such tribes. For purposes of this definition, a public agency or institution is deemed to be a subdivision of State or local government even if it is not directly responsible to such unit of government.

(d) "Employing Agency" means any eligible applicant which has been designated by a Program Agent or the Secretary to employ participants with funds granted pursuant to this act.

(e) "Health Care" includes, but is not limited to, preventive and clinical medical treatment, voluntary family planning services, nutrition services. and appropriate psychiatric, psychological, and prosthetic services.

(f) "Initial funding" refers to grants under the Act which have been designated by the Secretary as primarily for

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the purpose of enabling the Progn Agent to plan its program and to pa, compensation to initial participants.

(g) "Participant" means any unemployed or underemployed person selected for employment under this act in accordance with 55.7.

(h) "Poverty level" means the minimum income required for a family to live out of poverty, as determined in accordance with criteria established by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Copies of the current poverty level index are available from the Manpower Administration of the Department of Labor.

(1) "Professional work" means work performed by an individual acting in a bona Ade professional capacity, as such term is used in section 13(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act and defined in § 541.3 of this title.

(j) "Program Agent" means an ellgible applicant which has been designated by the Secretary for requesting. receiving and administering funds pursuant to the act.

(k) "Public Service" includes, but is not limited to, work in such fields a environmental quality, health care, education, public safety, crime prevention and control, manpower services, prison rehabilitation, transportation, recreation, maintenance of parks, streets and other public facilities, solid waste removal, pollution control, housing and neigborhood improvements, rural, velopment, conservation, beautificati and other fields of human betterme. and community improvement.

(1) "Secretary" means the Secretary of Labor, or his authorized representative.

(m) "Special Veteran" means an individual who, served in the Armed Forces in Indochina or Korea, including the waters adjacent thereto, on or after August 5, 1964, and who received other than a dishonorable discharge.

(n) "Subagent" or "subgrantee" means an employing agency that receives a subgrant from a Program Agent.

(o) "Supportive services" are services which are designed to contribute to the employability of participants, enhance their employment opportunities, and facilitate their movement into permanent employment not subsidized under the Act. They may include child care.

(p) "State" includes the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Lbe Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

(q) "Unemployed Persons" means-(1) a person who is without a job and who wants and is available for work. An individual shall be deemed to meet this qualification if he has been without work for 1 week or longer and has made specific efforts to find a job within the past 4 weeks, but is not waitin to be called back to a job from wh he has been laid off, expecting to re to a new job within the next 30 days not working because of a strike or lockout at his usual place of employment,

or

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(2) a person who is 18 years of age older, and a recipient of money payhts pursuant to a State plan approved der the public assistance titles of the Social Security Act or a person whose income, resources, or need are counted with that of such a recipient for determining public assistance entitlement, and whose need does not arise from a strike or lockout at his usual place of employment, and who (1) has been without work for 1 week or longer and (a) is an unemployed father receiving assistance under title IV, Part A of the Social Security Act (as defined in 45 CFR 233.100 (a) (1)), (b) is referred for work by the State or local welfare agency, or (c) volunteers for work; or (ii) is working in a job providing insufficient income to enable him and his family to be self-supporting without welfare assistance.

(r) "Underemployed person' means(1) A person who is working part time for an employer other than the Program Agent or a designated employing agency and seeking full-time work; or

(2) A person who is working full-time for an employer other than the Program Agent or a designated employing agency and whose wages, when added to the other income of adults 16 and over in their immediate families living in the same household, are below the poverty level.

This part contains the policies, rules, d regulations of the Department of por in implementing and administerthe Emergency Employment Act of 1971 (Public Law 92-54, 85 Stat. 146);

(a) Under the Act the Secretary of Labor provides financial assistance to public employers to be used to provide unemployed and underemployed persons with transitional employment in jobs providing needed public services during times of high unemployment, and, where appropriate. training and manpower services related to such employment which are otherwise unavailable and which will enable such persons to move into employment or training not supported under the Act. Programs assisted under the Act are intended to develop new careers, provide opportunities for career advancement, provide opportunities for continued training, including on-the-job training, and provide transitional public service employment which will enable the individuals so employed to move into public or private employment or training not supported under the Act.

(b) This part sets forth the requirements for applying for such financial assistance: the assurances and other conditions required of the applicant; standards for selection of participants, requirements for assuring priorities for unemployed and underemployed persons who served in the Armed Forces in Indochina or Korea on or after August 5, 1964, and for other specified segments of e unemployed and underemployed popation, the policies for reviewing grant >plications and acting upon them: requirements for use of Federal funds and for non-Federal share, the requirements

RULES AND REGULATIONS

for allocation of funds by grantees within the jurisdiction of each; requirements as to compensation and working conditions of persons employed under the Act; recordkeeping and reporting requirements; the bases upon which financial assistance may be denied, terminated or withheld, or restitution required: and other pertinent conditions and standards.

§ 55.3 Applications for grants.

Only a Program Agent designated by the Secretary and acting through its chief elected officer or his designee, or in the case of a combination of units, the officer designated by such combination of units, may submit an application for a grant. Except as waived by the Secretary re initial funding, the application shall include a budget, a commitment by the Program Agent to comply with the requirements of the Act, the regulations, and the grant conditions, and such information as the Secretary shall request. The information provided shall demonstrate the validity of the assurances made by the Program Agent as required by § 55.6 and except as may be waived by the Secretary with respect to initial funding shall include the following:

(a) A description of the area to be served by the program proposed by the Program Agent, a plan for effectively serving on an equitable basis the significant segments of the population residing in the area, and including data indicating the number, income and employment status of potential participants living therein.

(b) A description of unmet public service needs in the area served by the Program Agent and a statement of priorities among such needs.

(c) A list of the occupational fields in which public service employees will be placed and a statement of the reasons the Program Agent expects these fields to expand (in either the public or private sector) as unemployment recedes.

(d) A description of jobs to be filled, a listing of the major kinds of work to be performed and skills to be acquired, and the approximate duration for which participants would be assigned to such jobs.

(e) A description of the methods to be used to recruit, select, and orient participants, including specific eligibility criteria, and programs to prepare the participants for their job responsibilities.

(1) A description of career opportunities and job advancement potentialities for participants.

(g) A statement of the range of the compensation to be paid to participants and a comparison with the compensation paid for similar public occupatious by the same employer.

(h) The plans the Program Agent will make to assist the participants to find permanent employment, including a description of the plans of the employing agency to absorb participants into its own regular staff.

(1) A description of the education, training, and supportive services (including counseling and health care services) which will be provided participants, and

the source of funds which will be used to pay for such services. Linkages with upgrading and other manpower services required under § 55.6(h), which have been made should be indicated.

(j) The planning for and training of supervisory personnel in working with participants.

(k) If the Program Agent proposes that funds be used to pay for work which has been performed at any time during the past 6 months, or fill jobs which have been vacant for less than 6 months prior to the filing of the application for a grant with which to fill it, the Program Agent will submit clear evidence to show that without assistance under this Act the work would not be performed at Federal, State or local expense, and that a determination by the Secretary to permit the grant to be used for such purpose would not result in the displacement or partial displacement of currently employed workers or impair existing contracts for services.

$ 55.1 Use of funds by the Program Agents.

(a) Program Agents must allocate funds equitably among county and city levels of government, including public agencies which are independent of supervision by such level of government. When selecting employing agencies they shall give due consideration to the size and severity of unemployment in a particular area, the number of public service jobs at each level of government, and the size of the population served by each unit of government. Where appropriate Federal and State agencies may also be made employing agencies.

(b) Program Agents and employing agencies may enter into contracts for necessary supportive or administrative services with public organizations and, except contracts for the employment of participants, with private organizations: Provided, Any such contract with a private organization for an amount in excess of $10,000 shall be approved by the Secretary.

§ 55.5 Employing agencies.

(a) Activities and services for which assistance is sought under this Act must be administered by or under the supervison of a Program Agent. Program Agents may designate any eligible applicant as an employing agency: Provided however, The Program Agent remains responsible for assuring compliance by such employing agency with the Act, the regulations and the grant conditions, except that (1) no State or local governmental unit or subdivision thereof will be held responsible for assuring compliance by the Federal government, and (2) no local governmental unit or subdivision thereof will be held responsible for assuring compliance by a State which has been designated by the Secretary to be the employing agency in the area of another Program Agent. In such case. the Federal or State government respectively shall remain responsible. The Secretary shall hold the responsible unit of government accountable for funds which are improperly expended, and may take