II

105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1170

To establish a training voucher system, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

SEPTEMBER 11, 1997

Ms. SNOWE introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Labor and Human Resources

A BILL

To establish a training voucher system, and for other

purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Working American

5 Training Voucher Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

7 In this Act:

8 (1) GOVERNOR.—The term ‘‘Governor’’ means

9 the chief executive of any State.

10 (2) PRIVATE INDUSTRY COUNCIL.—The term

11 ‘‘private industry council’’ means a council nomi-
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1 nated, appointed, and certified in accordance with

2 section 103 of the Job Training Partnership Act (29

3 U.S.C. 1513).

4 (3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means

5 the Secretary of Labor.

6 (4) SERVICE DELIVERY AREA.—The term

7 ‘‘service delivery area’’ means a service delivery area

8 designated in accordance with section 101 of the Job

9 Training Partnership Act (29 U.S.C. 1511).

10 (5) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any of

11 the several States, the District of Columbia, the

12 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States

13 Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Com14 monwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Re15 public of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States

16 of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau.

17 (6) STATE EDUCATIONAL AGENCY.—The term

18 ‘‘State educational agency’’ has the meaning given

19 such term in section 14101 of the Elementary and

20 Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 8801).

21 (7) TRAINING ENTITY.—The term ‘‘training en22 tity’’ means an administrative entity, as defined in

23 section 4 of the Job Training Partnership Act (29

24 U.S.C. 1503).
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1 SEC. 2. GENERAL AUTHORITY.

2 The Secretary shall make allotments to States that

3 have State plans approved under section 4 to enable the

4 States to assist training entities in service delivery areas

5 in carrying out training voucher programs under this Act.

6 SEC. 3. ALLOTMENTS AND ALLOCATIONS.

7 (a) ALLOTMENT.—

8 (1) TERRITORIES.—From the amount made

9 available under section 8 for each fiscal year, the

Secretary shall reserve not more than 1 10 ⁄4 of 1 per11 cent to make grants to the United States Virgin Is12 lands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth

13 of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of

14 the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micro15 nesia, and the Republic of Palau. The Secretary

16 shall issue regulations specifying the requirements of

17 this Act that shall apply to funds made available

18 through such grants.

19 (2) STATE RESERVATION.—After determining

20 the amounts to be reserved under paragraph (1), the

21 Secretary shall allot not less than 90 percent of the

22 remainder to the States for allocation to service de23 livery areas within each State. Each State shall allo24 cate to each service delivery area within the State

25 the amount determined by the Secretary for such

26 service delivery area pursuant to the formula con-
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1 tained in subsection (b). The remaining 10 percent

2 shall be used by the State in accordance with sub3 section (c).

4 (b) ALLOCATION TO SERVICE DELIVERY AREAS.—

5 (1) FORMULA.—Subject to the provisions of

6 paragraph (2), of the amounts allocated to service

7 delivery areas for this Act for each fiscal year—

(A) 331 8 ⁄3 percent shall be allocated on the

9 basis of the relative number of unemployed in10 dividuals in areas of substantial unemployment

11 in each service delivery area as compared to the

12 total number of unemployed individuals in areas

13 of substantial unemployment in all service deliv14 ery areas in all States;

(B) 331 15 ⁄3 percent shall be allocated on the

16 basis of the relative excess number of unem17 ployed individuals in each service delivery area

18 as compared to the total excess number of un19 employed individuals in all service delivery areas

20 in all States; and

(C) 331 21 ⁄3 percent shall be allocated on the

22 basis of the relative number of economically dis23 advantaged adults in each service delivery area

24 as compared to the total number of economi-
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1 cally disadvantaged adults in all service delivery

2 areas in all States.

3 (2) LIMITATIONS.—

4 (A) MINIMUM PERCENTAGE.—No service

5 delivery area shall receive an allocation percent6 age for a fiscal year that is less than 90 percent

7 of the allocation percentage of the service deliv8 ery area for the preceding fiscal year.

9 (B) MAXIMUM PERCENTAGE.—No service

10 delivery area shall receive an allocation percent11 age for a fiscal year that is more than 130 per12 cent of the allocation percentage of the service

13 delivery area for the preceding fiscal year.

14 (C) STATE MINIMUM.—Notwithstanding

15 subparagraphs (A) and (B), the total allocation

16 under this subsection for all service delivery

17 areas in any State for a fiscal year shall not be

less than 1 18 ⁄4 of 1 percent of the total allocation

19 under this subsection for all service delivery

20 areas in all States for the fiscal year.

21 (D) ALLOCATION PERCENTAGE.—

22 (i) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided

23 in clause (ii), for purposes of subpara24 graphs (A) and (B), the allocation percent25 age of a service delivery area for a fiscal
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1 year shall be the percentage of funds allo2 cated to the service delivery area under

3 this subsection.

4 (ii) FISCAL YEAR 1997.—For purposes

5 of subparagraphs (A) and (B), the alloca6 tion percentage of a service delivery area

7 for fiscal year 1997 shall be the percentage

8 of funds allocated to the service delivery

9 area under part A of title II of the Job

10 Training Partnership Act (29 U.S.C. 1601

11 et seq.).

12 (3) RECIPIENT.—The training entity in a serv13 ice delivery area shall receive each allocation made

14 to the area under this subsection.

15 (c) STATE ACTIVITIES.—The remaining 10 percent

16 of funds available for allotment to States under this part

17 for each fiscal year may be used for State administrative

18 and oversight activities.

19 (d) DEFINITIONS AND RULE.—

20 (1) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

21 (A) AREA OF SUBSTANTIAL UNEMPLOY22 MENT.—The term ‘‘area of substantial unem23 ployment’’ means any area that is of sufficient

24 size and scope to sustain a program carried out

25 under this Act and that has an average rate of
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1 unemployment of at least 6.5 percent for the

2 most recent 12 months, as determined by the

3 Secretary. For purposes of this subparagraph,

4 determinations of areas of substantial unem5 ployment shall be made once each fiscal year.

6 (B) ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED

7 ADULT.—The term ‘‘economically disadvan8 taged adult’’ means an individual who is age 22

9 through 72 and who has received an income, or

10 is a member of a family that has received a

11 total family income, for the 6-month period

12 prior to application for the program involved

13 that, in relation to family size, does not exceed

14 the higher of—

15 (i) the poverty line (as defined by the

16 Office of Management and Budget, and re17 vised annually in accordance with section

18 673(2) of the Omnibus Budget Reconcili19 ation Act of 1981 (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)), for

20 an equivalent period; or

21 (ii) 70 percent of the lower living

22 standard income level, for an equivalent

23 period.

24 (C) EXCESS NUMBER.—The term ‘‘excess

25 number’’ means, with respect to the excess
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1 number of unemployed individuals in a service

2 delivery area, the number of unemployed indi3 viduals in excess of 4.5 percent of the civilian

4 labor force in the service delivery area, or the

5 number of unemployed individuals in excess of

6 4.5 percent of the civilian labor force in areas

7 of substantial unemployment in such service de8 livery area.

9 (D) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any

10 of the several States, the District of Columbia,

11 and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

12 (2) SPECIAL RULE.—For the purposes of this

13 section, the Secretary shall, as appropriate and to

14 the extent practicable, exclude college students and

15 members of the Armed Forces from the determina16 tion of the number of economically disadvantaged

17 adults.

18 SEC. 4. STATE PLAN.

19 In order for a State to receive an allotment under

20 this Act, the Governor of the State shall develop and sub21 mit a State plan to the Secretary at such time, in such

22 manner, and containing such information as the Secretary

23 may require. At a minimum, the State plan shall con24 tain—
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1 (1) information describing the use of all re2 sources provided to the State and the service deliv3 ery areas in the State under this Act; and

4 (2) information identifying an entity within the

5 State, which may be the State educational agency,

6 that will certify training programs as eligible to re7 ceive vouchers under this Act.

8 SEC. 5. LOCAL PLAN.

9 In order for a service delivery area in a State to re10 ceive an allocation under this Act, the private industry

11 council for the area shall ensure the preparation, and sub12 mission to the Governor of the State, of a local plan at

13 such time, in such manner, and containing such informa14 tion as the Governor may require. At a minimum, the local

15 plan shall contain information describing the manner in

16 which the training entity will carry out a training voucher

17 program in the area. The local plan shall be developed,

18 submitted, approved, and subject to oversight in accord19 ance with the requirements of section 103 of the Job

20 Training Partnership Act (29 U.S.C. 1513) for job train21 ing plans.

22 SEC. 6. USE OF FUNDS.

23 (a) IN GENERAL.—A training entity that receives an

24 allocation for a service delivery area under this Act shall

25 use the funds made available through the allocation to dis-
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1 tribute training vouchers to eligible employees, to enable

2 the employees to participate in training programs that are

3 certified as described in section 4(2). The training entity

4 may not provide training programs under this Act.

5 (b) VOUCHERS.—The amount of a voucher made

6 available under subsection (a) shall be the lesser of—

7 (1) the amount necessary to pay for such a cer8 tified training program for an employee for 1 year;

9 or

10 (2) $1000.

11 (c) ELIGIBLE EMPLOYEE.—To be eligible to apply for

12 a training voucher in a State under this Act, an employee

13 shall—

14 (1) be employed by an employer who has 200

15 or fewer employees for each working day in each of

16 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preced17 ing calendar year; or

18 (2) in the case of an employee who applies dur19 ing a period for which the Governor of the State has

20 provided a waiver under section 7(c), be employed by

21 an employer described in such section.

22 (d) APPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a train23 ing voucher under this Act, an employee shall submit an

24 application to the training entity at such time, in such

25 manner, and containing such information as the entity
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1 may require. At a minimum, the application shall contain

2 information demonstrating that the employer of the em3 ployee approves of the training program for which the

4 voucher will be used.

5 SEC. 7. WAIVER AUTHORITY OF GOVERNOR.

6 (a) REPORT.—Not later than the 90th day of a fiscal

7 year, each training entity in a State shall submit to the

8 Governor a report containing information on—

9 (1) the amount of funds that the entity has re10 ceived through an allocation made under section 3

11 for the fiscal year and has obligated for activities de12 scribed in this Act; and

13 (2) if the entity has not obligated all of the

14 funds received, the reasons that a portion of the

15 funds remains unobligated.

16 (b) DETERMINATION.—Not later than the 120th day

17 of the fiscal year, the Governor shall determine whether

18 to waive the requirements of section 6(c)(1) for employees

19 in the State for the remainder of the fiscal year.

20 (c) WAIVER.—If the Governor waives the require21 ments, an employee shall be eligible to apply to receive

22 a training voucher under this Act if the employee is em23 ployed by an employer who has 500 or fewer employees

24 for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks

25 in the current or preceding calendar year.
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1 SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

2 There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out

3 this Act, $1,100,000,000 for fiscal year 1998 and each

4 subsequent fiscal year.

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