Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 159 / Friday, August 18, 2017 / Proposed Rules 39371 

activities to increase consumers’ 

awareness of, and desire for, Oregon and 

Washington hazelnuts in the edible tree 

nut market. The Oregon and 

Washington hazelnut industry has 

experienced a large amount of growth in 

new orchard plantings in recent years. 

The supply of hazelnuts grown in the 

production area is expected to increase 

greatly as newly planted trees come into 

nut bearing age (approximately 3 to 7 

years after planting, depending on the 

variety of hazelnut tree). The proposed 

increase to the assessment rate is 

necessary to fund expanded 

promotional activities intended to assist 

marketing of the anticipated increased 

supply of hazelnuts in the forthcoming 

years. 

Prior to arriving at this budget and 

assessment rate, the Board considered 

information from various sources, such 

as the Board’s Budget and Personnel 

Committee, representatives from private 

research firms, and input from industry 

personnel. Alternative expenditure 

levels were discussed by these groups, 

based upon the relative value of various 

activities to the hazelnut industry. Many 

growers at the May 17, 2017, meeting 

were in favor of even greater spending 

by the Board on promotional activities 

for hazelnuts, while handlers were more 

conservative. 

The Board ultimately determined that 

2017–2018 marketing year expenditures 

of $878,627 were appropriate, and the 

recommended assessment rate, when 

combined with reserve funds and other 

income, would generate sufficient 

revenue to meet its budgeted expenses. 

Further, the Board will maintain a 

$180,000 emergency fund throughout 

the 2017–2018 marketing year in order 

to cover any unforeseen or emergency 

operational expenses. If the 2017–2018 

emergency funds are not expended, the 

resulting operating reserve would not 

exceed the limit authorized under the 

order. 

A review of historical information and 

preliminary information pertaining to 

the upcoming marketing year indicates 

that the grower price for the 2017–2018 

marketing year could range between 

$0.81 and $1.80 per pound (NASS, 

2017). Therefore, the estimated 

assessment revenue for the 2017–2018 

marketing year as a percentage of total 

grower revenue could range between 

0.74 and 0.33 percent, respectively. 

This action would increase the 

assessment obligation imposed on 

handlers. While assessments impose 

some additional costs on handlers, the 

costs are minimal and uniform on all 

handlers. Some of the additional costs 

may be passed on to growers. However, 

these costs would be offset by the 

benefits derived by the operation of the 

marketing order. In addition, the 

Board’s meeting was widely publicized 

throughout the Oregon and Washington 

hazelnut industry, and all interested 

persons were invited to attend the 

meeting and participate in Board 

deliberations on all issues. Like all 

Board meetings, the May 17, 2017, 

meeting was a public meeting, and all 

entities, both large and small, were able 

to express views on this issue. Finally, 

interested persons are invited to submit 

comments on this proposed rule, 

including the regulatory and 

informational impacts of this action on 

small businesses. 

In accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 

Chapter 35), the order’s information 

collection requirements have been 

previously approved by OMB and 

assigned OMB No. 0581–0178, 

Vegetable and Specialty Crops. No 

changes in those requirements as a 

result of this action are necessary. 

Should any changes become necessary, 

they would be submitted to OMB for 

approval. 

This proposed rule would impose no 

additional reporting or recordkeeping 

requirements on either small or large 

Oregon and Washington hazelnut 

handlers. As with all Federal marketing 

order programs, reports and forms are 

periodically reviewed to reduce 

information requirements and 

duplication by industry and public 

sector agencies. 

AMS is committed to complying with 

the E-Government Act, to promote the 

use of the Internet and other 

information technologies to provide 

increased opportunities for citizen 

access to Government information and 

services, and for other purposes. 

USDA has not identified any relevant 

Federal rules that duplicate, overlap, or 

conflict with this proposed action. 

A small business guide on complying 

with fruit, vegetable, and specialty crop 

marketing agreements and orders may 

be viewed at: http://www.ams.usda.gov/ 

rules-regulations/moa/small-businesses. 

Any questions about the compliance 

guide should be sent to Richard Lower 

at the previously-mentioned address in 

the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT

section. 

A 30-day comment period is provided 

to allow interested persons to respond 

to this proposed rule. Thirty days is 

deemed appropriate because: (1) The 

2017–2018 marketing year begins on 

July 1, 2017, and the marketing order 

requires that the rate of assessment for 

each marketing year apply to all 

assessable hazelnuts handled during 

such marketing year; (2) the Board 

needs to have sufficient funds to pay its 

expenses, which are incurred on a 

continuous basis; and (3) handlers are 

aware of this action, which was 

unanimously recommended by the 

Board at a public meeting and is similar 

to other assessment rate actions issued 

in the past. 

List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 982 

Hazelnuts, Marketing agreements, 

Nuts, Reporting and recordkeeping 

requirements. 

For the reasons set forth in the 

preamble, 7 CFR part 982 is proposed to 

be amended as follows: 

PART 982—HAZELNUTS GROWN IN 

OREGON AND WASHINGTON 

■ 1. The authority citation for 7 CFR 

part 982 continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 601–674. 

■ 2. Section 982.340 is revised to read 

as follows: 

§ 982.340 Assessment rate. 

On and after July 1, 2017, an 

assessment rate of $0.006 per pound is 

established for Oregon and Washington 

hazelnuts. 

Dated: August 15, 2017. 

Bruce Summers, 

Acting Administrator, Agricultural Marketing 

Service. 

[FR Doc. 2017–17488 Filed 8–17–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–02–P 

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 

Veterans’ Employment and Training 

Service 

20 CFR Part 1011 

[Docket No. VETS–2017–0001] 

RIN 1293–AA21 

HIRE Vets Medallion Program 

AGENCY: Veterans’ Employment and 

Training Service (VETS), Labor. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking. 

SUMMARY: VETS is publishing this 

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) 

to propose regulations implementing the 

Honoring Investments in Recruiting and 

Employing (HIRE) American Military 

Veterans Act of 2017 (HIRE Vets Act of 

2017 or Act). The HIRE Vets Act 

requires the Department of Labor (DOL, 

Department) to annually solicit and 

accept voluntary information from 

employers for consideration of 

employers to receive a HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award. VETS will review 

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39372 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 159 / Friday, August 18, 2017 / Proposed Rules 

applications and notify recipients of 

their awards, and announce their names 

at a time that coincides with Veterans’ 

Day. The Act establishes specific criteria 

at two levels, ‘‘gold’’ and ‘‘platinum,’’ 

for large employers (those with 500 or 

more employees) and allows the 

Department of Labor discretion in 

establishing additional criteria for each 

large employer award level and criteria 

for small and medium employers to 

qualify for similar awards. The NPRM 

proposes the application process and 

criteria that VETS intends to use to 

receive, review, and process 

applications; verify the information 

provided; and award the HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award to those employers 

meeting the criteria and deserving of the 

award. 

The Act establishes a fund, designated 

as the ‘‘HIRE Vets Medallion Award 

Fund’’ and requires the Secretary to 

assess a reasonable fee from the 

applicants to cover the costs associated 

with carrying out the HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award program. The NPRM 

provides the fee amount and how to 

submit the fee. These awards are 

intended to recognize employer efforts 

to recruit, employ, and retain our 

Nation’s veterans. 

DATES: To be assured of consideration, 

comments must be received on or before 

September 18, 2017. 

ADDRESSES: You may send comments, 

identified by RIN number 1293–AA21, 

by one of the following methods: 

Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://

www.regulations.gov. Follow the Web 

site instructions for sending comments; 

or 

Mail or Hand Delivery Courier: Please 

submit all written comments (including 

disk and CD–ROM submissions) by 

hand delivery, express mail, messenger, 

or courier service to: Randall Smith, 

Veterans’ Employment and Training 

Service, U.S. Department of Labor, 

Room S–1325, 200 Constitution Avenue 

NW., Washington, DC 20210. 

Please submit your comments by only 

one method. Comments received by 

means other than those listed above or 

received after the comment period has 

closed will not be reviewed. VETS will 

post all comments received on http://

www.regulations.gov without making 

any change to the comments, including 

any personal information provided. The 

http://www.regulations.gov Web site is 

the Federal e-rulemaking portal and all 

comments posted there are available 

and accessible to the public. VETS 

cautions commenters not to include 

personal information such as Social 

Security Numbers, personal addresses, 

telephone numbers, and email addresses 

in their comments as such information 

will become viewable by the public on 

the http://www.regulations.gov Web 

site. It is the commenter’s responsibility 

to safeguard his or her information. 

Comments submitted through http://

www.regulations.gov will not include 

the commenter’s email address unless 

the commenter chooses to include that 

information as part of his or her 

comment. 

Postal delivery in Washington, DC, 

may be delayed due to security 

concerns. Therefore, VETS encourages 

the public to submit comments through 

the http://www.regulations.gov Web 

site. 

Comments concerning information 

collection requirements should be 

directed to: Office of Information and 

Regulatory Affairs, Attn: OMB Desk 

Officer for the Department of Labor, 

Veterans’ Employment and Training 

Service, Office of Management and 

Budget, Room 10235, Washington, DC 

20503, fax: (202) 395–6881 (this is not 

a toll-free number), email: OIRA_

submission@omb.eop.gov. Please submit 

your comments by only one method. 

Receipt of submissions will not be 

acknowledged; however, the sender may 

request confirmation that a submission 

has been received by telephoning VETS 

at (202) 693–4700 or TTY (877) 889– 

5627 (these are not toll-free numbers). 

Docket: For access to the docket to 

read background documents or 

comments received, go to the Federal 

eRulemaking portal at http://

www.regulations.gov. VETS will also 

make all the comments received 

available for public inspection during 

normal business hours, 8:15 a.m. to 4:45 

p.m. at: Room S–1325, 200 Constitution 

Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20210. If 

you need assistance to review the 

comments, VETS will provide you with 

appropriate aids such as readers or print 

magnifiers. VETS will make copies of 

the rule available, upon request, in large 

print and as an electronic file on 

computer disk. VETS will consider 

providing the proposed rule in other 

formats upon request. To schedule an 

appointment to review the comments 

and/or to obtain this NPRM in an 

alternate format, please contact VETS at 

the address listed above or at (202) 693– 

4700 or TTY (877) 889–5627 (these are 

not toll-free numbers). 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Contact Randall Smith, Veterans’ 

Employment and Training Service, U.S. 

Department of Labor, Room S–1325, 200 

Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, 

DC 20210, email: HIREVETS.NPRM@

dol.gov, telephone: (202) 693–4700 or 

TTY (877) 889–5627 (these are not tollfree numbers). 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The HIRE Vets Act was enacted on 

May 5, 2017, as Division O of the 

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017, 

Public Law 115–31. The purpose of the 

Act is to create a voluntary program for 

recognizing efforts by employers to 

recruit, employ, and retain veterans 

through a HIRE Vets Medallion Award 

(the award). The Act requires the 

Department of Labor to issue regulations 

establishing the HIRE Vets Medallion 

Program (Medallion Program). 

In preparation for drafting a rule to 

implement the Act, VETS conducted 

three stakeholder sessions during the 

week of June 5, 2017. During these 

stakeholder sessions, VETS obtained 

input from large, medium, and small 

employers, veterans service 

organizations, military service 

organizations, and other interested 

parties. The Department of Labor invites 

comments on this proposed rule by all 

interested parties. 

Section-by-Section Analysis 

Subpart A—Introduction to the 

Regulations for the HIRE Vets Act 

Section 1011.000: What is the HIRE Vets 

Medallion Program? 

Proposed § 1011.000 provides a 

description of the goals and purposes of 

the Medallion Program. This language is 

derived from the language in sec. 2(a) of 

the Act, which states that the HIRE Vets 

Medallion Program is a program through 

which the Department of Labor will 

solicit voluntary applications from 

employers for the award. 

Section 1011.005: What definitions 

apply to the Medallion Program 

regulations? 

Proposed § 1011.005 contains 

proposed definitions for this part. Each 

definition is discussed individually 

below. 

Active Duty: The definition of ‘‘active 

duty’’ relates to the pay differential 

criterion used for the large employer, 

medium employer, and small employer 

awards in proposed §§ 1011.000(b)(8), 

1011.105(b)(5)(ii), and 

1011.110(b)(4)(iv). To satisfy this 

criterion, employers must provide 

employees serving on active duty in the 

United States National Guard or Reserve 

with compensation that is sufficient, in 

combination with the employee’s active 

duty pay, to achieve a combined level 

of income commensurate with the 

employee’s salary prior to undertaking 

active duty. To ensure simplicity, the 

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Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 159 / Friday, August 18, 2017 / Proposed Rules 39373 

proposed rule’s definition of active duty 

is consistent with the definition used at 

10 U.S.C. 101(d)(1) (defining active duty 

for purposes of the armed forces). 

However, VETS requests comments on 

whether this definition is appropriate 

for this program. 

Dedicated Human Resources 

Professional: The term ‘‘dedicated 

human resources professional’’ is used 

in the human resources criterion for the 

large employer platinum award 

established in sec. 3(b)(1)(C)(iv) of the 

Act and implemented in proposed 

§ 1011.100(b)(7). This proposed 

definition clarifies that to satisfy this 

criterion, an employer may either 

employ an individual who devotes 100 

percent of their time to supporting the 

hiring, training, and retention of veteran 

employees (for purposes of this rule, 

‘‘veteran employees’’ refers to 

employees who are veterans) or the 

equivalent of a full-time employee. For 

example, three full-time employees who 

devote fifty percent, thirty percent, and 

twenty percent of their time, 

respectively, to supporting the hiring, 

training, and retention of veteran 

employees would satisfy this criterion. 

Any other combination of time 

dedicated to this objective that equals 

one full-time employee would also 

satisfy this criterion. Because most 

human resources professionals do not 

dedicate all of their time to a single 

objective, this clarification will retain 

flexibility for employers while also 

ensuring that veteran employees receive 

sufficient human resources support. 

Additionally, this definition does not 

require that the human resources 

professionals be employees of the 

applicant. An applicant can satisfy this 

criterion by contracting out these 

services so long as those contracted 

services otherwise meet this definition. 

Finally, as with the Human Resources 

Veterans’ Initiative, the Dedicated 

Human Resources Professional must 

provide support in all three of the 

following areas: hiring, training, and 

retention. 

Employee: The proposed rule defines 

‘‘employee’’ as any individual for whom 

the employer furnishes an IRS Form W– 

2, with the exception of temporary 

workers. Although many other 

definitions of employee exist in Federal 

law, most of those definitions are for 

purposes of enforcing Federal 

protections. For the purposes of the 

Medallion Program, VETS will defer to 

how an employer categorizes its workers 

for tax purposes. This definition 

simplifies the burden on employers in 

assessing whether they meet the award 

criteria. 

The proposed definition of 

‘‘employee’’ includes both permanent 

full-time and permanent part-time 

employees. Permanent part-time 

employees are included in addition to 

permanent full-time employees because 

many disabled veterans rely on parttime positions and because basing the 

award on calculations of all permanent 

employees seems a more accurate 

reflection of veteran employment. 

Although VETS supports the hiring of 

veterans in all positions, including 

temporary positions, the proposed rule 

excludes temporary workers from the 

definition of employee. The proposed 

rule has this exclusion because of the 

retention criterion for large employers, 

which requires that certain veteran 

employees be retained for at least twelve 

months. The inclusion of temporary 

workers in the definition of employee 

would thus foreclose employers and 

industries that hire large numbers of 

temporary workers from consideration 

for the award. Instead, this exclusion 

ensures that employers that retain a 

large percentage of veterans in 

permanent positions are not excluded 

simply because of the fact that some of 

their business is seasonal in nature. 

Additionally, although the proposed 

regulation does not explicitly exempt 

workers who work outside of the United 

States from the definition of employee, 

tying the definition of employee to the 

IRS Form W–2 effectively excludes 

workers outside of the United States 

from the definition of employee, unless 

those workers are U.S. citizens or 

permanent residents, because those 

workers do not receive IRS Form W–2s. 

The proposed rule excludes most 

workers who work outside of the United 

States (other than those noted in the 

previous sentence) from the definition 

of employee because it does not seem 

reasonable to measure employment of 

veterans by including workers not in the 

United States and the inclusion of such 

workers may make it difficult for 

otherwise meritorious employers to 

satisfy the veteran hiring and retention 

criteria. However, the proposed rule 

does not exclude those U.S. citizens or 

permanent residents who might work 

outside of the United States and still 

receive an IRS Form W–2 in order to 

limit the amount of analysis employers 

must go through in assessing their 

employee population for the purposes of 

this rule. 

Employer: The proposed definition of 

‘‘employer’’ derives from the definition 

at sec. 8(a) of the Act. In addition to 

including the statutory language, the 

definition of ‘‘employer’’ clarifies that 

VETS will distinguish employers based 

on their Employer Identification 

Numbers, as described by the IRS in 

their regulations implementing 26 

U.S.C. 6109 at 26 CFR 301.7701–12. In 

drafting this definition, VETS evaluated 

how to incorporate franchises, 

subsidiaries, and retail branches into the 

definition of employer. VETS settled on 

the proposed definition because it is the 

simplest definition for employers to 

implement and is reflective of how 

employers define themselves. However, 

the proposed rule creates an exemption 

from this definition where an IRSrecognized third party furnishes an 

employee’s IRS Form W–2 pursuant to 

26 CFR 31.3504–1, 26 CFR 31.3504–2, 

or 26 U.S.C. 7705. This exemption is to 

ensure that deserving employers are not 

barred from an award because they have 

used one of the mechanisms identified 

in the previous sentence. 

The definition of employer includes 

local governments and tribal 

governments. However, VETS proposes 

to exclude foreign governments from the 

definition of employer. VETS makes this 

proposal to avoid any apparent conflict 

that could occur as a result of granting 

a foreign government an award. 

This definition also allows an 

independently owned franchise or a 

subsidiary to apply for its own award. 

VETS requests comments on whether 

this is an appropriate definition of 

employer. 

Human Resources Veterans’ Initiative: 

This proposed definition applies to the 

small employer and medium employer 

award criteria at proposed 

§§ 1011.105(b)(5)(i) and 

1011.110(b)(4)(iii). This criterion is a 

variation on the dedicated human 

resources professional criterion for the 

large employer platinum award. Instead 

of needing to employ a dedicated 

human resources professional (as 

defined above), an employer satisfies 

the human resources veterans’ initiative 

criterion if the employer provides 

hiring, training, and retention support 

for veteran employees. Employers must 

provide support in all three of these 

areas. An employer would not satisfy 

this criterion if it only provided support 

in one or two of these areas. This 

adjusted definition recognizes that not 

all small and medium employers will 

employ dedicated human resources 

professionals. 

Additionally, this definition does not 

require that this support be provided by 

employees of the applicant. An 

applicant can satisfy this criterion by 

contracting out or partnering with a 

third-party that provides this support so 

long as the support provided otherwise 

meets this definition. One way an 

employer may satisfy the hiring support 

portion of the human resources 

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39374 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 159 / Friday, August 18, 2017 / Proposed Rules 

veterans’ initiative criterion is by 

partnering with an American Job Center 

that is part of the nationwide workforce 

development system as defined in 

Section 3(67) of the Workforce 

Innovation and Opportunity Act. 

Post-Secondary Education: The term 

‘‘post-secondary education’’ is used in 

the tuition assistance program criterion 

established for large employers in sec. 

3(b)(1)(C)(vi) of the Act. To satisfy this 

criterion, an employer must have a 

tuition assistance program to support 

employees’ attendance in postsecondary education during the term of 

their employment. The proposed 

definition of ‘‘post-secondary 

education’’ is consistent with the 

definition of ‘‘program of education’’ in 

the G.I. Bill (38 U.S.C. 2002), but it is 

simplified to provide clear guidance for 

employers to use as they apply for the 

award. Under the proposed definition, 

any tuition assistance program that 

supports employees’ attendance in postsecondary courses, including courses 

that lead to an associates or bachelor’s 

degree or higher; a recognized postsecondary credential; or an 

apprenticeship would be acceptable. 

Salary: The proposed rule defines 

‘‘salary’’ as an employee’s base pay. The 

definition of salary relates to the pay 

differential criterion used for the large 

employer, medium employer, and small 

employer awards in proposed 

§§ 1011.100(b)(8), 1011.105(b)(5)(ii), and 

1011.110(b)(4)(iv). VETS proposes to 

use base pay to define salary because 

base pay is the standard measure for pay 

differential. However, VETS seeks 

comments on whether any of the 

following should also be included in the 

definition of salary: Overtime, shift 

differential, bonuses, tips, commissions, 

vacation and holiday pay, retirement 

and other related benefits, stock options 

and awards, profit sharing, etc. 

The proposed definition of ‘‘salary’’ 

does not set a specific formula for 

determining salary. Because this is an 

awards program, the method for 

calculating salary can be determined by 

the employer so long as that 

determination is reasonable and applied 

consistently across all employees. For 

example, it might be reasonable for an 

employer to determine an employee’s 

salary by using the employee’s annual 

salary associated with their job 

description. It might also be reasonable 

for an employer to determine an 

employee’s salary by looking at an 

employee’s average wages over the 

course of several months prior to the 

employee’s active duty. However, it 

would likely be unreasonable for an 

employer to use an employee’s wages 

from a pay period in which the 

employee spent much of the pay period 

on unpaid leave. 

Temporary Worker: The proposed 

definition of ‘‘temporary worker’’ 

provides additional clarity as to which 

non-permanent employees are excluded 

from the definition of employee. This 

proposed definition states that 

temporary workers are those who are 

hired with the intention that they be 

retained for less than a year and who 

actually are retained for less than a year. 

A worker retained for more than a year 

is considered an employee for the 

purposes of this regulation so long as 

that worker meets the rest of the 

requirements to qualify as an employee. 

Veteran: The proposed definition of 

‘‘veteran’’ is the statutory definition of 

veteran in sec. 8(c) of the Act. VETS 

recognizes that most employers 

determine which employees are 

veterans according to the employee’s 

self-identification. VETS does not 

expect employers to change these 

practices in order to guarantee that 

every employee who self-identifies as a 

veteran meets the definition of veteran 

set out in this proposed section and in 

the Act. VETS’ primary concern is that 

an employer applying for an award 

informs VETS as accurately as it is 

reasonably able to as to the number of 

veterans that it employs. 

Additionally, consistent with the 

definition of veteran at 38 U.S.C. 101, 

the term is limited to veterans of the 

U.S. Armed Forces. Consequently, 

veterans who served in foreign 

militaries do not come within the 

definition of veteran for the purpose of 

determining whether an employer 

qualifies for a HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award. 

VETS: This term is defined for clarity. 

This term refers to the Veterans’ 

Employment Training Service of the 

Department of Labor. 

Section 1011.010: Who is eligible to 

apply for a HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award? 

Proposed § 1011.010 defines the 

entities that are eligible to apply for an 

award. An employer that employs at 

least one employee may qualify for an 

award so long as the employer satisfies 

all of the criteria and application 

requirements under this part. 

Section 1011.015: What are the different 

types of the HIRE Vets Medallion 

Awards? 

Proposed § 1011.015 describes the 

different types of HIRE Vets Medallion 

Awards for which an employer may 

apply. 

Paragraph (a) describes the three 

different employer size award 

categories. This paragraph implements 

the language at secs. 3(b)(1)(A) & 3(b)(2) 

of the Act, which define the employer 

size requirements for each category of 

award. Paragraph (a)(4) clarifies that the 

correct category of award for which an 

employer is eligible is determined by 

the employer’s number of employees as 

of December 31 of the year prior to the 

year in which the employer applies for 

a HIRE Vets Medallion Award. For the 

purposes of this section, employee is 

defined as described in § 1011.005. 

Paragraph (b) establishes the different 

levels of award within each category. 

The Act provided for these levels for the 

large employer awards in sec. 

3(b)(1)(B)–(C). Sec. 3(b)(2) of the Act 

also requires VETS to establish ‘‘similar 

awards’’ for the small and medium 

employers. Consequently, the proposed 

regulations employ the gold and 

platinum distinctions for the small and 

medium employers. 

Subpart B—Award Criteria 

The proposed rule provides specific 

award criteria for the large employer 

gold and platinum awards. Although the 

number of criteria an employer is 

required to satisfy in the proposed rule 

differs by award, the large employer 

criteria established by statute are 

generally incorporated across the large 

employer, medium employer, and small 

employer awards. Consequently, this 

introduction to Subpart B will describe 

the criteria generally. The preamble for 

the specific award provisions at 

proposed §§ 1011.100, 1011.105, 

1011.110 will describe the extent to 

which any of the criteria differ for the 

purposes of a particular award. 

Hiring Criterion: In sec. 3(b)(1)(B)(i), 

the Act requires that veterans constitute 

not less than 7 percent of all employees 

hired during the prior calendar year for 

the large employer gold award. Sec. 

3(b)(1)(C)(ii) similarly establishes a 10 

percent hiring requirement for a large 

employer platinum award. 

The Act is clear that employers 

cannot satisfy this criterion by rounding 

up. The percentage of employees hired 

in the prior calendar year must be not 

less than the required percentage. 

Consequently, even if 6.99 percent of a 

large employer’s new hires for the prior 

calendar year were veterans, the 

employer would not qualify for the large 

employer gold award. Likewise, 9.99 

percent would not qualify a large 

employer for the large employer 

platinum award. 

Retention Criterion: The Act also 

establishes a retention criterion for the 

large employer awards. For the large 

employer gold award, sec. 3(b)(1)(B)(ii) 

of the Act requires employers to have 

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Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 159 / Friday, August 18, 2017 / Proposed Rules 39375 

retained not less than 75 percent of the 

veteran employees hired during the 

calendar year preceding the preceding 

calendar year for a period of at least 12 

months from the date on which the 

employees were hired in order to be 

eligible for the award. Sec. 3(b)(1)(C)(iii) 

of the Act makes this an 85 percent 

requirement for the large employer 

platinum award. 

This language is somewhat complex; 

consequently, this preamble offers an 

example of the application of this 

criterion for an application that is 

submitted in 2020 for a large employer 

gold award. To satisfy the retention 

criterion, the employer applying in 2020 

will need to look at all of the veteran 

employees it hired in 2018. If 75 percent 

of those veteran employees hired in 

2018 were retained for at least 12 

months from the date of hire, then the 

employer satisfies this criterion. 

As with the hiring criterion, the 

retention criterion contains the term 

‘‘not less than.’’ Consequently, a 

retention percentage of 74.99 would not 

satisfy the large employer gold criterion, 

and a retention percentage of 84.99 

would not satisfy the large employer 

platinum criterion. 

Employee Veteran Organization or 

Resource Group Criterion: Sec. 

3(b)(1)(B)(iii) of the Act sets out a 

criterion that requires employers to have 

established an employee veteran 

organization or resource group to assist 

new veteran employees with 

integration, including coaching and 

mentoring. Per the language of the 

statute, this must be a distinct 

organization or group. Although 

admirable, an employer would not 

satisfy this criterion if the employer 

provided coaching and mentoring to 

veteran employees but did so without 

having established an organization or 

group. Additionally, the organization or 

group must still be in existence as of 

December 31 of the year prior to the 

calendar year in which the employer 

applies for the award. For example, if an 

employer applies for an award in 2020, 

the organization or group must still be 

in existence on December 31, 2019. 

Leadership Program Criterion: The 

Act also sets out a leadership program 

criterion at sec. 3(b)(1)(B)(iv). To satisfy 

the leadership program criterion, 

employers must have established 

programs to enhance the leadership 

skills of veteran employees during their 

employment. A leadership program 

does not need to be provided 

exclusively to veterans in order to 

satisfy this criterion. For example, an 

employer could satisfy this criterion by 

offering a program to enhance 

leadership skills to all employees as 

long as veteran employees may 

participate. The primary concern for 

this criterion is that veterans have the 

opportunity to enhance their leadership 

skills and not that such programs only 

benefit veterans. 

As with the employee veteran 

organization or resource group criterion, 

the leadership program must be in 

existence as of December 31, of the year 

prior to the calendar year in which the 

employer applies for the award. 

Human Resources Criteria: Sec. 

3(b)(1)(C)(iv) of the Act establishes a 

criterion related to human resources 

support for veterans. Unlike the 

previous criteria, the human resources 

requirements vary based on the size of 

employer. Requirements for the human 

resources criteria are discussed in 

additional detail in the introduction to 

the small employer and medium 

employer award criteria. 

Pay Differential Criterion: The Act 

also sets out a pay differential criterion 

in sec. 3(b)(1)(C)(v). To satisfy this 

criterion, employers must provide each 

of its employees serving on active duty 

in the United States National Guard or 

Reserve with compensation sufficient, 

in combination with the employee’s 

active duty pay, to achieve a combined 

level of income commensurate with the 

employee’s salary prior to undertaking 

active duty. This criterion contains a 

couple of key terms—active duty and 

salary—that are defined in proposed 

§ 1011.005 and explained in the 

corresponding definitions preamble 

text. 

Additionally, VETS requests 

comments on whether to establish a 

minimum amount of time that an 

employer must provide the pay 

differential in order to satisfy the 

criterion. Currently, the proposed 

regulation offers no minimum, which 

means that the employer must provide 

the differential for as long as the 

employee is on active duty. 

Tuition Assistance Program Criterion: 

Finally, the Act at sec. 3(b)(1)(C)(vi) 

includes a criterion that requires an 

employer to establish a tuition 

assistance program to support veteran 

employees’ attendance in postsecondary education during the term of 

their employment. As with the 

leadership program criterion, this 

benefit need not be exclusively for 

veteran employees as long as veteran 

employees are able to benefit from it. 

Additionally, this assistance may take 

many forms, including financial 

assistance, leave assistance, or discounts 

on postsecondary education. 

Postsecondary education is defined in 

§ 1011.005. 

Other Criteria: In addition to the 

criteria established by the Act for large 

employers, sec. 3(b)(1)(E) permits the 

VETS to establish additional criteria. As 

discussed in the preamble for proposed 

§ 1011.120, VETS has established an 

additional criterion regarding veteranspecific labor violations. VETS requests 

comments on what other criteria it 

should establish, such as criteria 

connecting employers to the workforce 

development system. 

Section 1011.100: What are the criteria 

for the large employer HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award? 

Proposed § 1011.100 sets out the 

criteria for the large employer awards as 

established in sec. 3(b)(1)(B)–(C) of the 

Act. These criteria are described in 

greater detail in the introduction to this 

subpart. 

Paragraph (a)(1) implements sec. 

3(b)(1)(A) of the Act, which states the 

size requirements for the large employer 

award. 

Paragraph (a)(2) includes the 

criterion, further explained in proposed 

§ 1011.120, that employers are not 

eligible for an award if they have 

violated certain labor protections. 

Paragraphs (a)(3)–(6) implement the 

additional criteria for the large employer 

gold award at sec. 3(b)(1)(B) of the Act. 

Paragraph (b) sets out the 

requirements for the large employer 

platinum award. 

As with paragraph (a)(1), paragraph 

(b)(1) implements sec. 3(b)(1)(A) of the 

Act, which states the size requirements 

for the large employer award. 

Paragraph (b)(2), as with paragraph 

(a)(2), includes the criterion, further 

explained in proposed § 1011.120, that 

employers are not eligible for an award 

if they have violated certain labor 

protections. 

Paragraphs (b)(3)–(b)(6) set out the 

large employer gold criteria in section 

3(b)(1)(B) of the Act that also apply to 

the large employer platinum criteria per 

sec. 3(b)(1)(C)(i). 

Paragraph (b)(7) implements the 

dedicated human resources professional 

criterion at sec. 3(b)(1)(C)(iv) of the Act. 

‘‘Dedicated human resources 

professional’’ is further explained in 

proposed § 1011.005 (the definitions 

section) and the accompanying 

preamble text. Additionally, as further 

explained in proposed § 1011.115, there 

is an exemption for employers with 

5,000 or fewer employees. 

Paragraphs (b)(8) and (b)(9) set out the 

criteria at sec. 3(b)(1)(C)(v)–(vi) of the 

Act. 

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Small and Medium Employer Awards 

Sec. 3(b)(2) of the HIRE Vets Act 

authorizes VETS to establish criteria for 

small and medium employers. In 

examining which criteria should apply 

to the awards for small and medium 

employers, this proposed rule attempts 

to balance two sometimes conflicting 

objectives. First, this rule seeks to 

ensure simplicity by keeping unique 

criteria for which employers must 

familiarize themselves to a minimum. 

Second, the proposed rule attempts to 

take into account the potentially 

different structures and resources of 

small and medium employers. 

In balancing these objectives, the 

proposed rule adopts most of the large 

employer criteria for the small and 

medium employer awards, but the 

criteria for small and medium 

employers differ in three fundamental 

ways. 

First, instead of requiring the small 

and medium employers to meet all of 

the criteria outlined for the large 

employers, the criteria for the small and 

medium employers include more 

options and alternatives. For example, 

employers applying for the small 

platinum award need only have two of 

the five forms of integration assistance 

identified for the large employer 

platinum award. Likewise, instead of 

needing to meet both the hiring criterion 

and the retention criterion, small and 

medium employers must meet either the 

hiring criterion or a criterion that 

includes retention and veteran 

employee percentage. 

The second major difference is the 

inclusion of this ‘‘veteran employee 

percentage’’ criterion for the small and 

medium employers. For small and 

medium employers who might not meet 

the hiring criterion, they may qualify for 

an award if they meet the retention 

requirements and if a certain percentage 

(7 percent for the gold and 10 percent 

for the platinum) of the employer’s 

employees during the last year were 

veterans. The proposed rule includes 

this option to allow small and medium 

employers who did not hire last year, 

but demonstrated their commitment to 

veteran employment by hiring the year 

before, to receive a medallion for their 

longer term veteran hiring efforts. 

This proposed veteran employee 

percentage criterion is required in 

addition to the retention criterion to 

ensure that the employer has provided 

a commitment to veteran employment. 

Because small and medium employers 

have the choice between meeting the 

hiring criterion or the retention 

criterion, if the percentage of veteran 

employees criterion was not added to 

the retention criterion, an employer 

with 499 employees could qualify for an 

award even if it only had a single 

veteran employee (so long as it had 

hired that veteran employee two years 

ago and had retained that veteran 

employee for at least twelve months). 

The addition of the veteran employee 

percentage criterion ensures employers 

are making substantive efforts to employ 

veterans even if they do not meet the 

hiring criterion. The veteran employee 

percentage criterion uses 7 percent as 

the minimum requirement for the gold 

award and 10 percent for the platinum. 

These percentages were selected to 

reflect the requirements of the hiring 

criterion. VETS requests comments on 

whether a small or medium employer 

that meets the other criteria but does not 

meet the hiring or retention criteria 

should receive an award if that 

employer meets the veteran employee 

percentage test. The Department also 

requests comments on whether 

percentages other than 7 and 10 should 

be used for this criterion. 

The proposed rule also establishes 

that to measure this veteran employee 

percentage criterion, an employer must 

use a snapshot analysis of what 

percentage of its employees were 

veterans on December 31 of the year 

prior to the year in which the employer 

applies for the award. VETS also 

requests comments on whether a 

snapshot on December 31 is an 

appropriate way to measure this 

criterion. 

Finally, the human resources criterion 

for small and medium employer awards 

differs from the human resources 

criterion for the large employer awards. 

Small and medium employers often do 

not have the same human resource 

support as large employers. 

Consequently, under this proposed rule, 

small and medium employers are 

instead required to meet a similar 

requirement of providing hiring, 

training, and retention services for 

veteran employees. This is further 

described in the definition of ‘‘human 

resources veterans’ initiative’’ at 

proposed § 1011.005. 

Section 1011.105: What are the criteria 

for the medium employer HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award? 

Proposed § 1011.105 sets out the 

criteria for the medium employer gold 

and platinum awards. Paragraph (a) 

contains the requirements for the 

medium employer gold award and 

paragraph (b) contains the requirements 

for the medium employer platinum 

award. 

Paragraph (a)(1) implements sec. 

3(b)(2)(B) of the Act, which states that 

the medium employer award is for 

employers with more than 50 but fewer 

than 500 employees. 

Paragraph (a)(2) includes the 

criterion, further explained in proposed 

§ 1011.120, that employers are not 

eligible for an award if they have 

violated certain labor protections. 

Paragraph (a)(3) sets out a criterion 

with two alternatives. To satisfy this 

criterion, employers must meet at least 

one of the two alternative criteria: The 

hiring criterion or the retention plus 

veteran employee percentage criterion. 

So long as the employer meets at least 

one of the two alternative criteria, it 

need not meet the other. 

Paragraph (a)(4) sets out another 

criterion with alternatives. This 

criterion is similar to the large employer 

gold award criteria in that it includes 

both forms of integration assistance 

included in the large employer gold 

award. However, unlike with the large 

employer gold award, medium 

employers applying for the gold award 

need only have one of the two forms of 

integration assistance: Either an 

employee veteran organization/resource 

group or a leadership program; the 

medium employer need not have both to 

satisfy this criterion. However, VETS 

requests comments as to rather the 

employer should be required to meet 

both of these requirements for the 

medium employer gold award. 

Paragraphs (b)(1)–(5) set out the 

requirements for the medium employer 

platinum award. Paragraphs (b)(1)–(3) 

are the same requirements that 

paragraphs (a)(1)–(3) establish for the 

medium employer gold award. 

However, the percentages in paragraph 

(b)(3) are higher than those at (a)(3) to 

reflect the higher standard to which 

platinum applicants will be held. 

Paragraph (b)(4) is similar to the 

medium employer gold integration 

assistance requirements in paragraph 

(a)(4). However, paragraph (b)(4) 

requires the employer to have both an 

employee veteran organization/resource 

group and a leadership program. This 

difference also reflects the fact that 

recipients of the platinum awards 

should be held to a higher standard. 

Paragraph (b)(5) is an additional 

requirement that distinguishes the 

medium employer platinum award from 

the medium employer gold award. 

Paragraph (b)(5) requires that applicants 

for the medium employer platinum 

award must also offer one of the forms 

of integration assistance required for the 

large employer platinum award. By 

allowing applicants for the medium 

employer platinum award to choose 

between the various forms of integration 

assistance that qualify an employer for 

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the large employer platinum award, the 

proposed rule recognizes that medium 

employers will likely not have as many 

resources as large employers. However, 

by still requiring applicants for the 

medium employer platinum award to 

provide at least one of these forms of 

integration assistance, the proposed rule 

ensures that the prestige of the medium 

employer platinum award is 

commensurate with that of the large 

employer platinum award. 

Section 1011.110: What are the criteria 

for the small employer HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award? 

Proposed § 1011.110 sets out the 

criteria for the small employer gold and 

platinum awards. Paragraph (a) contains 

the requirements for the small employer 

gold award and paragraph (b) contains 

the requirements for the small employer 

platinum award. 

Paragraph (a)(1) implements sec. 

3(b)(2)(A) of the Act, which states that 

the small employer award is for 

employers with 50 or fewer employees. 

Paragraph (a)(2) includes the 

criterion, further explained in 

§ 1011.120, that employers are not 

eligible for an award if they have 

violated certain labor protections. 

Paragraph (a)(3) sets out a criterion 

with two alternatives. To satisfy this 

criterion, employers must meet at least 

one of the two alternative criteria: The 

hiring criteria or the retention plus 

veteran employee percentage criteria. So 

long as the employer meets at least one 

of the two alternative criteria, it need 

not meet the other. 

Paragraphs (b)(1)–(4) set out the 

requirements for the small employer 

platinum award. 

Paragraphs (b)(1)–(3) are the same 

requirements that paragraphs (a)(1)–(3) 

establish for the small employer gold 

award. However, the percentages in 

paragraph (b)(3) are higher than those at 

(a)(3) to reflect the higher standard to 

which platinum applicants will be held. 

Paragraph (b)(4) is an additional 

requirement that distinguishes the small 

employer platinum award from the 

small employer gold award. This 

criterion requires that an employer have 

at least two of the five forms of 

integration assistance identified for the 

large employer platinum award. This 

proposal allows small employers to 

have additional flexibility in recognition 

of the differences in their resources and 

structure from large employers while 

also ensuring that recipients of the 

platinum award are held to a high 

standard in providing support for their 

veteran employees. 

Section 1011.115: Is there an exemption 

for certain large employers from the 

dedicated human resources professional 

criterion for the large employer 

platinum HIRE Vets Medallion Award? 

Proposed § 1011.115 implements sec. 

3(b)(1)(D) of the Act, which provides an 

exemption for large employers who 

employ 5,000 or fewer employees from 

needing to satisfy the full-time 

dedicated human resources professional 

criterion for the large employer 

platinum award that is set out in 

§ 1011.100(b)(7) of this proposed rule. 

For additional information on how this 

regulation defines ‘‘dedicated human 

resources professional,’’ please see the 

definitions section of this proposed rule 

at § 1011.005 and accompanying 

preamble. 

Section 1011.120: Under what 

circumstances will VETS find an 

employer ineligible to receive a HIRE 

Vets Medallion Award for a violation of 

labor law? 

Proposed § 1011.120 outlines the 

circumstances that would disqualify or 

delay an employer from receiving a 

HIRE Vets Medallion Award. The HIRE 

Vets Medallion Award recognizes those 

employers that recruit, employ, and 

retain veterans. Consistent with this 

goal, VETS proposes to disqualify from 

consideration those employers that have 

incurred violations under labor laws 

protecting veterans as administered by, 

or in conjunction with, VETS and the 

Office of Federal Contract Compliance 

Programs (OFCCP). Additionally, VETS 

proposes that employers debarred from 

holding federal contracts pursuant to 

the laws identified in this section would 

also be ineligible for the duration of the 

debarment, as would employers that, 

pursuant to the laws identified in this 

section, have had contracts terminated 

within a specified period of time prior 

to the issuance of an award. Finally, 

§ 1011.120 would provide VETS with 

the discretion to delay the issuance of 

an award if it has information indicating 

that a significant violation of one of 

these laws has occurred that could lead 

to one of the disqualifying events 

discussed above. 

Proposed paragraph (a) of this section 

provides that any employer with an 

adverse labor law decision, stipulated 

agreement, contract debarment, or 

contract termination (as defined in 

proposed paragraphs (b) through (e) of 

this section), pursuant to specifically 

enumerated laws administered by 

VETS, will not be eligible to receive an 

award. The proposed list of specifically 

enumerated laws includes the 

following: 

• Uniform Services Employment and 

Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA); 

• Vietnam Era Veterans’ 

Readjustment Assistance Act, as 

amended (VEVRAA). 

An adverse labor law decision is 

defined in proposed paragraph (b) of 

this section as a civil or criminal court 

judgment, a final administrative merits 

determination of an administrative 

adjudicative board or commission, or a 

decision of an administrative law judge 

or other administrative judge that is not 

appealed and that becomes the final 

agency action. The term ‘‘civil or 

criminal court judgment’’ is intended to 

include any final judgment of a trial 

court or appellate court level that has 

not been overturned at the time the 

award is to be issued. The proposed 

paragraph (b) goes on to establish a 

timeframe within which such decisions 

would render an employer ineligible for 

an award: A decision issued in the 

calendar year prior to the year in which 

applications are solicited; or in the 

calendar year in which applications are 

solicited, up until the issuance of the 

award. 

A stipulated agreement that would 

disqualify an employer from receiving 

an award is defined in proposed 

paragraph (c) of this section. This 

definition includes any agreement, 

including a settlement agreement, 

conciliation, agreement, consent decree, 

or other similar document, which 

contains an admission that the employer 

violated any of the laws outlined in 

paragraph (a). An agreement that states 

that it does not constitute evidence or 

admission of wrongdoing would not fall 

under this definition. As with paragraph 

(b), this proposed paragraph also sets 

forth that any such agreement that was 

entered into in the calendar year prior 

to the year in which applications are 

solicited, or in the calendar year in 

which applications are solicited up 

until the issuance of the award, would 

render the employer ineligible for an 

award. VETS seeks comments on 

whether certain violations of these laws 

should not result in disqualification. 

Proposed paragraphs (d) and (e) 

define the terms ‘‘contract debarment’’ 

and ‘‘contract termination,’’ 

respectively. They cover debarments or 

terminations of federal contracts 

effected through an order or voluntary 

agreement pursuant to any of the laws 

listed in proposed paragraph (a). 

Accordingly, as proposed, these 

definitions would not cover employers 

whose federal contracts were debarred 

or terminated pursuant to laws other 

than those identified in paragraph (a). 

Proposed paragraph (e) clarifies that, for 

contract terminations, the same 

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ineligibility timeframe as in paragraphs 

(b) and (c) applies—a termination that 

occurred in the calendar year prior to 

the year in which applications are 

solicited, or in the calendar year in 

which applications are solicited up 

until the issuance of the award. For 

debarments, proposed paragraph (d) sets 

forth that an employer will be ineligible 

for the duration of time the debarment 

is in effect, regardless of when it was 

first entered. 

Proposed paragraph (f) states that, 

even in the absence of the specific 

triggering events in proposed 

paragraphs (b) through (e), if VETS has 

credible information indicating that a 

significant violation of one of the laws 

in paragraph (a) may have occurred that 

could potentially result in one of the 

triggering events requiring 

disqualification, VETS retains the 

discretion to delay granting an award. 

VETS specifically requests comments 

on several provisions of this section. 

First, VETS seeks comments on whether 

to expand the list to include additional 

laws administered by, or in conjunction 

with, the Department, such as the Fair 

Labor Standards Act; the Occupational 

Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA); 

or the Mine Safety and Health Act. The 

proposed language is limited to laws 

that provide labor protections specific to 

veterans because the focus of this rule 

is on the hiring and retention of 

veterans. 

Second, VETS is specifically 

interested in comments on the proposed 

basis for disqualifying an employer from 

receiving an award, including the scope 

of the definitions set forth in paragraphs 

(b) through (e), whether additional 

disqualifying events should be added, 

and whether the stated timeframes in 

which one of these triggering events will 

disqualify an employer should be 

adjusted. Third, VETS seeks comments 

on whether it should consider the 

nature of the violation (e.g., the 

magnitude of the violation; whether an 

applicant committed more than one 

violation during the relevant time 

period) as a factor in whether a violation 

is disqualifying. Fourth, VETS requests 

specific comment as to whether contract 

debarments under additional laws 

should disqualify an employer from 

receiving an award. VETS notes that 

changes to the labor violations included 

in this section will impact the cost of 

the program and, therefore, the 

application fees. A dramatic increase in 

the number of violations triggering 

disqualification would likely result in a 

noticeable increase to the application 

fees. Finally, with regard to proposed 

paragraph (f), VETS seeks comments on 

whether it is advisable to delay awards 

in those circumstances where it has 

information suggesting a significant 

violation may have occurred, whether 

‘‘credible information suggesting a 

significant violation’’ is an appropriate 

standard, and/or whether a different 

standard should be set. 

Subpart C—Application Process 

Section 1011.200: How will VETS 

administer the HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award process? 

Proposed § 1011.200 implements the 

requirements in sec. 2(b) of the Act 

regarding the award application process. 

Proposed § 1011.200 retains the 

statutory language with minor 

adjustments for context. 

Section 1011.205: What is the timing of 

the HIRE Vets Medallion Award 

process? 

Proposed § 1011.205 sets out the 

timing for the awards. 

The introductory paragraph 

implements the language in sec. 3(a)(1) 

of the Act and cross-references the 

application cap section. 

Paragraph (a) establishes a timeframe 

for when an employer’s actions may 

qualify it for an award. This language is 

necessary in order to clarify what time 

period the award covers and to make the 

award process administratively feasible. 

Additionally, this language is consistent 

with the requirement in sec. 3(a)(2) of 

the Act, which states that VETS shall 

require the submission of information 

from employers about efforts from the 

calendar year prior to that in which the 

award is to be awarded. 

Paragraphs (b)–(e) reflect the statutory 

language at sec. 2(c) of the Act but 

paragraph (c) of § 1011.205 provides 

additional clarity to employers about 

when applications are due. 

Paragraph (f) implements the statutory 

language at sec. 2(c)(5) of the Act. 

Additionally, paragraph (f) clarifies that 

applicants who receive a denial will 

also receive notice of the denial along 

the same timeline as the award notices. 

Section 1011.210: How often can an 

employer receive the HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award? 

Proposed § 1011.210 repeats the 

language in sec. 2(d) of the Act, which 

sets limitations on how frequently an 

employer is eligible to receive an award. 

Section 1011.215: How will the 

employer complete the application for 

the HIRE Vets Medallion Award? 

Proposed § 1011.215 describes the 

application process and implements 

requirements in sec. 3(a) of the HIRE 

Vets Act. 

Paragraph (a) implements sec. 3(a)(2) 

of the Act. 

Paragraph (b) makes clear that VETS 

may request information in addition to 

information relevant to determining 

whether an employer qualifies for an 

award. VETS may collect other 

information that might support the 

awards program, such as success stories. 

This paragraph is authorized under sec. 

3(a)(2) of the Act, which authorizes 

VETS to require applicants to provide 

information in addition to information 

governing eligibility for an award. 

Paragraph (c) implements the 

attestation requirement of sec. 3(a)(2) of 

the Act and clarifies that the individual 

providing the attestation can be an 

equivalent official if an employer does 

not have a chief executive officer or 

chief human resources officer. 

Paragraph (d) provides that the 

application form will be made available 

on the HIRE Vets Web site maintained 

by VETS. 

Paragraph (e) describes how 

applicants can submit the application 

form. VETS requires all applicants to 

submit the completed application 

electronically unless the applicant 

requests a reasonable accommodation 

under paragraph (f). Electronic 

submittal is more efficient and less 

costly to the applicant and to the agency 

for processing. 

Paragraph (f) describes how VETS 

will provide a reasonable 

accommodation to applicants. 

Paragraph (g) provides that if an 

employer’s application is deemed 

incomplete, VETS will attempt to 

contact the employer for the missing 

information using the contact 

information provided on the 

application. Should the applicant not 

respond within the timeframe provided, 

the application will be deemed 

incomplete and will be denied. 

Section 1011.220: How will VETS verify 

a HIRE Vets Medallion Award 

application? 

Proposed § 1011.220 implements the 

requirements at sec. 3(a)(3) of the Act, 

which require the Secretary to verify all 

information provided in the 

applications to the extent that such 

information is relevant in determining 

whether or not an employer should 

receive an award or in determining the 

appropriate level of award. The second 

sentence of proposed § 1011.220 

explains that this verification will be 

conducted by reviewing the information 

that the employer is required to submit 

with the application. The application 

will require that employers provide 

information to show that they have met 

the criteria for the awards and to attest 

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to the veracity of that information. VETS 

has narrowly tailored its request for 

additional information to minimize the 

cost of applying for the award and 

because the requirement that the chief 

executive officer, the chief human 

resources officer, or an equivalent 

official attest under penalty of perjury 

that the information provided is 

accurate will provide a strong deterrent 

against false applications. 

Section 1011.225: Under what 

circumstances will VETS conduct 

further review of an application? 

Proposed § 1011.225 establishes that 

VETS may conduct further review of an 

application if VETS becomes aware of 

facts that indicate the application might 

have included incorrect information or 

that the applicant is ineligible under 

§ 1011.120. The proposed section 

describes the circumstances under 

which VETS will conduct this further 

review. This is intended to ensure that 

awards are only given to employers who 

actually meet the award criteria. If VETS 

initiates such review prior to issuing the 

Award, VETS will not be required to 

meet the timeline requirements in this 

part. 

Section 1011.230: Under what 

circumstances can VETS deny or revoke 

an award? 

Proposed § 1011.230 describes the 

circumstances under which VETS can 

deny or revoke an award. Paragraph (a) 

applies before the receipt of an award, 

and paragraph (b) applies after the 

receipt of an award. Under both 

paragraphs (a) and (b), VETS may either 

deny or revoke an award, as applicable, 

based on an employer’s failure to 

provide documentation, VETS’ 

determination that the employer’s chief 

executive officer, the chief human 

resources officer, or an equivalent 

official falsely attested to information 

provided with an award application, or 

the determination that an employer is 

ineligible to receive an award pursuant 

to § 1011.120. VETS notes that it can 

deny or revoke an award for both 

intentional and unintentional false 

statements by an employer’s chief 

executive officer, the chief human 

resources officer, or an equivalent 

official. 

Paragraph (b)(4) states that VETS may 

also revoke an award for violations of 

the display restrictions at § 1011.405. 

Paragraph (c) includes the 

reconsideration process that will be 

followed if VETS decides to deny or 

revoke an award. 

Subpart D—Fees and Caps 

Section 1011.300: What are the 

application fees for the HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award? 

Proposed § 1011.300 sets out the 

application fees for the HIRE Vets 

Medallion Awards. 

Paragraph (a) summarizes the 

requirement in sec. 5(b) of the Act that 

the Secretary must establish an 

application fee that covers the cost of 

the program. 

Paragraph (b) explains that VETS 

periodically will use the Implicit Price 

Deflator for Gross Domestic Product 

(GDP Price Deflator) published by the 

U.S. Department of Commerce to adjust 

the fee for inflation. The GDP Price 

Deflator measures inflation by taking the 

current prices of all domestic 

production of final goods and services 

in the U.S. economy (nominal GDP) and 

converting it into constant-dollars to 

measure the change in price levels. The 

GDP includes the output from the entire 

U.S. economy and will include any 

changes in consumption or investment. 

To capture the price increases that occur 

year to year in the cost of material and 

services, it will be necessary to escalate 

the fee using the GDP Deflator, which 

should capture the inflation occurring 

in the economy. 

Paragraph (b)(1) clarifies the process 

VETS will use if it needs to make a 

significant adjustment to the fee for any 

reason other than inflation. 

Paragraph (b)(2) provides that VETS 

will round the fee to the nearest dollar. 

VETS would do this for the 

administrative ease of both the agency 

and the applicants. 

The fees identified in the paragraph 

(b) table were reached by analyzing the 

costs of the program and the amount of 

review each application will require. 

This analysis is discussed further in the 

‘‘Application Fee’’ section of the 

Regulatory Procedures section of this 

preamble. 

Paragraph (c) provides that fees will 

be submitted by applicants under the 

HIRE Vets Medallion Program using the 

U.S. Treasury pay.gov system or an 

equivalent system. Pay.gov provides a 

proven, secure electronic payment 

method that facilitates employers 

paying the requisite fee to apply for the 

award. Pay.gov (https://www.pay.gov) 

will allow employers to make electronic 

payments to the Federal government 

using the Internet. Instructions for 

making the application fee payment will 

be included in the instructions for the 

application form. This method of 

payment provides an efficient and 

effective method of receiving and 

tracking fee payments for the Act. 

Paragraph (d) provides that the 

application fees are nonrefundable. 

Section 1011.305: May VETS set a limit 

on how many applications will be 

accepted in a year? 

Proposed § 1011.305 provides that 

VETS may limit how many applications 

it will accept in a given year. The 

proposed rule includes this provision so 

that VETS can prevent the system for 

reviewing applications from being 

overwhelmed by the number of 

applications in the first few years of the 

program. Should VETS decide to set a 

limit for how many applications will be 

accepted in a year, it will provide notice 

in advance of the application 

acceptance period on this number of 

applications that will be accepted. 

Subpart E—Design and Display 

Section 1011.400: What does a 

successful applicant receive? 

Proposed § 1011.400 describes what 

recipients of the HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award will receive. 

Paragraph (a) implements the 

statutory language at sec. 3(c) of the Act. 

Paragraph (b) explains that VETS will 

create a digital image of the Medallion 

for recipients to use. This provision is 

proposed because recipients will likely 

want to display the award on digital 

platforms. 

Section 1011.405: What are the 

restrictions on display and use of the 

HIRE Vets Medallion Award? 

Proposed § 1011.405 implements sec. 

4 of the Act. 

Subpart F—Requests for 

Reconsideration 

Section 1011.500: What is the process to 

request reconsideration of a denial or 

revocation? 

Proposed § 1011.500 describes the 

reconsideration process applicants may 

use to request reconsideration over the 

denial of an award, the revocation of an 

award, or the denial of a particular 

award level. Because the 

reconsideration process applies to a 

voluntary award and because any 

reconsideration process must be paid for 

out of applicant fees, VETS has 

proposed a simple and limited 

reconsideration process to prevent a 

complicated reconsideration process 

from driving up the costs of the award 

application fees. 

Paragraph (a) describes the 

circumstances under which an 

applicant may request reconsideration 

for a determination and the timeline for 

that request. Paragraph (a) also clarifies 

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39380 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 159 / Friday, August 18, 2017 / Proposed Rules 

1Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of 

Labor, Current Population Survey, 2016. 

2Watson, Ben, (2014) Veteran Unemployment 

Rate Drops, But Still Outpaces the Rest of the 

Country. www.defenceone.com, May 2,2014. 

Retrieved from: http://www.defenseone.com/news/ 

2014/05/D1-Watson-veteran-unemployment-ratedrops-still-outpaces-rest-country/83692/. 

where a request for reconsideration 

must be submitted. 

Paragraph (b) describes what an 

employer must include in its request for 

reconsideration. 

Paragraph (c) states that VETS may 

request additional evidence or 

explanation from an employer 

requesting reconsideration. 

Paragraph (d) provides the timeline 

for VETS to respond to a request for 

reconsideration with a determination 

about whether to grant or deny the 

request. 

Paragraph (e) states that no additional 

Department review is available. 

Therefore, no additional administrative 

review is available anywhere in the 

Department. 

Subpart G—Record Retention 

Section 1011.600: What are the record 

retention requirements for the HIRE 

Vets Medallion Award? 

This section is necessary to protect 

the integrity of the awards. VETS chose 

a record retention period of two years to 

provide sufficient time to examine any 

issues that arise from applications while 

not being unduly burdensome to 

applicants. 

Regulatory Procedures 

Executive Orders 12866 and 13563: 

Regulatory Planning and Review 

Introduction 

Executive Order 13563 directs 

agencies to propose or adopt a 

regulation only upon a reasoned 

determination that its benefits justify its 

costs; tailor the regulation to impose the 

least burden on society, consistent with 

achieving the regulatory objectives; and 

in choosing among alternative 

regulatory approaches, select those 

approaches that maximize net benefits. 

Executive Order 13563 recognizes that 

some benefits are difficult to quantify 

and provides that, where appropriate 

and permitted by law, agencies may 

consider and discuss qualitatively 

values that are difficult or impossible to 

quantify, including equity, human 

dignity, fairness, and distributive 

impacts. 

Under Executive Order 12866, the 

Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) must determine whether a 

regulatory action is significant and 

therefore subject to the requirements of 

that Executive Order and to review by 

OMB. 58 FR 51735. Section 3(f) of 

Executive Order 12866 defines a 

‘‘significant regulatory action’’ as an 

action that is likely to result in a rule 

that: (1) Has an annual effect on the 

economy of $100 million or more, or 

adversely affects in a material way a 

sector of the economy, productivity, 

competition, jobs, the environment, 

public health or safety, or State, local or 

tribal governments or communities (also 

referred to as economically significant); 

(2) creates serious inconsistency or 

otherwise interferes with an action 

taken or planned by another agency; (3) 

materially alters the budgetary impacts 

of entitlement grants, user fees, or loan 

programs, or the rights and obligations 

of recipients thereof; or (4) raises novel 

legal or policy issues arising out of legal 

mandates, the President’s priorities, or 

the principles set forth in Executive 

Order 12866. Id. 

The Office of Management Budget did 

not find rule significant under Executive 

Order 12866 and, therefore, waived 

review. We analyzed costs and benefits 

of this rule using 2016 employment and 

wage data from the Bureau of Labor 

Statistics. The cost analysis uses a ten 

year time horizon. This benefits analysis 

is qualitative and appears at the end of 

this section. Since the benefits analysis 

is qualitative, there will be no analysis 

of net benefits (benefits minus costs). 

VETS’s estimates of costs are presented 

as follows: 

• Veteran employment and potential 

eligibility for the award—Estimates how 

many employers may meet the 

application requirements of the award. 

• Unit costs—Estimates the unit costs 

of complying with the application 

requirements of the award. 

• Participation rates—Estimates how 

many eligible employers will potentially 

choose to apply for the award. 

• Government costs—Estimates the 

costs to the government for processing 

the applications and the costs to 

develop the system to support the 

review and approval process. 

• Total annualized costs—Estimates 

the total annualized private and 

government costs of the program. 

Costs for this regulation are uncertain 

due partly to the program being entirely 

new with no obvious equivalents; VETS 

cannot anticipate the number of 

employers that will choose to 

participate in the program. For this 

reason, this analysis contains estimates 

that are based on very limited data. This 

is the first veteran hiring award 

established by the Department to 

recognize employers for their 

accomplishments in recruiting, 

retaining, and hiring veterans. VETS 

welcomes comments on all of the 

estimates provided below. 

Veteran Employment and Potential 

Eligibility for the Award 

As of 2016 there were 20.9 million 

veterans,1 making up 10 percent of the 

civilian non-institutionalized 

population over the age of 18. While the 

total number of veterans varies over 

time, there are between 240,000 and 

360,000 service members who leave 

military service each year according to 

a 2013 White House report.2 In 2016 

there were 10 million veterans 

employed according to data collected 

from the Current Population Survey and 

reported by the Bureau of Labor 

Statistics (BLS) making up close to 7 

percent of the U.S. employed 

population. 

The three leading industry sectors for 

veteran employment are Manufacturing 

(NAICS code 31–33), with 1.3 million 

veterans; Wholesale and retail trade 

(NAICS code 42, 44–45) with 1.1 

million veterans; and Professional and 

business services (NAICS code 54–56) 

with 1.1 million veterans. Evaluating 

veteran employment as a percentage of 

total employment by industry highlights 

the various industries where veterans 

make up more than 7 percent of the 

employed population. Based on the 

data, it appears there are many 

industries where a typical employer can 

readily meet the basic criteria of hiring 

7 percent or more veteran employees 

while it may be more difficult in other 

industries. 

Veteran employment levels at the 3 

digit NAICS level (industry subsectors) 

were mapped to BLS data from the 

Current Employment Survey to derive 

veteran employment as a percentage of 

total employees by NAICS code. The 

results of this comparison are presented 

in Table 1. A majority of private 

industry subsectors have veteran 

employment with 7 percent or higher; 

the industries with the highest 

percentages were the Petroleum and 

coal products industry with 22.4 

percent veteran employment, followed 

by Utilities with 20.5 percent veteran 

employment. The two industries with 

the lowest percentage of veteran 

employment are: Management of 

companies and enterprises with 0.5 

percent and Internet publishing and 

broadcasting and web search portals 

with 1.0 percent veteran employment. 

Other industry sectors where the 

percentage of veterans employed is 

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lower than the national average are 

Healthcare and Social assistance sector 

with 3.5 percent, and the 

Accommodations and food services 

sector with 1.6 percent veteran 

employment. The concentration of 

veteran employment in Utilities and 

Manufacturing industries is a reflection 

of the type of military experience many 

veterans offer when seeking jobs that 

match their skill set. 

TABLE 1—VETERAN EMPLOYMENT IN 2016 

Industry 

Veteran 

employment 1

(in thousands) 

Total 

employment 2

(in thousands) 

Percent of 

veterans 

employed 

(%) 

Total Employment ........................................................................................................................ 10,129 151,423 6.7 

Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas .............................................................................................. 92 626 14.7 

Construction ................................................................................................................................. 588 6711 8.8 

Manufacturing .............................................................................................................................. 1,285 12,348 10.4 

Durable goods manufacturing ..................................................................................................... 898 7,719 11.6 

Nonmetallic mineral products ............................................................................................... 39 408 9.6 

Primary metals and fabricated metal products .................................................................... 156 1,763 8.8 

Machinery manufacturing ..................................................................................................... 125 1,080 11.6 

Computers and electronic products ..................................................................................... 113 1,048 10.8 

Electrical equipment and appliances .................................................................................... 30 383 7.8 

Transportation equipment ..................................................................................................... 269 1,625 16.6 

Wood products ..................................................................................................................... 34 392 8.7 

Furniture and fixtures ........................................................................................................... 28 389 7.2 

Miscellaneous manufacturing ............................................................................................... 103 591. 17.4 

Nondurable goods manufacturing ............................................................................................... 387 4,629 8.4 

Food manufacturing .............................................................................................................. 92 1,554 5.9 

Beverage and tobacco products .......................................................................................... 26 233 11.2 

Textiles, apparel, and leather ............................................................................................... 23 371 6.2 

Paper and printing ................................................................................................................ 76 818 9.3 

Petroleum and coal products ............................................................................................... 25 112 22.4 

Chemicals ............................................................................................................................. 106 811 13.1 

Plastics and rubber products ................................................................................................ 38 699 5.4 

Wholesale and retail trade ........................................................................................................... 1,090 21,687 5.0 

Wholesale trade ........................................................................................................................... 260 5,867 4.4 

Retail trade .................................................................................................................................. 830 15,820 5.2 

Transportation and utilities .......................................................................................................... 753 5,546 13.6 

Transportation and warehousing ................................................................................................. 638 4,989 12.8 

Utilities ......................................................................................................................................... 114 556 20.5 

Information ................................................................................................................................... 180 2,772 6.5 

Publishing, except Internet .......................................................................................................... 15 730 2.1 

Motion pictures and sound recording industries ......................................................................... 13 420 3.1 

Radio and TV broadcasting and cable subscriptions programming ........................................... 42 269 15.6 

Internet publishing and broadcasting and web search portals ................................................... 2 201 1.0 

Telecommunications .................................................................................................................... 96 795 12.1

Data processing, hosting, and related services .......................................................................... 10 300 3.3 

Libraries, archives, and other information services ..................................................................... 2 59 3.4 

Financial activities ........................................................................................................................ 496 8,285 6.0 

Finance and insurance ................................................................................................................ 309 6,142 5.0 

Finance ................................................................................................................................. 174 3,559 4.9 

Insurance .............................................................................................................................. 135 2,583 5.2 

Real estate and rental and leasing ............................................................................................. 187 2,143 8.7 

Real estate ........................................................................................................................... 146 1,559 9.4 

Rental and leasing services ................................................................................................. 41 583 7.0 

Professional and business services ............................................................................................ 1,092 20,136 5.4 

Professional and technical services ............................................................................................ 658 8,877 7.4 

Management, administrative, and waste services ...................................................................... 433 11,259 3.8 

Management of companies and enterprises ........................................................................ 11 2,241 0.5 

Administrative and support services .................................................................................... 384 8,613 4.5 

Waste management and remediation services .................................................................... 38 405 9.4 

Education and health services .................................................................................................... 826 22,616 3.7 

Educational services .................................................................................................................... 161 3,560 4.5 

Health care and social assistance ............................................................................................... 664 19,056 3.5 

Hospitals ............................................................................................................................... 266 5,025 5.3 

Health services, except hospitals ......................................................................................... 322 10,396 3.1 

Social assistance .................................................................................................................. 76 3,636 2.1 

Leisure and hospitality ................................................................................................................. 344 15,620 2.2 

Arts, entertainment, and recreation ............................................................................................. 128 2,235 5.7 

Accommodation and food services ............................................................................................. 216 13,386 1.6 

Accommodation .................................................................................................................... 49 1,947 2.5 

Food services and drinking places ....................................................................................... 167 11,439 1.5 

Other services .............................................................................................................................. 351 5,685 6.2 

Other services, except private households ................................................................................. 337 4,961 6.8 

Repair and maintenance ...................................................................................................... 150 1,289 11.6 

Personal and laundry services ............................................................................................. 68 1,445 4.7 

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3Culbertson, Daniel, (2016) A Deep Look at the 

Data: How Are Veterans Doing in Today’s 

Workforce? Indeed blog, November 10, 2016. 

Retrieved from: http://blog.indeed.com/2016/11/10/ 

veterans-employment/. 

4U.S. Census Bureau, 2014. Statistics of U.S. 

Businesses Annual Datasets by Establishment 

Industry: U.S & States, NAICS, detailed 

employment sizes. Accessed on 6/15/2017 at 

https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/2014/econ/ 

susb/2014-susb.html. 

Eligibility estimates by VETS. See text and 

spreadsheets (exhibit X). 

5Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Job Openings 

and Labor Turnover (2017). News Release; For 

release 10:00 a.m. (EDT), July 11, 2017 https://

www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/jolts.pdf. 

6U.S. Census Bureau, 2014. Statistics of U.S. 

Businesses Annual Datasets by Establishment 

Industry: U.S & States, NAICS, detailed 

employment sizes. Accessed on 6/15/2017 at 

https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/2014/econ/ 

susb/2014-susb.html. 

Eligibility estimates by VETS. See text and 

spreadsheets (exhibit X). 

TABLE 1—VETERAN EMPLOYMENT IN 2016—Continued 

Industry 

Veteran 

employment 1

(in thousands) 

Total 

employment 2

(in thousands) 

Percent of 

veterans 

employed 

(%) 

Membership associations and organizations ....................................................................... 119 2,950 4.0 

Government—Local 3 ................................................................................................................... 708 14,339 4.9 

Source: 

1Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, 2016. 

2Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics, 2016. 

3 U.S. Census of Governments, 2012. 

(See Spreadsheets, Exhibit X for all sources and derivation). 

The job posting site Indeed3 identified 

five occupational categories where 

veterans have the highest levels of 

employment. These are: Transportation 

and Material Moving, Installation 

Maintenance and Repair, Protective 

Service, Management, and Construction 

and Extraction. Many veterans find the 

skills and experience they developed 

while in the military align better with 

these occupations, making the transition 

to a civilian job easier.3

Due to the fact the proposed award 

program requires a fee, it was 

determined that employers with less 

than five employees, are relatively 

unlikely to participate in the program 

(although they are still eligible to apply 

for the award if they choose). Very small 

employers with less than 5 employees 

will most likely not hire often or may 

not choose to invest resources in actions 

that would qualify them for the award 

program, thus this analysis contains 

three groupings of employer size: small 

employers with 5 to 49 employees; 

medium employers with 50 to 499 

employees; and large employers with 

over 500 employees. These groupings 

were based on the availability of data in 

the U.S. Census Bureau, 2014 Statistics 

of U.S. Businesses (SUSB),4 which 

closely approximates the definition of 

small, medium and large employers in 

the statute. The SUSB data showed a 

total of 2,361,000 employers with more 

than four employees. However, knowing 

the percentage of veterans in an 

industry’s work force does not indicate 

how many employers in that industry 

can meet the quantitative criteria for 

receiving the award. For example, if 7 

percent of an industry’s workforce is 

veterans there will be many employers 

that are above and below this average in 

any given year’s hiring. In order to 

estimate the number of potentially 

eligible employers (those meeting the 

quantitative criteria) in an industry, we 

need to be able to estimate the effects of 

turnover on the ability to meet retention 

criteria, the percentage of employers 

that hire 7 percent or more veterans, and 

the percentage with 7 percent 

employees in their current work forces. 

VETS welcomes comments on the 

estimates of veteran employment, and 

the percentage of employers in 

industries that meet or exceed the 

proposed hiring criteria of 7 percent 

veterans. 

The effects of turnover on the ability 

to meet retention criteria may be the 

most difficult quantitative criteria to 

estimate. Average separation rates 

across all industries are such that if 

veterans are typical of all workers, a 75 

percent retention rate would be difficult 

to meet.5 However, published 

separation rates include seasonal and 

temporary employments, which are 

excluded under the definition of 

‘‘employee’’ and subsequently from the 

calculation of retention rates in this 

proposed rule. Absent more detailed 

data, VETS assumes that half of the 

employers able to meet a 7 percent 

hiring rate will not be able to meet a 

requirement for 75 percent retention. 

VETS welcomes comments on the 

estimates of employment turn over, and 

the percentage of employers in 

industries able to meet the retention 

criteria. 

For this analysis, if we make the 

simplifying assumptions that the 

percentage of veterans currently in the 

workforce are typical of available new 

hires in an industry, and that each new 

hire and each employee have an equal 

chance of being a veteran, then we can 

use the binomial distribution to estimate 

the probability that an employer has 

more than 7 percent veterans among 

new hires or more than 7 percent 

veterans among existing employees. The 

binomial distribution is designed to 

calculate the probability that 7 percent 

or more employees in a set of employees 

are veterans given the probability of an 

event (whether a given new hire or 

employee is a veteran). The application 

of the binomial distribution requires 

estimates of the number of new hires 

per year and the number of employees. 

For this purpose, VETS used U.S. 

Census Bureau, 2014 Statistics of U.S. 

Businesses (SUSB) 6 data on the number 

of employers and employees for small 

employers, medium employers and 

large employers. These averages of new 

hires were 13 employees per employer 

for small employers, 123 employees per 

employer for medium employers and 

3,000 employees per employer for large 

employers. VETS estimated that these 

employers would hire 25 percent of 

their workforce in any given year. The 

SUSB data shows a total of 2,311,602 

employers with more than four 

employees. Of these, VETS estimates 

that 424,952, or 18 percent of all 

employers in the size range, would be 

potentially eligible for the program. 

The complete formulas for the 

probability calculation are given in the 

spread sheets (Docket exhibit X). There 

are four probabilities needed for these 

calculations: 

PH = probability more than 7 percent of 

new hires are veterans; 

PE = the probability that more than 7 

percent of employees are veterans; 

PR = the probability that 75 percent of 

veteran hires are retained 

(estimated to be .5 in all cases); and 

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Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 159 / Friday, August 18, 2017 / Proposed Rules 39383 

PLYH = the probability that an 

employer hired at least one veteran 

in the year prior to the current year. 

Given these probabilities the formula 

used in the calculations for small and 

medium employers is: 

Total probability = PH + (1– 

PH)*PE*PLYH*PR 

For large employers, the formula is 

somewhat simpler: 

Total Probability = PH + 

(1¥PH)*PLYH*PR 

Table 2 shows the results for the 

estimate of potentially eligible 

employers by size class and industry. 

TABLE 2—ESTIMATE OF ELIGIBLE EMPLOYERS

Industry 

Total 

employers 

(5+) 

Potentially eligible employers 

Small 

employers 

(5–49) 

Medium 

employers 

(50–499) 

Large 

employers 

(500+) 

Total 

Forestry, logging, fishing, hunting, and trapping ..................................... 2,837 536 389 93 1,017 

Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction ......................................... 9,350 3,377 1,322 0 4,700 

Construction ............................................................................................. 204,561 51,059 8,464 915 60,438 

Nonmetallic mineral products .................................................................. 6,136 1,430 699 244 2,374 

Primary metals and fabricated metal products ........................................ 35,064 7,638 3,613 1,025 12,276 

Machinery manufacturing ......................................................................... 14,706 3,928 2,432 682 7,043 

Computers and electronic products ......................................................... 7,439 1,743 1,279 519 3,541 

Electrical equipment and appliances ....................................................... 3,359 553 398 210 1,161 

Transportation equipment ........................................................................ 6,458 2,121 1,575 550 4,246 

Wood products ......................................................................................... 7,325 1,588 705 165 2,457

Furniture and fixtures ............................................................................... 7,641 1,417 456 84 1,958 

Miscellaneous manufacturing .................................................................. 11,429 5,057 1,344 340 6,741 

Food manufacturing ................................................................................. 13,073 1,812 722 59 2,593 

Beverage and tobacco products .............................................................. 2,653 773 247 90 1,110 

Textiles, apparel, and leather .................................................................. 6,238 998 264 24 1,286 

Paper and printing ................................................................................... 14,483 3,426 1,404 350 5,179 

Petroleum and coal products ................................................................... 710 253 197 113 563 

Chemicals ................................................................................................ 6,476 1,746 1,341 589 3,676 

Plastics and rubber products ................................................................... 7,397 788 517 18 1,323 

Wholesale trade ....................................................................................... 133,958 15,239 2,664 2 17,905 

Retail trade .............................................................................................. 258,174 37,563 4,402 42 42,007 

Transportation and warehousing ............................................................. 61,190 20,258 6,418 2,245 28,921 

Utilities ..................................................................................................... 2,837 1,185 640 194 2,019 

Publishing, except Internet ...................................................................... 9,340 455 37 0 493 

Motion pictures and sound recording industries ...................................... 4,802 395 30 0 425 

Radio and TV broadcasting and cable subscriptions programming ....... 2,857 1,127 344 111 1,582 

Telecommunications ................................................................................ 3,705 1,097 498 160 1,755 

Data processing, hosting, and related services ...................................... 4,885 334 88 0 422 

Libraries, archives, and other information services ................................. 3,237 269 37 0 307 

Finance .................................................................................................... 33,143 3,767 1,228 8 5,003 

Insurance ................................................................................................. 33,515 4,844 476 14 5,334 

Real estate ............................................................................................... 47,711 12,428 2,509 778 15,714 

Rental and leasing services ..................................................................... 9,613 1,774 424 166 2,364 

Professional and technical services ........................................................ 205,067 42,079 7,476 2,116 51,670 

Management of companies and enterprises ........................................... 23,944 66 6 0 72 

Administrative and support services ........................................................ 108,014 12,007 2,405 3 14,415 

Waste management and remediation services ....................................... 8,782 2,240 570 168 2,977 

Educational services ................................................................................ 43,887 4,718 1,320 1 6,039 

Hospitals .................................................................................................. 3,407 16 388 36 441 

Health services, except hospitals ............................................................ 247,348 20,285 1,726 0 22,011 

Social assistance ..................................................................................... 67,460 3,486 270 0 3,756 

Arts, entertainment, and recreation ......................................................... 42,698 6,202 1,700 59 7,962 

Accommodation ....................................................................................... 29,467 1,935 130 0 2,065 

Food services and drinking places .......................................................... 273,382 10,708 262 0 10,970 

Repair and maintenance .......................................................................... 61,091 20,895 1,820 610 23,325 

Personal and laundry services ................................................................ 58,697 7,987 395 0 8,382 

Membership associations and organizations ........................................... 121,174 13,647 1,017 0 14,664 

Government—Local ................................................................................. 40,882 0 8,273 0 8,273 

Total .................................................................................................. 2,311,602 337,247 74,922 12,784 424,952 

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2014. Statistics of U.S. Businesses Annual Datasets by Establishment Industry: U.S & States, NAICS, detailed 

employment sizes. Accessed on 6/15/2017 at https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/2014/econ/susb/2014-susb.html. 

U.S. Census Bureau, 2012. Government Organization Summary Report: 2012. Accessed on 7/21/2017 at https://www2.census.gov/govs/cog/ 

g12_org.pdf. 

Eligibility estimates by VETS. 

See text and spreadsheets (Exhibit X). 

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7Occupational Injury and Illness Recording and 

Reporting Requirements: North American Industry 

Classification System Update and Reporting 

Revisions (docket number: OSHA–2010–0019– 

0127). 

8The value of two is recommended by HHS in 

HHS, Guidelines for Regulatory Analysis, 2016, p. 

33. 

9Employer Support of The Guard and Reserve 

Freedom Award is given to employers who are 

nominated to recognize those that support their 

employees who serve in the Guard and Reserve. 

There are up to 15 awards presented each year by 

frim size and to the public sector. http://

www.freedomaward.mil/. 

10Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational 

Employment Statistics (OES) (2017). Fringe markup 

is from the following BLS release: Employee Costs 

for Employee Compensation news release text; For 

release 10:00 a.m. (EDT), June 9, 2017. https://

www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecec.pdf. 

Unit Cost 

Using the information provided in the 

stakeholder meetings, and estimates 

from similar analysis done by other 

Department of Labor agencies, burden 

costs were estimated by employer size 

for each aspect of the application 

process including rule familiarization, 

collection, filling out the form, and 

follow-up/requests for reconsideration. 

VETS invites public comment on the 

steps employers would have to take to 

apply for the award program, how long 

each step would take and who would be 

involved in the process of applying for 

the award. 

Rule familiarization costs are 

estimated to take one hour for all 

employers regardless of size; this is 

based on OSHA’s recordkeeping rule 

updated in 2014.7 This activity would 

typically be performed by a human 

resources manager at a large or medium 

size employer or by a person with 

equivalent responsibilities at a small 

employer. Using the data from the May 

2016 BLS Occupational Employment 

survey (OES), the mean hourly wage of 

the human resources manager is $57.79. 

For the purposes of this analysis, VETS 

estimates a fully loaded wage rate, 

including fringe benefits and overhead, 

resulting in a doubling of the OES wage 

rate.8 The total hourly wage being used 

to estimate the cost of familiarization is 

$115.58. The regulation is structured by 

employer size which would not require 

employers to consider all aspects of 

eligibility but only those that pertain to 

their size. For these reasons one hour 

was estimated for rule familiarization of 

the award program requirements of 

eligibility and the application form 

instructions. 

The eligibility requirements for the 

award program require that all 

employers compile information needed 

to fill out the application form and 

retain the information for two years. 

VETS estimated this would require 5 

hours for large employers and 3 hours 

for medium and small employers. Each 

criterion for eligibility will have an 

entry in the application form. 

Information requested will include the 

following: Employer address and other 

identifying information, veteran 

employment data, descriptions of the 

relevant veteran programs, and 

descriptions of the benefits offered to 

veterans. These estimates are an average 

for the gold and platinum award 

requirements. This activity will likely 

be performed by human resource 

specialists for a large or medium size 

employer. Using the data from the May 

2016 BLS Occupational Employment 

survey (OES), the mean hourly wage of 

the human resources specialist is 

$31.20. Adding overhead and fringe 

benefits, the fully loaded hourly wage 

rate used to estimate the collection of 

information is $62.40. For a small 

employer, this activity is anticipated to 

be done by a payroll and timekeeping 

clerk, the mean hourly wage for this 

position as reported by BLS is $20.95, 

and adding the fringe benefits and 

overhead results in an hourly wage of 

$41.90. 

Three hours of labor was estimated by 

VETS for a medium and small employer 

to compile information for the form, this 

was determined based on the number of 

award criteria, and due to human 

resources staff in medium and small 

employers being more familiar with the 

day to day management of an employer. 

At the stakeholder meetings held the 

week of June 5, 2017, smaller employers 

stated all the information needed to 

apply would come directly from the 

owner and would be easily obtained. 

VETS estimated five hours for large 

employers due to the additional 

information required to match the 

criteria for eligibility and the time for a 

human resource manager to determine if 

the programs offered by the employer 

meet the regulation criteria. Larger 

employers at the stakeholder meetings 

provided a range of one to four days, 

based on their past experience in 

applying for other award programs such 

as the Employer Support of the Guard 

and Reserve (ESGR) Freedom Award.9

The application form for VETS’s award 

program requires employers to provide 

employment and descriptive 

information for as many as seven fields 

to as few as two fields depending on the 

size of the employer and the award 

level. This is less time consuming than 

the information requested for the ESGR 

Freedom Award. For these reasons, an 

average of five hours was estimated for 

large employers, and an average of three 

hours was estimated for medium and 

small employers to collect and retain 

needed information. 

Large and medium size employers are 

expected to incur the cost for running a 

query to identify the number of veterans 

hired and veterans retained for the years 

requested on the application form. The 

majority of large and medium employers 

will have a database system for 

managing their workforce; this system 

typically includes the hire date and 

various demographic information about 

their employees. Running a query 

specifically for this application form is 

estimated to take two hours by a 

database administrator at a large or 

medium size employer according to 

comments received from the stakeholder 

meeting in early June of 2017. Using the 

data from the May 2016 BLS 

Occupational Employment survey 

(OES), the mean wage of the database 

administrator is $41.89. Adding 

overhead and fringe benefits,10 the total 

wage used to estimate the cost of this 

task is $83.78. Small employers with 

less than 50 employees typically do not 

manage their workforce using a 

database, and due to the closer 

interactions among employees at small 

employers, the payroll clerk would 

know most of the employees 

individually. Thus, a small employer 

would not have a need to run a query. 

Once the information has been 

gathered by an employer, applicants 

will need to enter the information in the 

form and enter the payment information 

needed on www.pay.gov; this was 

estimated to take 2 hours for a large 

employer, 1.5 hours for a medium 

employer, and 1 hour for a small 

employer. These burden estimates are 

an average for the gold and platinum 

award requirements. Large employers 

are expected to take 2 hours due to the 

additional criteria required to be eligible 

for the award, this activity would be 

done by a human resource specialist. A 

medium employer is expected to take 

1.5 hours because there are fewer 

criteria than a large employer, this 

activity would be done by a human 

resource specialist. Using the data from 

the May 2016 BLS Occupational 

Employment survey (OES), the mean 

wage of a human resource specialist is 

$31.20. Adding overhead and fringe 

benefits, the total wage used to estimate 

the cost of this task is $62.40. A small 

employer is estimated to take 1 hour 

because there are fewer criteria than a 

medium size employer. For a small 

employer, a payroll and timekeeping 

clerk would most likely perform this 

task, with a mean hourly wage of $20.95 

as reported in the BLS 2016 OES, with 

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added fringe benefits and overhead, 

results in an hourly wage of $41.90. 

The form requires the attestation of an 

executive (CEO, CFO, or equivalent) that 

the information on the form is accurate 

and true. It is expected that this would 

take 15 minutes for all employers 

applying for the award and would most 

likely require the executive to take the 

time to review the form. For a large and 

medium size employer, this activity will 

be performed by an executive with a 

mean hourly wage of $93.44 as reported 

in the BLS 2016 OES, then adding fringe 

benefits and overhead the hourly wage 

for this task would be $186.88. At a 

small employer where the executive 

positions may not exist, this task may be 

done by someone with equivalent 

responsibilities and duties, such as the 

owner. For the purposes of estimating 

the cost of attestation for small 

employers we are using the wage rate of 

a human resource manager with a mean 

hourly wage of $57.79 as reported in the 

BLS 2016 OES, adding fringe benefits 

and overhead results in a fully loaded 

wage for this task of $115.58. For a 

smaller employer, the position of a 

general and operations manager would 

be similar to the owner of the firm, the 

mean hourly wage is $58.70 as reported 

in the BLS 2016 OES, adding fringe 

benefits and overhead results in a fully 

loaded wage for this task of $117.40. 

Following up on incomplete 

applications is estimated to take 30 

minutes for 5 percent of employers 

applying, and a request for 

reconsideration would take 30 minutes 

for 1 percent of employers applying. At 

a large and medium size employer, 

following up on an application would 

be done by the human resource 

specialist with an hourly wage of $62.40 

(including fringe benefits and 

overhead), and a reconsideration would 

be done by a human resource manager 

with an hourly wage of $115.58 

(including fringe benefits and 

overhead). At a small employer, the 

payroll clerk may likely follow up on an 

application, with an hourly wage of 

$41.90 (including fringe benefits and 

overhead), and the human resource 

manager equivalent would be involved 

in a reconsideration of a denied 

application, with an hourly wage of 

$115.58 (including fringe benefits and 

overhead). The majority of large and 

medium employers have a human 

resource staff which manage different 

aspects of the workforce, or outsource 

the managing of the database for 

tracking the employer’s workforce over 

time. As a result, large and medium 

employers are expected to have the 

same occupations involved in the 

process of applying for the award, while 

a different set of occupations were 

identified for small employers which 

typically do not have dedicated human 

resource staff or a database 

administrator. 

TABLE 3—BURDEN COSTS BY EMPLOYER SIZE

Tasks by employer size Resource Wage Hours Cost 

Large Employers: 

Rule familiarization .......................................... HR manager ........................................... $116 1.0 $116 

Data collection large employers ...................... HR specialists ......................................... 62 5.0 312 

Query report large employers ......................... DB Administrators .................................. 84 2.0 168 

Filling form, large employers ........................... HR specialists ......................................... 62 2.0 125 

Executive signature ......................................... Executive ................................................ 187 0.25 47 

Follow up (assume 5 percent) ......................... HR specialists ......................................... 62 0.5 31 

Reconsideration if denied award (1 percent) .. HR manager ........................................... 116 0.5 58 

Average unit cost per employer ...................... ................................................................. ........................ ........................ 857 

Medium Employer Activities: 

Rule familiarization .......................................... HR manager ........................................... 116 1.0 116 

Data collection medium employers ................. HR specialists ......................................... 62 3.0 186 

Query report medium employers ..................... DB Administrators .................................. 84 2.0 168 

Filling form medium employers ....................... HR specialists ......................................... 62 1.5 93 

Executive signature ......................................... Executive ................................................ 187 0.25 47 

Follow up (assume 5 percent) ......................... HR specialists ......................................... 62 0.5 31 

Reconsideration if denied award (1 percent) .. HR manager ........................................... 116 0.5 58 

Average unit cost per employer ...................... ................................................................. ........................ ........................ 699 

Small Employer Activities: 

Rule familiarization .......................................... HR manager ........................................... 116 1.0 116 

Data collection small employers ...................... Payroll and timekeeping clerks .............. 42 3.0 126 

Filling form, small employers ........................... Payroll and timekeeping clerks .............. 42 1.0 42 

Executive signature ......................................... HR manager ........................................... 116 0.25 29 

Follow up (assume 5 percent) ......................... Payroll and timekeeping clerks .............. 42 0.5 21 

Reconsideration if denied award (1 percent) .. HR manager ........................................... 116 0.5 58 

Average unit cost per employer ...................... ................................................................. ........................ ........................ 392 

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics 2016. 

(See Spreadsheets, Exhibit X for all sources and derivation) 

The burden estimates were mainly 

driven by the duration of time expected 

for each aspect of the application 

process, and the type of occupation 

identified as performing the various 

activities for the employer size. 

Government Costs 

The cost to the government involves 

the intake, review, verification, 

processing of the applications, and 

notification/distribution of the award. 

To efficiently process applications, 

VETS will develop and maintain a 

system to electronically receive, review 

applications to determine eligibility and 

issue the awards. The cost for such a 

system would include IT hardware and 

software, IT maintenance, helpdesk 

costs, and VETS program management 

personnel costs. VETS has estimated 

lifecycle costs. The estimated cost of 

creating an application system and form 

is approximately $933,100 which 

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11OPM https://www.opm.gov/policy-dataoversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/ 

pdf/2017/DCB_h.pdf. 

12BLS OES occupation code 11–2031 Public 

Relations and Fundraising Managers. 

13BLS OES occupation code 15–0000 Computer 

and Mathematical Occupations. 14BLS OES occupation code 11–1021 General 

and Operations Managers. 

15BLS OES occupation code 13–1199 Business 

Operations Specialists. 

16BLS OES occupation code 15–0000 Computer 

and Mathematical Occupations. 

17BLS OES occupation code 11–1021 General 

and Operations Managers. 

annualized over 10 years at a 3 percent 

discount rate results in a cost of 

$109,388 per year. 

The business process for the intake, 

review, and processing of applications 

was estimated using average wage data 

from BLS Occupation codes for each 

phase including solicitation, application 

processing, application review, award 

notification, and reporting to Congress. 

The cost to the government for 

processing is estimated to be $2.6 

million dollars per year based on 10,728 

applications being processed per year. 

As part of the business process there 

will be costs associated with program 

outreach, messaging, and notification of 

award winners. This is estimated to cost 

$245,086 annually. An outreach 

specialist is estimated to spend 1,140 

hours involved in these tasks. The 

outreach specialists with an hourly 

wage rate of $45.42 as reported by OPM 

for a GS 13 in 2017; 11 plus fringe 

benefits and overhead the hourly wage 

for this task would be $90.84. These 

tasks will also involve a program 

manager spending 1,000 hours with an 

hourly wage rate of $53.67 GS 14, plus 

fringe benefits and overhead the hourly 

wage would be $107.36. An IT specialist 

GS 12 would also be involved in 

supporting tasks with messaging and 

recognition of award winners, spending 

100 hours with an hourly wage of 

$38.20, plus fringe benefits and 

overhead the hourly wage would be 

$76.40. 

The application process will require 

support from contractors to set up the 

process, the receipt of the forms and the 

processing of the applications; this is 

estimated to cost $1,896,940 annually. A 

program specialist will spend 200 hours 

annually with a mean hourly wage rate 

of $59.31 as reported in the BLS 2016 

OES,12 plus fringe benefits and 

overhead, would be $118.62. An IT 

specialist will spend 40 hours to 

support these activities with an hourly 

wage rate of $42.25,13 plus fringe 

benefits and overhead the hourly wage 

is $84.50. The program manager14 is 

estimated to spend 151 hours processing 

applications, with an hourly wage rate 

of $58.7, plus fringe benefits and 

overhead the hourly wage is $117.40. A 

Program specialist15 will perform the 

bulk of the application review tasks, this 

will total 18,569 hours with an hourly 

wage rate of $35.99 plus fringe benefits 

and overhead the hourly wage will be 

$71.98. As part of the review process of 

the applications, VETS will need to 

verify applicants do not have adverse 

labor law decisions, stipulated 

agreements, contract debarments, or 

contract terminations, against them 

under the Uniform Services 

Employment and Reemployment Rights 

Act (USERRA); or the Vietnam Era 

Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act 

(VEVRAA). 

This verification process will involve 

VETS and the Office of Federal Contract 

Compliance Programs (OFCCP) 

checking their databases for award 

applicants. VETS estimates it will take 

each agency, OFCCP and VETS, an 

average of 15 minutes per application 

for this review. A GS -13 would perform 

the check with a loaded hourly wage of 

$90.84 and spend 13 minutes per 

employer on the list, and a GS–15 with 

a loaded hourly wage of $126.28 would 

spend 2 minutes per employer on the 

list verifying the findings in the initial 

check. The IT process developed to 

support this review will be maintained 

by a contractor 16 spending 240 hours 

with a loaded hourly wage of $84.50, 

(hourly mean wage from BLS without 

fringe benefits or overhead is $42.25). 

The notification of the award will also 

be executed by a contractor, and will 

involve 50 hours of a program 

manager’s 17 time with a loaded hourly 

wage of $117.40, and 40 hours of a 

program specialist 16 time with a loaded 

hourly wage of $71.98. 

The oversight of the contract for the 

application processing will be done by 

VETS personnel. This will take 312 

hours of a program manager’s time (GS– 

14) with a loaded hourly wage of 

$107.36, and 120 hours of a program 

specialist’s time (GS–13) with a loaded 

hourly wage of $90.84. 

The statute requires a report to 

congress; this will be done by VETS 

personnel, and will cost a total of 

$10,406 dollars annually. This task will 

take a program manager (GS–14) 80 

hours with a loaded hourly wage of 

$107.36 and another 20 hours of time 

for a program specialist’s time (GS–13) 

with a loaded hourly wage of $90.84. 

VETS invites public comment on the 

cost of developing a system to accept 

and review applications. 

Application Fee 

The HIRE Vets Act provides that the 

Secretary may assess a reasonable fee on 

employers that apply for receipt of a 

HIRE Vets Medallion Award and that 

the amount of the fee must be sufficient 

to cover the costs associated with 

carrying out the HIRE Vets Act. The 

proposed fee will cover the costs of 

solicitation, processing applications, 

vetting for violations, and award 

notifications, as well as the maintenance 

cost of the IT system used in the 

processing of applications. 

In processing the applications, VETS 

will need to verify the information on 

the form being submitted by employers. 

Given that the number of criteria varies 

by employer size, and will consequently 

require additional review by VETS, the 

fee will vary by employer size to reflect 

the cost of reviewing additional criteria. 

For example, the large employer 

platinum award requires the applicant 

to provide five types of integration 

assistance. However, the small employer 

platinum award only requires that the 

applicant provide two types of 

integration assistance. Consequently, 

the large employer award will take 

longer to review than the small 

employer award. 

In recognition of these differences in 

the number of criteria and information 

needing to be reviewed and verified as 

part of processing awards, the fees will 

be graduated to reflect the differences in 

the amount of review VETS would need 

to perform for large, medium, and small 

employers. The proposed fee for large 

employers is $495 per applicant, the 

proposed fee for medium employers is 

$190 per applicant, and the proposed 

fee for small employers is $90 per 

applicant, which covers the anticipated 

cost to VETS for processing 4,152 

applications in the first year. The fees 

were estimated by taking the average 

cost to VETS of $300 per application, 

and multiplying it using factors of time 

which reflect the added information 

needed to review. Large employers 

would take VETS 1.6 times longer than 

the estimated average cost to process the 

application, for medium employers it 

would be 0.6 times the average cost, and 

for small employers it would be 0.3 

times the average costs. VETS invites 

public comment on what is an 

appropriate fee amount for employer 

sizes, which will enable VETS to 

recover costs as required. 

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TABLE 4—GOVERNMENT COSTS

Application processing 

Employers 

4,152 6,228 10,728 

Solicitation .................................................................................................................................... $245,086 $245,086 $245,086 

Receipt and Processing ............................................................................................................... 565,828 823,693 1,382,564 

Violation Vetting by VETS and OFCCP ...................................................................................... 200,119 299,335 514,376 

Award Notification ........................................................................................................................ 160,333 236,118 400,366 

Contract Oversight ....................................................................................................................... 44,397 44,397 44,397 

IT Support and maintenance ....................................................................................................... 20,280 20,280 20,280 

Report to Congress ..................................................................................................................... 10,406 10,406 10,406 

Total Processing Cost .......................................................................................................... 1,246,449 1,679,315 2,617,473 

Average government cost per application ................................................................................... 300 270 244 

Sunk Development Costs: 

Development of Application System .................................................................................... ........................ ........................ 98,625 

Application Form Development ............................................................................................ ........................ ........................ 834,474 

Total Development Costs .............................................................................................. ........................ ........................ 933,099 

Source: OSHA, Directorate of Standards and Guidance, Office of Regulatory Analysis. 

(See Spreadsheets, Exhibit X for all sources and derivation.) 

Average cost per application = total processing cost/# of employer. 

Participation and Costs per Year 

CBO originally developed an estimate 

that 4,000 employers would participate 

in the program in the first year. This 

estimate was based on the assumption 

that only 2 percent of employers would 

be potentially eligible and 25 percent of 

medium and large employers potentially 

eligible would apply for the program. In 

CBO’s estimate, small employers were 

excluded from being able to apply based 

on an earlier version of the HIRE Vets 

bill. If CBO had included small 

employers in their estimate using the 

same methodology the number of 

employers applying would increase to 

close to 50,000 employers. 

As noted above, VETS, making use of 

BLS veteran’ labor force participation 

rate data, estimates that far more than 2 

percent of employers that are eligible 

may choose to participate. Due to the 

lack of data for more accurate 

participation rates, VETS assumes that 

approximately 4,119 employers will 

apply in the first year, but that this 

would increase to 6,228 employers in 

the second year and 10,728 per year in 

succeeding years. Table 5 shows the 

estimated participation rates by size 

class for each year, and resulting 

estimated costs of applications. 

TABLE 5—ESTIMATED PARTICIPATION RATES AND NUMBERS OF APPLICANTS BY YEAR

Size class 

1st Year 

participation 

rate 

(%) 

1st Year 

number of 

applicants 

2nd Year 

participation 

rate 

(%) 

2nd Year 

number of 

applicants 

3rd Year 

participation 

rate 

(%) 

3rd Year 

number of 

applicants 

Small ............................................ 0.1 304 0.2 674 0.6 2,023 

Medium ........................................ 3.0 2,248 4.0 2,997 6.5 4,870 

Large ............................................ 12.5 1,601 20.0 2,557 30 3,835 

Total ...................................... NA 4,152 NA 6,228 NA 10,728 

VETS Estimates (See Spreadsheets, Exhibit X for all sources and derivation) 

Table 6 shows the result of 

multiplying the employer unit costs of 

applying for the award, developed in 

the previous Unit Cost section, by the 

number of anticipated participants to 

obtain the costs by size class and total 

application cost for each year. These 

costs reflect the time and resources 

incurred by the employer when 

applying for the award program; this 

includes all the tasks discussed in the 

previous Unit Cost section. 

TABLE 6—EMPLOYER APPLICATION COSTS BY YEAR

Size class 1st Year costs 2nd Year costs 3rd Year costs 

Small .......................................................................................................................... $95,215 $211,589 $634,767 

Medium ...................................................................................................................... 1,377,355 1,836,473 2,984,269 

Large .......................................................................................................................... 1,230,468 1,965,603 2,948,405 

Total .................................................................................................................... 2,703,038 4,013,666 6,567,441 

VETS Estimates, (See Spread Sheets, Exhibit X for all sources and derivation) 

There are multiple factors which 

would contribute to the participation 

rate of large, medium, and small 

employers, such as the fee for applying, 

amount of outreach by VETS, and the 

potential benefits received by the 

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employers receiving the award. The 

problem here is a classically difficult 

one in economics—that of estimating 

demand for new products. In this case, 

we have little data and few comparable 

products on which to base an estimate. 

VETS is aware that the total costs are 

dependent on the number of employers 

that apply and the number could be 

much lower or higher than VETS 

baseline estimates. 

At the stakeholder meetings, some 

representatives from larger employers 

stated their willingness to pay up to 

several thousand dollars, while 

representatives for smaller employers 

didn’t specify a fee amount they would 

be willing to pay. It would seem 

reasonable to assume a fee of more than 

several hundred dollars would 

discourage many small employers from 

applying. The total cost, burden plus 

fees, is estimated to range from $404 for 

small employers to $1,264 for large 

employers. Depending on the success of 

outreach and other messaging, these 

efforts could attract more applicants 

than CBO’s estimate. Over the long 

term, employers will want to apply if 

there are quantifiable benefits in the 

form of increased revenue if this award 

attracts more customers, and by 

increasing the pool of veteran applicants 

when they are hiring. These factors have 

the potential of increasing the number 

of participating employers to close to 

50,000. Higher participation would 

result in increased costs relative to the 

overall cost burden and overall 

government cost. However, considering 

all costs, the program will most likely 

not have costs in excess of $100 million 

per year. Such costs would only occur 

if 100 percent of potentially eligible 

medium and large employers apply and 

25 percent of potentially eligible small 

employers apply every year. 

VETS invites public comment on the 

level or participation by industry and 

employer size. 

Total Annualized Costs 

VETS estimated annualized costs to 

employers for participation in this 

award program over a 10 year period 

using 3 percent and 7 percent discount 

rates based on the costs of application 

and costs to the government developed 

above. These total costs are provided in 

Table 7. 

TABLE 7—TOTAL ANNUALIZED COSTS OF THE PROPOSED RULE

Cost element 

Annualized 

costs at 3% 

($) 

Annualized 

costs at 7% 

($) 

First year 

costs 

(if different 

from 

annualized 

costs) 

($) 

Costs for Preparing Applications ................................................................................................. 5,845,415 5,735,649 2,703,038 

Costs to Government of Processing Application (To be reimbursed through fees) ................... 2,357,854 2,318,462 1,246,449 

Total Private Sector Costs, including Fees for Government Processing .................................... 8,203,269 8,054,111 3,949,487 

Costs to Government for Developing System (Not reimbursed by fees) ................................... 109,388 132,852 933,099 

Total ...................................................................................................................................... 8,312,657 8,186,963 4,882,586 

VETS Estimates (See Spreadsheets, Exhibit X for details) 

Alternatives 

VETS considered alternative 

quantitative criteria for small and 

medium size employers. One alternative 

would be to change the proposed 

criteria for small and medium 

employers that require applicants to 

have both a retention rate of 75 percent 

(for gold)/85 percent (for platinum) and 

a veteran employee percentage of 7 

percent (for gold)/10 percent (for 

platinum). Instead, this first proposed 

alternative criterion would drop the 

veteran employee percentage 

requirement. Keeping all the 

participation rates the same, VETS 

estimates that this change would 

increase the number of potentially 

eligible employers by 38 percent, 

participation in the program by 19 

percent, and would increase annualized 

costs from approximately $8 million per 

year to $11.9 million a year. This 

alternative has the disadvantage that it 

would allow employers who have not 

recently achieved a 7 percent hiring goal 

to win the award. 

VETS also considered an option in 

which small and medium employers 

could qualify if they met either of the 

following: (1) 7 percent of the 

employer’s new hires during the 

previous year were veterans, or (2) if a 

total of 7 percent of the employees it 

hired over the last two years were 

veterans and the employer retained 75 

percent of those veterans hired in the 

first year of that timeframe (previous 

year of the previous year). This 

alternative broadens the hiring 

eligibility timeframe. This option also 

slightly increases program eligibility but 

it does so by significantly increasing 

small employer eligibility while 

lowering eligibility for medium 

employers. VETS felt that this was not 

a useful effect given medium employers 

are more likely to participate in the 

program. 

VETS also examined an option in 

which the only hiring/retention criteria 

for small and medium size employers 

would be that 7 percent of new hires 

over the last two years are veterans 

along with a 75 percent retention 

criteria from the first of the two years 

(previous year of the previous year). 

Under this option, employers would no 

longer be able to satisfy the hiring/ 

retention criterion solely by having 7 

percent of its new hires in the previous 

year be veterans. This approach also 

increased small employer eligibility at 

the expense of decreasing medium 

employers’ eligibility. Again, because of 

expected high participation rates by 

medium employers, VETS decided not 

to adopt this alternative. 

None of these estimates take into 

account the cost savings to both the 

private sector and the government of 

this alternative. VETS is interested in 

comments on these and other alternative 

criteria for medium and small 

employers. 

Benefits 

The main purpose of the medallion is 

to recognize and award employers who 

have not only recruited and retained 

veterans for positions in their workforce 

but also established employee 

development programs for veterans and 

offered benefits to improve retention. 

The unemployment rate of veterans 

trends lower than the civilian 

unemployment rate, but regionally the 

unemployment rate for veterans can 

vary from a low of 1.8 percent in 

Indiana to a high of 7.6 percent in the 

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18Strauss, Karsten, (2016) How Veterans Adjust 

To The Civilian Workforce, November 11th, 2016. 

Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ 

karstenstrauss/2016/11/11/how-veterans-adjust-tothe-civilian-workforce/2/#2d316ff8395d. 19Military & Defense team, (2016) 10 Reasons 

Companies Should Hire Military Veterans, 

November 11, 2016. Retrieved from: http://

www.businessinsider.com/reasons-companiesshould-hire-military-veterans-2016-11. 

District of Columbia, as reported in the 

March 2016 release of the Employment 

Situation of Veterans by BLS. The 

higher unemployment rate for veterans 

can be attributed to the labor market in 

the District of Columbia which is mostly 

composed of professional and services 

industry occupations where historically 

there are lower employment rates for 

veteran workers. These veterans are 

experienced, mission focused, 

responsible, independent, and capable 

workers who often face difficulties 

finding jobs that match their skills. In a 

2016 Forbes article 18 highlighting 

veterans issues as they adjusted to the 

civilian workforce, the top challenges 

reported for veterans are a lack of 

training or education for the work, lack 

of advancement opportunities, and 

employers undervaluing their military 

experience. 

Employers will want to apply for the 

award if there are quantifiable benefits 

in the form of increased revenue 

generated by attracting more or repeat 

customers, or a better pool of veteran 

applicants for jobs. 

Many employers who seek out 

veterans to hire have stated there are 

many benefits in attracting veterans, 

such as the experience they bring, more 

focused attention, and the ability to 

work independently.19 Employers who 

attain the proposed award will be able 

to market themselves as a veteran 

friendly employer and be able to attract 

more veterans for job openings. 

VETS invites public comment 

regarding the type of benefits an 

employer who receives this award 

would gain. 

Regulatory Flexibility Certification 

For regulatory flexibility purposes for 

this rule, economic impacts are 

considered significant in any given 

sector if costs are greater than 1 percent 

of revenues or 5 percent of profits. For 

the purpose of determining impacts on 

small employers, VETS considered costs 

as a percentage of revenues and profits 

by industry sector for employers with 5 

to 500 employees. Table 8 shows the 

minimum and maximum impacts for 

each three digit sector within the twodigit sector shown. (Full impacts and 

derivation are given in the spreadsheets, 

Exhibit X). Table 8 shows that no 

industry sector has costs in excess of 1 

percent of revenues or 5 percent of 

profits. Further it should be noted that 

small employers are only subject to this 

rule if they choose to apply for the 

award. Thus no small business needs to 

incur the costs unless they believe that 

the benefits exceed the costs for them. 

TABLE 8—ECONOMIC IMPACTS

NAICS Title 

Average 

revenue per 

establishment 

Average cost to revenues Average cost to profits 

Minimum 

(%) 

Maximum 

(%) 

Minimum 

(%) 

Maximum 

(%) 

11 ............. Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting ................... 4,244,996 0.009 0.026 0.176 0.844 

21 ............. Mining ............................................................................ 13,371,157 0.002 0.009 0.068 0.068 

22 ............. Utilities ........................................................................... 21,521,736 0.003 0.003 *¥0.220 *¥0.220 

31–33 ....... Manufacturing ................................................................ 10,225,679 0.002 0.021 0.030 0.485 

42 ............. Wholesale Trade ............................................................ 20,024,426 0.002 0.006 0.014 0.203 

44–45 ....... Retail Trade ................................................................... 3,928,643 0.005 0.042 0.243 0.243 

48–49 ....... Transportation ................................................................ 5,700,083 0.004 0.039 0.051 4.545 

51 ............. Information ..................................................................... 4,990,489 0.009 0.020 *¥0.165 0.192 

52 ............. Finance and Insurance .................................................. 5,367,956 0.007 0.019 0.015 0.314 

53 ............. Real Estate .................................................................... 4,371,291 0.007 0.025 0.038 0.566

54 ............. Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ........... 2,986,458 0.020 0.020 0.517 0.517 

55 ............. Management .................................................................. 2,306,072 0.026 0.026 0.131 0.131 

56 ............. Administrative and Support, Waste Management and 

Remediation Services.

2,727,336 0.018 0.030 0.426 0.765 

61 ............. Educational Services ..................................................... 2,514,535 0.024 0.024 0.522 0.522 

62 ............. Health Care .................................................................... 8,435,099 0.003 0.051 0.052 0.964

71 ............. Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation ............................. 2,963,512 0.014 0.039 0.236 2.414 

72 ............. Accommodation and Food Services .............................. 1,381,321 0.033 0.065 0.505 1.224 

81 ............. Other Services ............................................................... 1,319,709 0.030 0.094 1.222 2.905 

Source: VETS based on data from IRS (U.S. Internal Revenue Service), 2013. Corporation SourceBook, 2013. http://www.irs.gov/uac/SOI-TaxStats-Corporation-Source-Book:-U.S.-Total-and-Sectors-Listing, Accessed by ERG, 2016. 

U.S. Census Bureau, 2012. Statistics of U.S. Businesses Employment and Payroll Summary: 2012-Data by enterprise employment size, 

Accessed on 7/11/2017 at https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2012/econ/susb/2012-susb-annual.html. 

See Spreadsheets, Exhibit X, for full derivation. 

*Negative profit rates reported for these industries. 

As a result of these considerations, 

per § 605 of the Regulatory Flexibility 

Act, VETS certifies that this proposed 

rule will not have a significant 

economic impact on a substantial 

number of small entities. VETS requests 

comments on this certification. 

References 

BLS, 2016. Current Population Survey. 

Available at www.bls.gov/cps. 

BLS, 2017. Job Openings And Labor 

Turnover—July 11, 2017. Available at 

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ 

jolts.pdf. 

BLS, 2017. Occupational Employment 

Statistics. Fringe markup is from the 

following BLS release: Employee Costs 

for Employee Compensation—June 9, 

2017. Available at https://www.bls.gov/ 

news.release/pdf/ecec.pdf. 

Culbertson, 2016. A Deep Look at the Data: 

How Are Veterans Doing in Today’s 

Workforce?. Indeed blog, November 10, 

2016. From: http://blog.indeed.com/ 

2016/11/10/veterans-employment/. 

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39390 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 159 / Friday, August 18, 2017 / Proposed Rules 

VETS based on data from IRS (U.S. Internal 

Revenue Service), 2013. Corporation 

SourceBook, 2013. http://www.irs.gov/ 

uac/SOI-Tax-Stats-Corporation-SourceBook:-U.S.-Total-and-Sectors-Listing, 

Accessed by ERG, 2016. 

Fleishman, 2014. Hilton Helping Veterans 

with Jobs, Free Hotel Stays. G.I. Money, 

January 16, 2016. From: http://

gimoney.com/hilton-helping-veteransjobs-free-hotel-stays/. 

HHS, 2016. Guidelines for Regulatory 

Analysis. Page 33, available at https://

aspe.hhs.gov/system/files/pdf/242926/ 

HHS_RIAGuidance.pdf. 

Military & Defense team, 2016. 10 Reasons 

Companies Should Hire Military 

Veterans, November 11, 2016. From: 

http://www.businessinsider.com/ 

reasons-companies-should-hire-militaryveterans-2016-11. 

Occupational Injury and Illness Recording 

and Reporting Requirements: North 

American Industry Classification System 

Update and Reporting Revisions (docket 

number: OSHA–2010–0019–0127). 

Strauss, 2016. How Veterans Adjust To The 

Civilian Workforce, November 11th, 

2016. From: https://www.forbes.com/ 

sites/karstenstrauss/2016/11/11/howveterans-adjust-to-the-civilianworkforce/2/#2d316ff8395d. 

Watson, 2014. Veteran Unemployment Rate 

Drops, But Still Outpaces the Rest of the 

Country. www.defenceone.com, May 2, 

2014. From: http://

www.defenseone.com/news/2014/05/D1- 

Watson-veteran-unemployment-ratedrops-still-outpaces-rest-country/83692/. 

U.S. Census Bureau, 2014. Statistics of U.S. 

Businesses Annual Datasets by 

Establishment Industry: U.S & States, 

NAICS, detailed employment sizes. 

Accessed on 6/15/2017 at https://

www.census.gov/data/datasets/2014/ 

econ/susb/2014-susb.html. Eligibility 

estimates by VETS. See text and 

spreadsheets (exhibit X). 

Paperwork Reduction Act 

Overview 

The proposed regulations contain 

collections of information (paperwork) 

requirements that are subject to review 

by the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB). The Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), 44 U.S.C. 

3501 et seq., and its implementing 

regulations, 5 CFR part 1320, require 

that VETS consider the impact of 

paperwork and other information 

collection burdens imposed on the 

public. A Federal agency generally 

cannot conduct or sponsor a collection 

of information, and the public is 

generally not required to respond to an 

information collection, unless it is 

approved by OMB under the PRA and 

displays a currently valid OMB Control 

Number. In addition, notwithstanding 

any other provisions of law, no person 

may generally be subject to penalty for 

failing to comply with a collection of 

information that does not display a 

valid Control Number. See 5 CFR 

1320.5(a) and 1320.6. 

Solicitation of Comments 

VETS prepared and submitted an 

Information Collection Request (ICR) for 

the collections of information contained 

in the proposed regulations and the 

HIRE Vets Medallion Award application 

to OMB for review in accordance with 

44 U.S.C. 3507(d). This NPRM allows a 

30-day public comment period for the 

public to comment on the collections of 

information contained in the proposed 

rule. However, the PRA requires that 

Agencies provide a 60-day notice in the 

Federal Register requesting public 

comment on the collections of 

information in accordance with 44 

U.S.C. 3506(c). VETS is publishing a 

companion notice elsewhere in this 

issue of the Federal Register allowing 

the public 60 days to comment on the 

collections of information contained in 

the proposal. 

VETS solicits comments on these 

collections of information and the HIRE 

Vets Medallion Award application and 

their associated estimated burden hours 

and costs. VETS also requests comments 

on the following items: 

• Whether the proposed collection of 

information requirements and 

application are necessary for the proper 

performance of VETS’ functions, 

including whether the information is 

useful; 

• The accuracy of VETS’ estimate of 

the burden (time and cost) of the 

information collection requirements, 

including the validity of the 

methodology and assumptions used; 

• The quality, utility and clarity of 

the information collected; and 

• Ways to minimize the compliance 

burden on employers, such as by using 

automated or other technological 

techniques for collecting and 

transmitting information. 

Members of the public who wish to 

comment on the paperwork 

requirements in this proposal must send 

their written comments to: Office of 

Information and Regulatory Affairs, 

Attn: OMB Desk Officer for the 

Department of Labor, VETS (RIN 1293– 

AA21), Office of Management and 

Budget, Room 10235, Washington, DC 

20503, fax: (202) 395–6881 (this is not 

a toll-free number), or email: OIRA_

submission@omb.eop.gov. VETS 

encourages commenters also to submit 

their comments on these paperwork 

requirements to VETS, see section 

Addresses for instructions on 

submitting comments to VETS. 

Proposed Collection of Information 

Requirements 

The regulations implementing the Act 

require VETS to annually solicit and 

accept voluntary information from 

employers for consideration of 

employers to receive a HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award. The Act establishes 

specific criteria at two levels, gold and 

platinum, for large employers (those 

with 500 employees or more) and allows 

VETS discretion in establishing criteria 

for small and medium employers to 

qualify for similar awards. 

The NPRM proposes the application 

process and criteria that VETS intends 

to use to receive, review, and process 

applications, verify the information 

provided and award the HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award to those employers 

meeting the criteria and deserving of the 

award. VETS developed the HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award application Forms 

[VETS–1011LP, VETS–1011LG, VETS– 

1011MP, VETS–1011MG, VETS– 

1011SP, VETS–1011SG] for employers 

to complete and submit to VETS to 

fulfill the regulatory requirements to 

receive an award. The Act establishes a 

fund, designated as the ‘‘HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award Fund’’ and requires 

the Department to assess a reasonable 

fee from the applicants to cover the 

costs associated with carrying out the 

HIRE Vets Medallion program. The 

NPRM provides the fee amount and how 

to submit the fee. 

The proposed rule provides specific 

award criteria for the large employers to 

qualify for the gold and platinum 

awards. Although the number of criteria 

an employer is required to satisfy in the 

proposed rule differs by award, the large 

employer criteria established by statute 

are generally incorporated across the 

large employer, medium employer, and 

small employer awards. The 

applications would require employers to 

provide information to meet award 

criteria dependent upon the size of the 

employer and the reward the employer 

is requesting, gold or platinum. The 

following table provides the 

corresponding regulatory citation: 

PROPOSED REGULATORY PROVISION

Employer size Gold Award Platinum 

Award 

Large ................... § 1011.100(a) § 1011.100(b) 

Medium ................ § 1011.105(a) § 1011.105(b) 

Small ................... § 1011.110(a) § 1011.110(b) 

The proposal also states that VETS 

may require additional information in 

support of the application for the HIRE 

Vets Medallion Award (§ 1011.215(b)). 

Also, employers are required to 

maintain information relied upon to 

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complete the application for two years 

after the application is submitted to 

VETS (Subpart G, § 1011.600). 

Title of Collection: Honoring 

Investments in Recruiting and 

Employing American Military Veterans 

Act. 

OMB Control Number: 1293–0NEW. 

Total Estimated Number of 

Annualized Respondents: 7,036. 

Total Estimated Number of 

Annualized Responses: 34,245. 

Frequency: On Occasion. 

Total Estimated Annual Time Annual 

Burden hours: 58,716. 

Total Estimated Annual Other Costs 

Burden: $1,847,746. 

The application solicits the 

information VETS will review and 

evaluate to determine if an employer 

will receive an award, and if so, 

whether the award will be a gold or 

platinum award. Employers are required 

to maintain material used to complete 

that application for additional 

verification if needed or in case VETS 

becomes aware of facts that may 

indicate information submitted on the 

application may be incorrect. 

Small Business Regulatory Enforcement 

Fairness Act of 1996 

VETS has determined that this 

proposed rulemaking does not impose a 

significant economic impact on a 

substantial number of small entities 

under the RFA; therefore, VETS is not 

required to produce any Compliance 

Guides for Small Entities, as mandated 

by the SBREFA. 

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 

1995 

For purposes of the Unfunded 

Mandates Reform Act of 1995, 2 U.S.C. 

1532, this NPRM does not include any 

Federal mandate that may result in 

excess of $100 million in expenditures 

by state, local, and Tribal governments 

in the aggregate or by the private sector. 

Executive Order 13132 (Federalism) 

VETS has reviewed this proposed rule 

in accordance with Executive Order 

13132 regarding federalism, and has 

determined that it does not have 

‘‘federalism implications.’’ This 

proposed rule will not ‘‘have substantial 

direct effects on the States, on the 

relationship between the national 

government and the States, or on the 

distribution of power and 

responsibilities among the various 

levels of government.’’ 

Executive Order 13084 (Consultation 

and Coordination With Indian Tribal 

Governments) 

This NPRM does not have Tribal 

implications under Executive Order 

13175 that would require a Tribal 

summary impact statement. The NPRM 

would not have substantial direct effects 

on one or more Indian Tribes, on the 

relationship between the Federal 

government and Indian Tribes or on the 

distribution of power and 

responsibilities between the Federal 

government and Indian Tribes. 

Plain Language 

VETS drafted this NPRM in plain 

language. 

Effects on Families 

Section 654 of the Treasury and 

General Government Appropriations 

Act, enacted as part of the Omnibus 

Consolidated and Emergency 

Supplemental Appropriations Act of 

1999 (Pub. L. 105–277, 112 Stat. 2681) 

requires the assessment of the impact of 

this proposed rule on family well-being. 

A rule that is determined to have a 

negative effect on families must be 

supported with an adequate rationale. 

VETS has assessed this proposed rule in 

light of this requirement and 

determined that this NPRM would not 

have a negative effect on families 

Executive Order 13045 (Protection of 

Children) 

This NPRM would have no 

environmental health risk or safety risk 

that may disproportionately affect 

children. 

Environmental Impact Assessment 

A review of this NPRM in accordance 

with the requirements of the National 

Environmental Policy Act of 1969 

(NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.; the 

regulations of the Council on 

Environmental Quality, 40 CFR 1500 et 

seq.; and DOL NEPA procedures, 29 

CFR part 11, indicates the NPRM would 

not have a significant impact on the 

quality of the human environment. 

There is, thus, no corresponding 

environmental assessment or an 

environmental impact statement. 

Executive Order 13211 (Energy Supply) 

This NPRM is not subject to Executive 

Order 13211. It will not have a 

significant adverse effect on the supply, 

distribution, or use of energy. 

Executive Order 12630 

(Constitutionally Protected Property 

Rights) 

This NPRM is not subject to Executive 

Order 12630 because it does not involve 

implementation of a policy that has 

takings implications or that could 

impose limitations on private property 

use. 

Executive Order 12988 (Civil Justice 

Reform Analysis) 

This NPRM was drafted and reviewed 

in accordance with Executive Order 

12988 and will not unduly burden the 

Federal court system. The NPRM was: 

(1) Reviewed to eliminate drafting errors 

and ambiguities; (2) written to minimize 

litigation; and (3) written to provide a 

clear legal standard for affected conduct 

and to promote burden reduction. 

List of Subjects in 20 CFR Part 1011 

Employment, Veterans, Employer 

Recognition, Medallion. 

For the reasons discussed in the 

preamble, VETS proposes to add 20 CFR 

part 1011 to read as follows: 

PART 1011—HIRE VETS MEDALLION 

PROGRAM 

Subpart A—General Provisions 

§ 1011.000 What is the HIRE Vets 

Medallion Program? 

§ 1011.005 What definitions apply to the 

Medallion Program Regulations? 

§ 1011.010 Who is eligible to apply for a 

HIRE Vets Medallion Award? 

§ 1011.015 What are the different types of 

the HIRE Vets Medallion Awards? 

Subpart B—Award Criteria 

§ 1011.100 What are the criteria for the 

large employer HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award? 

§ 1011.105 What are the criteria for the 

medium employer HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award? 

§ 1011.110 What are the criteria for the 

small employer HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award? 

§ 1011.115 Is there an exemption for certain 

large employers from the dedicated 

human resources professional criterion 

for the large employer platinum HIRE 

Vets Medallion Award? 

§ 1011.120 Under what circumstances will 

VETS find an employer ineligible to 

receive a HIRE Vets Medallion Award for 

a violation of labor law? 

Subpart C—Application Process 

§ 1011.200 How will VETS administer the 

HIRE Vets Medallion Award process? 

§ 1011.205 What is the timing of the HIRE 

Vets Medallion Award process? 

§ 1011.210 How often can an employer 

receive the HIRE Vets Medallion Award? 

§ 1011.215 How will the employer complete 

the application for the HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award? 

§ 1011.220 How will VETS verify a HIRE 

Vets Medallion Award application? 

§ 1011.225 Under what circumstances will 

VETS conduct further review of an 

application? 

§ 1011.230 Under what circumstances can 

VETS deny or revoke an Award? 

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39392 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 159 / Friday, August 18, 2017 / Proposed Rules 

Subpart D—Fees and Caps 

§ 1011.300 What are the application fees for 

the HIRE Vets Medallion Award? 

§ 1011.305 May VETS set a limit on how 

many applications will be accepted in a 

year? 

Subpart E—Design and Display 

§ 1011.400 What does a successful 

applicant receive? 

§ 1011.405 What are the restrictions on 

display and use of the HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award? 

Subpart F—Requests for 

Reconsideration 

§ 1011.500 What is the process to request 

reconsideration of a denial or 

revocation? 

Subpart G—Record Retention 

§ 1011.600 What are the record retention 

requirements for the HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award? 

Authority: Division O, Pub. L. 115–31, 131 

Stat. 135. 

Subpart A—Introduction to the 

Regulations for the HIRE Vets Act 

§ 1011.000 What is the HIRE Vets 

Medallion Program? 

The HIRE Vets Medallion Program is 

a voluntary employer recognition 

program administered by the 

Department of Labor’s Veterans’ 

Employment and Training Service. 

Through the HIRE Vets Medallion 

Program, The Department of Labor 

solicits voluntary applications from 

employers for the HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award. The purpose of this Award is to 

recognize efforts by applicants to 

recruit, employ, and retain veterans and 

to provide services supporting the 

veteran community. 

§ 1011.005 What definitions apply to the 

Medallion Program Regulations? 

Active Duty in the United States 

National Guard or Reserve means active 

duty as defined in 10 U.S.C. 101(d)(1). 

Dedicated Human Resources 

Professional means either a full-time 

professional or the equivalent of a fulltime professional dedicated exclusively 

to supporting the hiring, training, and 

retention of veteran employees. Two 

half-time professionals, for example, are 

equivalent to one full-time professional. 

Employee means any individual for 

whom the employer furnishes an IRS 

Form W–2, excluding temporary 

workers. 

Employer means any person, 

institution, organization, or other entity 

that pays salary or wages for work 

performed or that has control over 

employee opportunities, except for the 

Federal Government or any State or 

foreign government. For the purposes of 

this regulation, VETS will recognize 

employers based on the Employer 

Identification Number, as described in 

26 CFR 301.7701–12, used to furnish an 

IRS Form W–2 to an employee. 

However, in the case of an agent 

designated pursuant to 26 CFR 31.3504– 

1, a payor designated pursuant to 26 

CFR 31.3504–2, or a Certified 

Professional Employer Organization 

recognized pursuant to 26 U.S.C. 7705, 

the employer shall be the common law 

employer, client, or customer, 

respectively, instead of the entity that 

furnishes the IRS Form W–2. 

Human Resources Veterans’ Initiative 

means an initiative through which an 

employer provides support for hiring, 

training, and retention of veteran 

employees. 

Post-secondary education means postsecondary level education or training 

courses that would be acceptable for 

credit towards at least one of the 

following: associates or bachelor’s 

degree or higher, any other recognized 

post-secondary credential, or an 

apprenticeship. 

Salary means an employee’s base pay. 

Temporary worker means any worker 

hired with the intention that the worker 

be retained for less than one year and 

who is actually retained for less than 

one year. 

Veteran has the meaning given such 

term under 38 U.S.C. 101. 

VETS means the Veterans’ 

Employment and Training Service of the 

Department of Labor. 

§ 1011.010 Who is eligible to apply for a 

HIRE Vets Medallion Award? 

All employers who employ at least 

one employee are eligible to apply for a 

HIRE Vets Medallion Award. To qualify 

for a HIRE Vets Medallion Award, an 

employer must satisfy all application 

requirements. 

§ 1011.015 What are the different types of 

the HIRE Vets Medallion Awards? 

(a) There are three different categories 

of the HIRE Vets Medallion Award: 

(1) Large Employer Awards for 

employers with 500 or more employees. 

(2) Medium Employer Awards for 

employers with more than 50 but fewer 

than 500 employees. 

(3) Small Employer Awards for 

employers with 50 or fewer employees. 

(4) The correct category of Award is 

determined by the employer’s number 

of employees as of December 31 of the 

year prior to the year in which the 

employer applies for an Award. 

(b) Within each Award category, there 

are two levels of Award: 

(1) A Gold Award; and 

(2) A Platinum Award. 

Subpart B—Award Criteria 

§ 1011.100 What are the criteria for the 

large employer HIRE Vets Medallion Award? 

(a) Gold Award. To qualify for a large 

employer gold HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award, an employer must satisfy all of 

the following criteria: 

(1) The employer is a large employer 

as specified in § 1011.015 of this part; 

(2) The employer is not found 

ineligible under § 1011.120 of this part; 

(3) Veterans constitute not less than 7 

percent of all employees hired by such 

employer during the prior calendar year; 

(4) The employer has retained not less 

than 75 percent of the veteran 

employees hired during the calendar 

year preceding the preceding calendar 

year for a period of at least 12 months 

from the date on which the employees 

were hired; 

(5) The employer has established an 

employee veteran organization or 

resource group to assist new veteran 

employees with integration, including 

coaching and mentoring; and 

(6) The employer has established 

programs to enhance the leadership 

skills of veteran employees during their 

employment. 

(b) Platinum Award. To qualify for a 

large employer platinum HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award, an employer must 

satisfy all of the following criteria: 

(1) The employer is a large employer 

as specified in § 1011.015 of this part; 

(2) The employer is not found 

ineligible under § 1011.120 of this part; 

(3) Veterans constitute not less than 

10 percent of all employees hired by 

such employer during the prior calendar 

year; 

(4) The employer has retained not less 

than 85 percent of the veteran 

employees hired during the calendar 

year preceding the preceding calendar 

year for a period of at least 12 months 

from the date on which the employees 

were hired; 

(5) The employer has established an 

employee veteran organization or 

resource group to assist new veteran 

employees with integration, including 

coaching and mentoring; 

(6) The employer has established 

programs to enhance the leadership 

skills of veteran employees during their 

employment; 

(7) The employer employs a dedicated 

human resources professional as 

defined in § 1011.005 of this part to 

support hiring, training, and retention of 

veteran employees; 

(8) The employer provides each of its 

employees serving on active duty in the 

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United States National Guard or Reserve 

with compensation sufficient, in 

combination with the employee’s active 

duty pay, to achieve a combined level 

of income commensurate with the 

employee’s salary prior to undertaking 

active duty; and 

(9) The employer has a tuition 

assistance program to support veteran 

employees’ attendance in postsecondary 

education during the term of their 

employment. 

§ 1011.105 What are the criteria for the 

medium employer HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award? 

(a) Gold Award. To qualify for a 

medium employer gold HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award, an employer must 

satisfy all of the following criteria: 

(1) The employer is a medium 

employer per § 1011.015 of this part; 

(2) The employer is not found 

ineligible under § 1011.120 of this part; 

(3) The employer has achieved at least 

one of the following: 

(i) Veterans constitute not less than 7 

percent of all employees hired by such 

employer during the prior calendar year; 

or 

(ii) The employer has achieved both 

of the following: 

(A) The employer has retained not 

less than 75 percent of the veteran 

employees hired during the calendar 

year preceding the preceding calendar 

year for a period of at least 12 months 

from the date on which the employees 

were hired; and 

(B) On December 31 of the year prior 

to the year in which employer applies 

for the HIRE Vets Medallion Award, at 

least 7 percent of the employer’s 

employees were veterans; and 

(4) The employer has at least one of 

the following forms of integration 

assistance: 

(i) The employer has established an 

employee veteran organization or 

resource group to assist new veteran 

employees with integration, including 

coaching and mentoring; or 

(ii) The employer has established 

programs to enhance the leadership 

skills of veteran employees during their 

employment. 

(b) Platinum Award. To qualify for a 

medium employer platinum HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award, an employer must 

satisfy all of the following criteria: 

(1) The employer is a medium 

employer as specified in § 1011.015 of 

this part; 

(2) The employer is not found 

ineligible under § 1011.120 of this part; 

(3) The employer has achieved at least 

one of the following: 

(i)Veterans constitute not less than 10 

percent of all employees hired by such 

employer during the prior calendar year; 

or 

(ii) The employer has achieved both 

of the following: 

(A) The employer has retained not 

less than 85 percent of the veteran 

employees hired during the calendar 

year preceding the preceding calendar 

year for a period of at least 12 months 

from the date on which the employees 

were hired; and 

(B) On December 31 of the year prior 

to the year in which employer applies 

for the HIRE Vets Medallion Award, at 

least 10 percent of the employer’s 

employees were veterans; 

(4) The employer has the following 

forms of integration assistance: 

(i) The employer has established an 

employee veteran organization or 

resource group to assist new veteran 

employees with integration, including 

coaching and mentoring; and 

(ii) The employer has established 

programs to enhance the leadership 

skills of veteran employees during their 

employment; and 

(5) The employer has at least one of 

the following additional forms of 

integration assistance: 

(i) The employer has established a 

human resources veterans’ initiative; 

(ii) The employer provides each of its 

employees serving on active duty in the 

United States National Guard or Reserve 

with compensation sufficient, in 

combination with the employee’s active 

duty pay, to achieve a combined level 

of income commensurate with the 

employee’s salary prior to undertaking 

active duty; or 

(iii) The employer has a tuition 

assistance program to support veteran 

employees’ attendance in postsecondary 

education during the term of their 

employment. 

§ 1011.110 What are the criteria for the 

small employer HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award? 

(a) Gold Award. To qualify for a small 

employer gold HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award, an employer must satisfy all of 

the following criteria: 

(1) The employer is a small employer 

as specified in § 1011.015 of this part; 

(2) The employer is not found 

ineligible under § 1011.120 of this part; 

and 

(3) The employer has achieved at least 

one of the following: 

(i) Veterans constitute not less than 7 

percent of all employees hired by such 

employer during the prior calendar year; 

or 

(ii) The employer has achieved both 

of the following: 

(A) The employer has retained not 

less than 75 percent of the veteran 

employees hired during the calendar 

year preceding the preceding calendar 

year for a period of at least 12 months 

from the date on which the employees 

were hired; and 

(B) On December 31 of the year prior 

to the year in which employer applies 

for the HIRE Vets Medallion Award, at 

least 7 percent of the employer’s 

employees were veterans. 

(b) Platinum Award. To qualify for a 

small employer platinum HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award, an employer must 

satisfy all of the following criteria: 

(1) The employer is a small employer 

as specified in § 1011.015 of this part; 

(2) The employer is not found 

ineligible under § 1011.120 of this part; 

(3) The employer has achieved at least 

one of the following: 

(i) Veterans constitute not less than 10 

percent of all employees hired by such 

employer during the prior calendar year; 

or 

(ii) The employer has achieved both 

of the following: 

(A) The employer has retained not 

less than 85 percent of the veteran 

employees hired during the calendar 

year preceding the preceding calendar 

year for a period of at least 12 months 

from the date on which the employees 

were hired; and 

(B) On December 31 of the year prior 

to the year in which employer applies 

for the HIRE Vets Medallion Award, at 

least 10 percent of the employer’s 

employees were veterans; and 

(4) The employer has at least two of 

the following forms of integration 

assistance: 

(i) The employer has established an 

employee veteran organization or 

resource group to assist new veteran 

employees with integration, including 

coaching and mentoring; 

(ii) The employer has established 

programs to enhance the leadership 

skills of veteran employees during their 

employment; 

(iii) The employer has established a 

human resources veterans’ initiative; 

(iv) The employer provides each of its 

employees serving on active duty in the 

United States National Guard or Reserve 

with compensation sufficient, in 

combination with the employee’s active 

duty pay, to achieve a combined level 

of income commensurate with the 

employee’s salary prior to undertaking 

active duty; 

(v) The employer has a tuition 

assistance program to support veteran 

employees’ attendance in postsecondary 

education during the term of their 

employment. 

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§ 1011.115 Is there an exemption for 

certain large employers from the dedicated 

human resources professional criterion for 

the large employer platinum HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award? 

Yes. Employers who employ 5,000 or 

fewer employees need not have a 

dedicated human resources professional 

to support the hiring and retention of 

veteran employees. An employer with 

5,000 or fewer employees can satisfy the 

criterion at § 1011.100(b)(7) by 

employing at least one human resources 

professional whose regular work duties 

include supporting the hiring, training, 

and retention of veteran employees. 

§ 1011.120 Under what circumstances will 

VETS find an employer ineligible to receive 

a HIRE Vets Medallion Award for a violation 

of labor law? 

(a) Any employer with an adverse 

labor law decision, stipulated 

agreement, contract debarment, or 

contract termination, as defined in 

paragraphs (b) through (e) of this 

section, pursuant to either of the 

following labor laws, as amended, will 

not be eligible to receive an Award: 

(1) Uniform Services Employment and 

Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA); or 

(2) Vietnam Era Veterans’ 

Readjustment Assistance Act 

(VEVRAA); 

(b) For purposes of this section, an 

adverse labor law decision means any of 

the following, issued in the calendar 

year prior to year in which applications 

are solicited or the calendar year in 

which applications are solicited up 

until the issuance of the Award, in 

which a violation of any of the laws in 

paragraph (a) is found: 

(1) A civil or criminal judgment; 

(2) A final administrative merits 

determination of an administrative 

adjudicative board or commission; or 

(3) A decision of an administrative 

law judge or other administrative judge 

that is not appealed and that becomes 

the final agency action. 

(c) For purposes of this section, a 

stipulated agreement means any 

agreement (including a settlement 

agreement, conciliation agreement, 

consent decree, or other similar 

document) to which the employer is a 

party, entered into in the calendar year 

prior to the year in which applications 

are solicited or the calendar year in 

which applications are solicited up 

until the issuance of the Award, that 

contains an admission that the employer 

violated any of the laws in paragraph 

(a). 

(d) For purposes of this section, a 

contract debarment means any order or 

voluntary agreement, pursuant to the 

laws listed in paragraph (a), that debars 

the employer from receiving any future 

federal contract. Employers shall be 

ineligible for an Award for the duration 

of time that the contract debarment is in 

effect. 

(e) For purposes of this section, a 

contract termination means any order or 

voluntary agreement, pursuant to the 

laws listed in paragraph (a), that 

terminates an existing federal contract 

prior to its completion. Employers shall 

be ineligible for the Award if this 

termination occurred in the calendar 

year prior to the year in which 

applications are solicited or the 

calendar year in which applications are 

solicited up until the issuance of the 

Award. 

(f) VETS may delay issuing an Award 

to an employer if, at the time of the 

Award is to be issued, VETS has 

credible information that a significant 

violation of one of the laws in paragraph 

(a) of this section may have occurred 

that could lead to an employer being 

disqualified pursuant to any of 

paragraphs (b) through (e) of this 

section. 

Subpart C—Application Process 

§ 1011.200 How will VETS administer the 

HIRE Vets Medallion Award process? 

The Secretary of Labor will 

annually— 

(a) Solicit and accept voluntary 

applications from employers in order to 

consider whether those employers 

should receive a HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award; 

(b) Review applications received in 

each calendar year; 

(c) Notify such recipients of their 

Awards; and 

(d) At a time to coincide with the 

annual commemoration of Veterans 

Day— 

(1) Announce the names of such 

recipients; 

(2) Recognize such recipients through 

publication in the Federal Register; and 

(3) Issue to each such recipient— 

(i) A HIRE Vets Medallion Award; and 

(ii) A certificate stating that such 

employer is entitled to display such 

HIRE Vets Medallion Award. 

§ 1011.205 What is the timing of the HIRE 

Vets Medallion Award process? 

VETS will review all timely 

applications that fall under any cap 

established in § 1011.305 of this part to 

determine whether an employer should 

receive a HIRE Vets Medallion Award, 

and, if so, of what level. 

(a) Performance period—except as 

otherwise noted in § 1011.120 of this 

part, only the employer’s actions taken 

prior to December 31 of the calendar 

year prior to the calendar year in which 

applications are solicited will be 

considered in reviewing the award. 

(b) Solicitation period—VETS will 

solicit applications not later than 

January 31 of each calendar year for the 

HIRE Vets Medallion Award to be 

awarded in November of that calendar 

year. 

(c) End of acceptance period—VETS 

will stop accepting applications on 

April 30 of each calendar year for the 

Awards to be awarded in November of 

that calendar year. 

(d) Review Period—VETS will finish 

reviewing applications not later than 

August 31 of each calendar year for the 

Awards to be awarded in November of 

that calendar year. 

(e) Selection of recipients—VETS will 

select the employers to receive HIRE 

Vets Medallion Awards not later than 

September 30, of each calendar year for 

the Awards to be awarded in November 

of that calendar year. 

(f) Notice of awards and denials— 

VETS will notify employers who will 

receive HIRE Vets Medallion Awards 

not later than October 11, of each 

calendar year for the Awards to be 

awarded in November of that calendar 

year. VETS will also notify applicants 

who will not be receiving an Award at 

that time. 

§ 1011.210 How often can an employer 

receive the HIRE Vets Medallion Award? 

An employer who receives a HIRE 

Vets Medallion Award for one calendar 

year is not eligible to receive a HIRE 

Vets Medallion Award for the 

subsequent calendar year. 

§ 1011.215 How will the employer 

complete the application for the HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award? 

(a) VETS will require all applicants to 

provide information to establish their 

eligibility for the HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award. 

(b) VETS may request additional 

information in support of the 

application for the HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award. 

(c) The chief executive officer, the 

chief human resources officer, or an 

equivalent official of each employer 

applicant must attest under penalty of 

perjury that the information the 

employer has submitted in its 

application is accurate. 

(d) Interested employers can access 

the application form via the HIRE Vets 

Web site accessible from https://

www.dol.gov/vets/. 

(e) Applicants will complete the 

application form and submit it 

electronically. 

(f) Applicants who need a reasonable 

accommodation in accessing the 

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application form, submitting the 

application form, or submitting the 

application fee may contact VETS at 

(202) 693–4700 or TTY (877) 889–5627 

(these are not toll-free numbers). 

(g) Should the information provided 

on the application be deemed 

incomplete, VETS will attempt to 

contact the applicant. The applicant 

must respond with the additional 

information necessary to complete the 

application form within 5 business days 

or VETS will deny the application. 

§ 1011.220 How will VETS verify a HIRE 

Vets Medallion Award application? 

VETS will verify all information 

provided by an employer in its 

application to the extent that such 

information is relevant in determining 

whether or not such employer meets the 

criteria to receive a HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award or in determining the 

appropriate level of HIRE Vets 

Medallion Award for that employer to 

receive. VETS will verify this 

information by reviewing all 

information provided as part of the 

application. 

§ 1011.225 Under what circumstances will 

VETS conduct further review of an 

application? 

If at any time VETS becomes aware of 

facts that indicate that the information 

provided by an employer in its 

application was incorrect or that the 

employer does not satisfy the 

requirements at § 1011.120, VETS may 

conduct further review of the 

application. As part of that review, 

VETS may request information and/or 

documentation to confirm the accuracy 

of the information provided by the 

employer in its application or to 

confirm that the employer is not 

ineligible under § 1011.120. Depending 

on the result of the review, VETS may 

either deny or revoke the Award. If 

VETS initiates such review prior to 

issuing the Award, VETS will not be 

required to meet the timeline 

requirements in this part. 

§ 1011.230 Under what circumstances can 

VETS deny or revoke an Award? 

(a) Denial of Award. VETS may deny 

an Award for any of the following 

reasons: 

(1) The applicant fails to provide 

information and/or documentation as 

requested under § 1011.225 of this part; 

(2) VETS determines that the chief 

executive officer, the chief human 

resources officer, or an equivalent 

official of the applicant falsely attested 

that the information on the application 

was true; or 

(3) The employer is ineligible to 

receive an Award pursuant to 

§ 1011.120 of this part. 

(b) Revocation of Award. Once the 

HIRE Vets Medallion Award has been 

awarded, VETS may revoke the 

recipient’s Award for the following 

reasons: 

(1) The HIRE Vets Medallion Award 

recipient fails to provide information 

and/or documentation as requested 

under § 1011.225 of this part; 

(2) VETS determines that the chief 

executive officer, the chief human 

resources officer, or an equivalent 

official of the recipient falsely attested 

that the information on the application 

was true; 

(3) The employer was ineligible to 

receive an Award pursuant to 

§ 1011.120 of this part; or 

(4) The employer violated the display 

restrictions at § 1011.405 of this part. 

(c) If VETS decides to deny or revoke 

an Award, it will provide the employer 

with notice of the Department’s 

decision. An employer may request 

reconsideration of VETS’ decision to 

deny or revoke an Award pursuant to 

§ 1011.500 of this part. 

Subpart D—Fees and Caps 

§ 1011.300 What are the application fees 

for the HIRE Vets Medallion Award? 

(a) The Act requires the Secretary to 

establish a fee sufficient to cover the 

costs associated with carrying out the 

HIRE Vets Medallion Program. 

(b) The table in this paragraph sets 

forth the fees an employer must pay to 

apply for the HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award. VETS will adjust the fees 

periodically according to the Implicit 

Price Deflator for Gross Domestic 

Product published by the U.S. 

Department of Commerce and notify 

potential applicants of the adjusted fees. 

(1) If a significant adjustment is 

needed to arrive at a new fee for any 

reason other than inflation, then a 

proposed rule containing the new fees 

will be published in the Federal 

Register for comment. 

(2) VETS will round the fee to the 

nearest dollar. 

APPLICATION FEES

Small Employer Fee ..................... $90.00 

Medium Employer Fee ................. 190.00 

Large Employer Fee ..................... 495.00 

(c) All applicants must submit the 

appropriate application processing fee 

for each application submitted. This fee 

is based on the fee table provided at 

§ 1011.300(b) of this part. Payment of 

this fee must be made electronically 

through the U.S. Treasury pay.gov 

system or an equivalent. 

(d) Once a fee is paid, it is 

nonrefundable, even if the employer 

withdraws the application or does not 

receive a HIRE Vets Medallion Award. 

§ 1011.305 May VETS set a limit on how 

many applications will be accepted in a 

year? 

Yes, VETS may set a limit on how 

many applications will be accepted in 

any given year. 

Subpart E—Design and Display 

§ 1011.400 What does a successful 

applicant receive? 

(a) The Award will be in the form of 

a certificate and will state the year for 

which it was awarded. 

(b) VETS will also provide a digital 

image of the medallion for recipients to 

use, including as part of an 

advertisement, solicitation, business 

activity, or product. 

§ 1011.405 What are the restrictions on 

display and use of the HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award? 

It is unlawful for any employer to 

publicly display a HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award, in connection with, or as a part 

of, any advertisement, solicitation, 

business activity, or product— 

(a) for the purpose of conveying, or in 

a manner reasonably calculated to 

convey, a false impression that the 

employer received the Award through 

the HIRE Vets Medallion Program, if 

such employer did not receive such 

Award through the HIRE Vets Medallion 

Program; or 

(b) for the purpose of conveying, or in 

a manner reasonably calculated to 

convey, a false impression that the 

employer received the Award through 

the HIRE Vets Medallion Program for a 

year for which such employer did not 

receive such Award. 

Subpart F—Requests for 

Reconsideration 

§ 1011.500 What is the process to request 

reconsideration of a denial or revocation? 

(a) An applicant may file a request for 

reconsideration of the VETS’ decision to 

deny or revoke a HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award or of VETS’ decision as to the 

level of Award by mailing a request for 

reconsideration to the following address 

no later than fifteen business days after 

the date of VETS’ notice of its decision. 

Requests for reconsideration must be 

sent to: HIRE Vets Medallion Program, 

DOL VETS, 200 Constitution Ave. NW., 

Room S1325, Washington, DC 20210. 

(b) Requests for reconsideration 

pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section 

must contain the following: 

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39396 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 159 / Friday, August 18, 2017 / Proposed Rules 

(1) The employer name and 

identification number; 

(2) The reason for the request; and 

(3) An explanation, accompanied by 

any necessary documentation to support 

its explanation, of why VETS’ decision 

was incorrect. 

(c) VETS may request from the 

employer filing such request any 

additional evidence or explanation it 

finds necessary for reconsideration. 

(d) Within thirty business days after 

the later of the receipt of the request or 

the receipt of any additional evidence or 

explanation requested, VETS will issue 

a determination about whether to grant 

or deny the request. 

(e) No additional Department of Labor 

review is available. 

Subpart G—Record Retention 

§ 1011.600 What are the record retention 

requirements for the HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award? 

Applicants must retain a record of all 

information used to support an 

application for the HIRE Vets Medallion 

Award for two years from the date of 

application. 

J.S. Shellenberger, 

Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Veterans’ 

Employment and Training Service, U.S. 

Department of Labor. 

[FR Doc. 2017–17249 Filed 8–17–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4510–79–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 52 

[EPA–R08–OAR–2017–0446; FRL–9966–04– 

Region 8] 

Approval and Promulgation of Air 

Quality Implementation Plans; 

Colorado; Revisions to Regulation 

Number 3 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is proposing approval of 

a portion of the State Implementation 

Plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the 

State of Colorado on February 25, 2015. 

The revisions are to Colorado Air 

Quality Control Commission 

(Commission) Regulation Number 3, 

Parts A, B and D. The amendments the 

EPA is proposing to act on include: 

Revisions to provisions for permitting 

emissions for particulate matter less 

than 2.5 micrograms (PM2.5) in Part D, 

modifications to the provisions for filing 

revised Air Pollution Emission Notices 

(APEN) in Part A and updates to public 

notice publication requirements in Part 

B. This action is being taken under 

section 110 of the Clean Air Act (CAA). 

DATES: Written comments must be 

received on or before September 18, 

2017. 

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, 

identified by Docket ID No. EPA–R08– 

OAR–2015–0493 at http://

www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 

instructions for submitting comments. 

Once submitted, comments cannot be 

edited or removed from 

www.regulations.gov. The EPA may 

publish any comment received to its 

public docket. Do not submit 

electronically any information you 

consider to be Confidential Business 

Information (CBI) or other information 

whose disclosure is restricted by statute. 

Multimedia submissions (audio, video, 

etc.) must be accompanied by a written 

comment. The written comment is 

considered the official comment and 

should include discussion of all points 

you wish to make. The EPA will 

generally not consider comments or 

comment contents located outside of the 

primary submission (i.e., on the Web, 

cloud, or other file sharing system). For 

additional submission methods, the full 

EPA public comment policy, 

information about CBI or multimedia 

submissions, and general guidance on 

making effective comments, please visit 

http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/ 

commenting-epa-dockets. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Kevin Leone, Air Program, U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency 

(EPA), Region 8, Mail Code 8P–AR, 

1595 Wynkoop Street, Denver, Colorado 

80202–1129, (303) 312–6227, 

leone.kevin@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. General Information 

What should I consider as I prepare my 

comments for the EPA? 

1. Submitting Confidential Business 

Information (CBI). Do not submit CBI to 

EPA through http://www.regulations.gov 

or email. Clearly mark the part or all of 

the information that you claim to be 

CBI. For CBI information in a disk or CD 

ROM that you mail to the EPA, mark the 

outside of the disk or CD ROM as CBI 

and then identify electronically within 

the disk or CD ROM the specific 

information that is claimed as CBI. In 

addition to one complete version of the 

comment that includes information 

claimed as CBI, a copy of the comment 

that does not contain the information 

claimed as CBI must be submitted for 

inclusion in the public docket. 

Information so marked will not be 

disclosed except in accordance with 

procedures set forth in 40 CFR part 2. 

2. Tips for preparing your comments. 

When submitting comments, remember 

to: 

• Identify the rulemaking by docket 

number and other identifying 

information (subject heading, Federal 

Register volume, date and page 

number); 

• Follow directions and organize your 

comments; 

• Explain why you agree or disagree; 

• Suggest alternatives and substitute 

language for your requested changes; 

• Describe any assumptions and 

provide any technical information and 

or data that you used; 

• If you estimate potential costs or 

burdens, explain how you arrived at 

your estimate in sufficient detail to 

allow for it to be reproduced; 

• Provide specific examples to 

illustrate your concerns, and suggest 

alternatives; 

• Explain your views as clearly as 

possible, avoiding the use of profanity 

or personal threats; and, 

• Make sure to submit your 

comments by the comment period 

deadline identified. 

II. Background 

Revisions to PM2.5 Significant Impact 

Level (SIL) and Significant Monitoring 

Concentration (SMC) Provisions 

Colorado’s SIP submittal revises the 

SIL and SMC provisions for PM2.5 in the 

State’s Prevention of Significant 

Deterioration (PSD) permitting program. 

On January 22, 2013, the United States 

Court of Appeals for the District of 

Columbia Circuit vacated the SILs for 

PM2.5 and allowed the EPA to 

reconsider the provisions for SMCs. 

Sierra Club v. EPA, 705 F.3d 458 (D.C. 

Cir. 2013). On December 9, 2013, the 

EPA issued a final rule that removes the 

PM2.5 SIL from EPA’s PSD regulations 

and revised the threshold for SMCs (78 

FR 73698). The EPA set the PM2.5 SMC 

concentration at zero micrograms per 

cubic meter instead of removing PM2.5

entirely from the SMC provisions 

because a zero micrograms per cubic 

meter threshold means there is no air 

quality impact below which a reviewing 

authority has the discretion to exempt a 

source from the PM2.5 monitoring 

requirements, but that monitoring is still 

required. As a result of this court 

decision and the EPA’s rulemaking, 

Colorado removed the SILs for PM2.5

from Part D, Section V.A.2.c set the 

SMC monitoring concentration to zero 

in Part D, Section VI.B.3.a(iii). 

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