Green Capacity Building Grants, totaling $5.8 million, will increase the training capacity of 62 current Labor Department grant recipients through a variety of strategies, and will offer training opportunities to help individuals acquire jobs in expanding green industries. These grants will help serve underserved communities. Targeted communities include American Indians, women, at-risk youth and farm workers.

State Labor Market Information Improvement Grants, totaling $48.8 million, will support the collection and dissemination of labor market information, and will enhance the labor exchange infrastructure to provide career opportunities within clean energy industries. Grantees will be able to employ strategies that enable job seekers to connect with green job banks and help ensure that workers find employment after completing training. Thirty awards ranging from about $763,000 to $4 million were made to state workforce agencies to utilize data for workforce development strategies. Multiple state workforce agencies partnering as a consortium will use this program to gather information that is likely to have a regional, multi-state or national impact.

The grants are part of a larger Recovery Act initiative - totaling $500 million - for green jobs training grants designed to promote economic growth. The Department of Labor expects to release funding for an additional three green grant award categories over the next several months.

News Release / Listing of Grantees

This IFR is effective on November 17, 2009.

Interested persons are invited to submit written comments on the IFR on or before December 17, 2009.

The purpose of the TEN is increase awareness of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and inform states and local areas about resources available to assist dislocated workers, businesses, and partners in understanding the new law.

This TEGL provides information to assist and support those agencies and other grantees that receive funds from the Department to operate qualified job training programs in the implementation of the Priority of Service for Veterans and Eligible Spouses Final Rule.

This joint guidance is being issued concurrently by ETA and the Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS). Veterans' Program Letter 07-09 is the VETS guidance that corresponds to this TEGL.

Aspects of Priority of Service addressed by this guidance include:

• States and local Workforce Investment Boards are to include in their plans the Priority of Service procedures to be implemented by all program operators.
• Veterans and eligible spouses are entitled to "precedence" for services.
• Priority of Service does not require any verification of veteran or eligible spouse status beyond what is already required for program eligibility purposes.
• For universal access programs, veterans and eligible spouses receive priority over all other participants; the guidance explains how Priority of Service applies to programs with eligibility requirements and/or statutory or discretionary priorities.
• VETS and the agency responsible for administering the program (typically ETA) are jointly responsible for monitoring compliance with Priority of Service; future guidance is expected to provide additional details about monitoring.

The Employment and Training Administration has updated the Work Opportunity Tax Credit webpage to incorporate a number of new publication and updates to forms.

The workforce community will now find:

• A new brochure which includes a section on why WOTC presents a great opportunity for employers of veterans.
• Fact Sheet: EMPLOYERS -- 12 Ways to Earn Income Tax Credits for Your Company
• The latest Addendum to ETA Handbook 408 (Consolidated Work Opportunity Tax Credit Program.
• ETA Form 9061 (Individual Characteristics Form) in English and Spanish.
• IRS Form 8850 (Pre-screening Notice and Certification Request for the Work Opportunity Credit) in English and Spanish.