The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) amended the Trade Act of 1974 (Trade Act) to increase the maximum annual amount of TAA funds that may be spent on training. The Department will use some of the funds appropriated for TAA in FY 2009 under the Consolidated Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 (P.L. No. 111-8) (Omnibus Appropriations) for a supplemental distribution to the states, and will also hold funds in reserve. This program letter explains the formula methodology used in distributing this supplemental distribution and describes the process for states to request additional TAA program reserve funds for training.

To inform states of a change in the guidelines for negotiating Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Title IB performance goals and performance levels for the Wagner-Peyser Act funded activities for Program Year (PY) 2009. In addition to the change in guidelines for negotiating performance goals, this document also publishes the GPRA goals for eleven other programs administered by the Employment and Training Administration (ETA); and explains the regression model used for setting the new national targets for the workforce investment program.

To notify State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) of the availability of FY 2009 UI funds to: 1) develop or update UI IT Contingency Plans, including obtaining an Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V), and 2) improve UI IT Security.

The purpose of this guidance is to provide all SCSEP grant applicants with application instruction and procedures for Program Year (PY) 2009 funds, with a period of performance beginning July 1, 2009.

To initiate and issue supplemental instructions for the preparation of the FY 2010 SQSP.

To announce the release and availability of the report titled Evaluation of the YouthBuild Youth Offender Grants.

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) announces the release and availability of the report titled: The Benefits and Challenges of Registered Apprenticeship: The Sponsors’ Perspective

To inform the Employment and Training Administration’s (ETA) YouthBuild grant applicants and ETA’s YouthBuild grant program community that the Department will combine funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) and the Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 YouthBuild appropriation to make awards to successful applicants from the current YouthBuild competition which closed January 15, 2009.

To inform NFJP grantees of the Employment and Training Administration’s (ETA) waiver of the biannual grants competition scheduled for Program Year (PY) 2009 and to convey planning guidance for the same period.

To inform NFJP Housing Assistance grantees of the Employment and Training Administration’s (ETA) waiver of the biannual grants competition scheduled for Program Year (PY) 2009, and to convey planning guidance for the same period.