Comprehensive Employment and Training Amendments

Comprehensive Employment and Training Amendments - Revises generally the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973 (CETA).

Consolidates the administrative provisions of such Act in a new title. Amends the definition of "prime sponsor" to include Native American entities. Requires State prime sponsors to allow subareas to assist in the planning and delivery of services within their respective jurisdictions. Authorizes the Secretary of Labor to act as a prime sponsor for an area under any of the employment and training programs when there is no other prime sponsor for an area or when services are not being provided to an area due to a complaint about the prime sponsor or disapproved plan.

Revises the procedures for a prime sponsor to become eligible for grants. Requires each prime sponsor to submit a comprehensive employment and training plan consisting of a prime sponsor agreement, annual comprehensive employment and training services program supplements, individual annual program supplements for any additional programs the prime sponsor wishes to conduct, and a single assurance that the prime sponsor will comply with the Act, the regulations, and the comprehensive employment and training plan. Sets forth the information to be included in the agreement and program supplements.

Amends provisions regarding review of comprehensive plans and complaints about and sanctions against prime sponsors.

Changes the composition and meeting requirements of prime sponsor planning councils and State employment and training councils.

Consolidates various assurances presently required to be submitted by prime sponsors and redesignates them as program conditions. Sets out those conditions which are applicable to all programs and those which are applicable to the public service employment programs. Includes among the former a requirement that small and minority businesses be given maximum reasonable opportunity to compete for contracts. Includes among the latter a limitation that no public service employment last more than 78 weeks in a five-year period.

Redefines "unemployed" and "underemployed" for purposes of the Act. Permits institutionalized persons to be designated as "underemployed." Defines "economically disadvantaged" for purposes of the Act.

Directs that "areas of substantial unemployment" be determined on the basis of yearly rather than quarterly data.

Extends the general authorization for appropriations for activities under CETA.

Makes specified changes in the comprehensive employment and training services programs. Restricts eligibility for participation, with certain exceptions, to individuals who are both (1) economically disadvantaged and (2) unemployed, underemployed, or in school. Adds provisions relative to job search assistance. Authorizes prime sponsors to conduct occupational upgrading programs through agreements with public and private employers. Makes eligible for the upgrading program employees of participating employers who are operating at less than their full skill potential, particularly persons in entry level or dead end positions.

Authorizes, rather than requires, the Secretary of Labor to provide services to groups of persons with particular labor market disadvantages under the Special Federal Responsibilities title of CETA. Adds as new groups specifically designated as targets of activities under such title handicapped workers, single parents, displaced homemakers, and persons who became unemployed in a large-scale loss of jobs in a specific area. Increases the allotment of funds for programs for Native Americans. Directs that programs for migrant and seasonal workers be focused primarily on assistance in preparing for and obtaining more stable employment. Authorizes the Secretary to carry out job search and relocation activities as an ongoing national program.

Consolidates the youth employment demonstration programs, the youth summer employment program, and the Job Corps in a separate title. Makes uniform the basic eligibility requirements for all programs except the entitlement projects as follows: (1) age 16 through 21 or, if authorized by the Secretary, 14 through 21; (2) economically disadvantaged; and (3) unemployed or in school. Deletes Job Corps provisions relative to background investigations of applicants, oaths of allegiance for members, sex-segregated centers, cost per enrollee limitations, and political activity and discrimination. Places Job Corps property under concurrent Federal-State criminal jurisdiction. Specifies that transactions of private-for-profit operators of Job Corps Centers are not to be considered as generating gross receipts.

Changes the name of the National Commission for Manpower Policy to National Commission for Employment and Training Policy. Expands the Commission's membership.

Combines the present public service employment programs and emergency unemployment programs into a single new program. Restricts, beginning in fiscal year 1980, public service employment funds to those prime sponsors serving areas with high unemployment unless the national unemployment rate exceeds 4.75 percent. Limits participation in the program to economically disadvantaged persons who have been unemployed for at least five weeks. States that, in determining whether an individual is economically disadvantaged for purposes of the public service employment program, family income for the three, rather than the six, preceding months shall be taken into account. Requires that all public service employment jobs be in entry level positions.

Creates a new title designed to place individuals in private sector jobs by providing financial assistance to prime sponsors for private sector initiatives, including on-the-job training and related activities. Directs participating prime sponsors to establish private industry councils to assist in the development of initiative programs.