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. 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 master plan 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 plans.

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. Includes among such conditions a requirement that small and minority businesses be given maximum reasonable opportunity to compete for contracts.

Establishes in the Office of the Secretary of Labor an Office of Audits, Investigations, and Compliance to conduct and supervise audits and investigations relating to CETA programs and activities. Establishes an Office of Management Assistance in the Secretary's Office to provide management assistance to prime expenses.

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. Authorizes prime sponsors to conduct occupational upgrading programs through agreements with public and private employers. Makes eligible for the ungrading program employees of participating employers who are operating at less than their full skill potential, particularly persons in entry level or dead end positions.

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 which are specifically designated as targets of activities under such title handicapped workers, single parents, and displaced homemakers. Authorizes the Secretary to carry out job search and relocation activities as an ongoing national program. Authorizes the Secretary to promote the development of partnership arrangements between prime sponsors and employment security agencies.

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 demonstration projects as follows: (1) age 16 through 21 or, if authorized by the Secretary, 14 through 21; (2) economically disadvantaged; and (3) underemployed, 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.

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. Allocates public service employment funds among prime sponsors serving areas with high unemployment. Limits participation in the program to economically disadvantaged persons who have been unemployed for at least eight weeks.

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.