Justification 6 26 2012

Justification for Non-Substantive Change Request, 1205-0392

PROPOSED CHANGES TO TRADE ACTIVITIES PARTICIPANT REPORT

ETA’s Office of Trade Readjustment Assistance (OTAA) requests approval for non-substantive changes to the current Trade Activity Participant Report (TAPR) to conform to the October 2011 enactment of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Extension ACT (TAAEA) (P.L. 112-40).

Explanation of Changes (Itemized chart of data changes follows this explanation)

• The current proposal adds eight elements to an already approved data collection of 137 elements, or a .058 increase in the overall data element count.

• 5 of these elements concern Completion TRA, a new TAA benefit, which correspond to data already approved and collected for other types of TRA records. However, this benefit has been in place for several months, and the information requested in this proposal must be tracked in a siloed manner to establish and verify continued eligibility through specific training requirements that must occur simultaneously with the participants’ receipt of these benefits. Therefore collection of the data is simply a record of the mechanisms that are required for proper administration of the benefit.

Thus, these 5 “Completion TRA” data elements, which have already been approved and are being collected, will go through an internal process of the data collection that assigns a label to the data element based on other data that is already collected (the term for this automated process is “basket filter”). Again, these elements are already collected for each of the existing three types of TRA and are being added only to facilitate the collection of “Completion TRA.”

• Because two of the three remaining elements (TAP Workshop in Prior 3 Years, and Benefit under Prior Certification Last 10 Years, TAPR Handbook pp. 12 and 16) are collected exclusively through self attestation, check boxes would be added to each state’s independently formed application forms.

• The final added element simply tracks the number of participants who are engaged in Training that Leads to an Associate’s Degree. (TAPR Handbook, p. 17)

• A modification to data element Special ETA Project ID (already approved by OMB, TAPR Handbook p. 14) specifies a new coding value to track a specific type of TAA grant.

• Sequencing of a handful of data elements already approved has been reordered in order to remain current with the currently approved WISPR (OMB 1205-0469).

BURDEN: Although this request includes the addition of 8 elements, the additions are so minimal in burden in connection with the current burden estimate that they are deemed statistically insignificant

CHART of Added Data Elements

NEW DATA ELEMENTS UNDER TEGL 6-09, CHANGE 2
No.	Data Element Name	Data Element Name/Definition	Comment
308	TAP Workshop in 3 Prior Years	Record 1 if the Veteran or TSM attended a TAP Workshop in 3 year period prior to Date of Participation.	NEW: Self reported through self attestation
912	Special ETA Project ID	Record the special ETA project ID number (code to be assigned by ETA where applicable) where the participant received services financially assisted under a special state demonstration or pilot project. Record 1234 if the participant received training funded by the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community and Career College Training (TAACCCT) Grant Program.	MODIFICATION: Statutory under 2011 program - modifies existing data element; collects information on whether TAACCCT formed part of training.
955	Benefit Under Prior Certification Last 10 Years	Record 1 if the participant received a benefit under a prior certification in any of the previous 10 fiscal years. Record 0 if the participant did not receive any services under the condition described above.	NEW: Statutory under 2011 program - based on participant attestation of having received benefit under separate certification previously.
1236	Training Leading to an Associate's Degree	Record 1 if the participant is enrolled in training that will lead to an associate's degree. Record 0 if the participant did not receive any services under the condition described above.	NEW: Statutory under 2011 program - identifies if training goal includes an associate's degree.
1440	Date Received First Completion TRA Payment	Record the date on which the participant received their first Completion TRA payment. Leave "blank" if the participant did not receive a Completion TRA Payment, or if the individual is not a TAA participant.	NEW: Statutory under 2011 program - corresponds to elements collected for basic, additional and remedial TRA.
1441	Weeks Paid This Quarter - Completion TRA	Record the total number of weeks of Completion TRA paid in the current quarter.	NEW: Statutory under 2011 program - corresponds to elements collected for basic, additional and remedial TRA.
1442	Total Weeks paid Cumulative - Completion TRA	Record the total number of weeks for which Completion TRA was paid to the individual.	NEW: Statutory under 2011 program - corresponds to elements collected for basic, additional and remedial TRA.
1443	Amount Paid Current Quarter - TRA Completion	Record the dollar amount of Completion TRA paid in the current report quarter.	NEW: Statutory under 2011 program - corresponds to elements collected for basic, additional and remedial TRA.
1444	Total Amount Paid - Completion TRA	Record the total dollar amount of Completion TRA paid to the individual.	NEW: Statutory under 2011 program - corresponds to elements collected for basic, additional and remedial TRA.