This week the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) issued a series of new regulatory proposals with implications for the public workforce system.

Primarily, these proposals seek to rescind existing regulatory requirements pertaining to legislation pre-dating the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). Broadly the proposals are part of DOL’s wider efforts to streamline existing regulatory requirements while also making substantive changes to rules to bring them into compliance with Trump Administration’s wider priorities, including removing mandates that are perceived to be related to DEI.

Among these newly announced regulatory changes, we draw your attention to the following:

  • Wagner-Peyser Act Employment Service Staffing Flexibility: DOL is seeking to overturn the 2023 Wagner-Peyser Merit Staffing rule passed by the previous Administration. Instead, the Department is proposing to revert to a 2020 version of this regulation which provides states with maximum flexibility to determine staffing arrangements to better align WIOA and Employment Service staffing needs. Under this new rule, states would instead be empowered to choose whatever staffing model best meets their needs. Historically NAWB has been deeply engaged with this particular regulation over the last several years.
  • Rescinding WIOA “Affirmative Outreach” Requirement: DOL is proposing to eliminate an existing 2016 WIOA regulation (29 CFR §38.40) that obligates Title I WIOA recipients to conduct demographic-based “affirmative outreach” to groups based on race, sex, national origin, and other immutable characteristics of individuals. DOL argues that WIOA does not explicitly mandate this requirement, that it raises constitutional concerns, and is unaligned with the Administration’s wider priorities.
  • Streamlining Registered Apprenticeship Nondiscrimination Rules: This is the most substantive regulatory proposal this week and would make a number of changes to federal rules governing the operation of Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs). The rulemaking is primarily focused on removing and streamlining existing nondiscrimination protections while aligning RAPs with existing civil rights safeguards elsewhere in federal statute and regulation. There are, however, several changes to other aspects of RAP regulations that NAWB is continuing to analyze.

All of the notices that have been published by DOL ETA this week are soliciting comments from the public over the next 60 days before the rules are finalized. NAWB is analyzing these proposals and plans to provide formal comment as part of this process—an effort we encourage members to engage in as well.