42 U.S.C. § 294r — State health care workforce development grants

(a) Establishment This subsection creates a competitive grant program, called "the program," to help state partnerships plan and carry out complete health care workforce development strategies at the state and local level. (b) Fiscal and administrative agent The Health Resources and Services Administration ("the Administration") runs the grants. It works with the National Health Care Workforce Commission ("the Commission"), which reviews reports on how the grants are developed, carried out, and evaluated. The Administration handles the grants, gives grantees technical help, and reports performance information to the Commission. (c) Planning grants (1) Amount and duration: A planning grant lasts up to one year and cannot exceed $150,000. (2) Eligibility: Only an "eligible partnership" can get one — a state workforce investment board that includes at least one representative each from: a health care employer, a labor organization, a public 2-year college, a public 4-year college, the state's labor federation, the state's public secondary education agency, the state's P-16 or P-20 Council (if one exists), and a philanthropic group active in health care career recruitment and training. (3) Fiscal and administrative agent: The state's Governor may appoint who manages the money for the partnership. (4) Application: Each partnership must apply to the Administrator, describing its members, planned activities, how it will measure progress, a budget, and other assurances the Administrator requires. (5) Required activities: A partnership with a planning grant must: (A) study state labor market data to build health care career paths; (B) find high-demand health care sectors for planning those paths; (C) find existing federal, state, and private resources for recruiting, training, and keeping health workers; (D) describe the skill standards needed for high school graduation, college entry, and health credentials; (E) describe the state's education and training policies and career counseling for health care; (F) find federal or state rules that get in the way of a workforce strategy and plan how to fix them; and (G) take part in the Administration's evaluation and reporting work. (6) Performance and evaluation: Before getting the grant, the partnership and the Administrator must agree together on performance benchmarks. (7) Match: The partnership must contribute at least 15 percent of the grant amount, in cash or in kind, which may come from other federal, state, local, or private sources. (8) Report: (A) Within one year of getting the grant, the partnership must report to the Administration on what it did, how it used the money, including matching funds, and its progress toward the benchmarks. (B) The Administration must then report to Congress, analyzing every state's planning activities, performance, spending, and promising practices. (d) Implementation grants (1) In general: The Administration must (A) competitively award implementation grants to help partnerships carry out a full workforce development plan, and (B) tell the Commission and Congress about the awards. (2) Duration: An implementation grant lasts up to 2 years, or up to 3 years if the Administration decides the grantee is high-performing and the work justifies the extra year. (3) Eligibility: A partnership qualifies if it (A) already finished a planning grant and met all its requirements, or (B) submits a satisfactory application with a plan to work with required partners and finish the required activities during the 2-year grant. (4) Fiscal and administrative agent: The partnership appoints who manages the implementation grant's money. (5) Application: Each eligible partnership must apply with: (A) a description of its members; (B) how it completed its planning grant work, if it had one; (C) what it plans to do with the funds, including sub-grants to regions; (D) how it will work with required partners and finish the activities during the grant; (E) a budget and timeline, including matching funds; (F) proposed performance benchmarks; (G) how it will collect data to report progress; and (H) any other assurances the Administration requires. (6) Required activities: (A) A partnership may keep at least 60 percent of its grant to competitively award to regional partnerships, following state purchasing rules, to support regional workforce projects and career-path activities. (B) The partnership itself must: (i) bring together regional leaders to plan statewide workforce development, including using competitive grants, aligning curricula, and improving access to career and training information; (ii) work with stakeholders to remove federal, state, or local barriers, including seeking federal waivers if needed; (iii) create, share, and review with stakeholders a preliminary statewide strategy addressing short- and long-term supply and demand; (iv) meet with all partnership members regularly, at least twice a year; (v) help regional leaders form partnerships, including through technical help; (vi) collect, assess, and report data on the performance benchmarks; and (vii) take part in the Administration's evaluation and reporting work. (7) Performance and evaluation: Before the grant is given, the partnership and the Administrator must jointly agree on performance benchmarks. (8) Match: The partnership must contribute at least 25 percent of the grant amount, in cash or in kind, from federal, state, local, or private sources. (9) Reports: (A) Each year, the partnership must report to the Administration on its performance, fund use, including matching funds, and progress toward benchmarks. (B) The Administration must report to Congress each year, analyzing every grantee's activities, performance, spending, and promising practices. (e) Authorization for appropriations (1) Planning grants: Congress may spend $8,000,000 for fiscal year 2010, and whatever is needed for later years. (2) Implementation grants: Congress may spend $150,000,000 for fiscal year 2010, and whatever is needed for later years.