29 U.S.C. § 49l–2 — Workforce and labor market information system

(a) System content (1) In general — The Secretary must oversee building, maintaining, and improving a nationwide workforce and labor market information system. This system must include: (A) statistical data from surveys, projections, and administrative records that together count, estimate, and project jobs and conditions at the national, state, and local level in a timely way — covering (i) employment and unemployment among national, state, and local populations, including self-employed, part-time, and seasonal workers; (ii) which industries have which jobs, plus current and projected job openings, wages, benefits, and skill trends by occupation and industry, especially at the state and local level; (iii) where and how many workers get displaced by permanent layoffs and plant closings; and (iv) long-term employment and earnings data used for research and evaluating programs; (B) information on state and local job opportunities and other labor-market data, which must be current, complete, meet the needs identified through required consultations, and meet the information needs described in section 134(d); (C) technical standards for this data, published every year by the Secretary, that meet at least the standards set in chapter 35 of title 44; (D) procedures making sure the national, state, and local data are compatible and add up correctly together; (E) procedures to standardize and combine data from different administrative reporting systems; (F) analysis of the data for uses like national, state, and local policymaking; carrying out federal policy, including funding formulas; planning and evaluating programs; and researching labor-market trends; (G) wide, easy-to-use distribution of this data and analysis, with voluntary technical standards for how it's shared; and (H) programs for training people to share data effectively, research and demonstration projects, and technical assistance. (2) Information to be confidential — (A) No federal officer, employee, or agent may use a submission collected purely for statistical purposes for anything other than that statistical purpose; publish or share the data in a way that lets someone identify an individual, directly or indirectly; or let anyone see an individual submission except a sworn government officer, employee, agent, or contractor — unless the subject of, or provider of, the submission consents. (B) A submission collected and kept by a federal agency purely for statistics under this section is immune from legal process. It can't be used as evidence or for any purpose in any court or administrative proceeding, unless the subject or provider consents. (C) This immunity doesn't apply if the submission is held by someone other than the federal government, or if it was independently collected or created for a purpose other than this chapter. (b) System responsibilities (1) The Secretary evaluates and improves the system, working with the Workforce Information Advisory Council described in (d), and carries this out on time through grants to or agreements with states. Using appropriated funds, for fiscal years 2015 through 2020 the Secretary distributes the money to states the same way it was distributed for fiscal years 2004 through 2008. (2) The Secretary must: (A) assign responsibilities inside the Department of Labor so collected data meets Bureau of Labor Statistics standards and is understandable to users; (B) work with other federal agencies to avoid duplicate data collection; (C) ask for, receive, and evaluate the Council's recommendations, and respond to the Council in writing; (D) close gaps and eliminate duplication in statistics; (E) through the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Employment and Training Administration, work with states to build and maintain the system, including consistent data-collection procedures and definitions; and (F) set up procedures making sure the data is timely and that paperwork stays to a minimum. (c) Two-year plan — The Secretary, through the Commissioner of Labor Statistics and the Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, working with the Council and other federal agencies, must write a two-year plan for the system. The plan must account for state plans submitted under section 3112 or 3113, and go to the House Education and Workforce Committee and the Senate HELP Committee. It must include: (1) how the Secretary will work with states to manage the national and state systems; (2) the next two years' steps for carrying out the Secretary's duties under (b)(2); (3) an evaluation of the system's performance, focusing on needed state and local improvements; (4) how states were involved in developing the plan through Council consultation; and (5) a summary of the Council's written recommendations and how much the plan used them. (d) Workforce Information Advisory Council — (1) The Secretary must formally consult with the Council at least twice a year, covering how to evaluate and improve the national and state systems and how the Department and states will cooperate. The Council gives written recommendations, including on the two-year plan. (2) The Secretary sets up the Council and appoints its members: 4 representing lead state workforce agencies, 4 representing state labor-market-information directors, 1 representing training-service providers, 1 representing economic development groups, 1 representing businesses, 1 representing labor organizations, 1 representing local workforce boards, and 1 representing research organizations that use this data. The Secretary must make sure the Council represents a mix of states, and no two of the state-agency, information-director, or local-board members can be from the same state. Each member serves a 3-year term, with initial terms staggered at 1, 2, or 3 years so a third of the Council turns over each year; members can serve at most 2 consecutive terms; a member filling a vacancy only serves the rest of that term; and a member can keep serving past their term until a replacement takes office. Members aren't paid for their Council work but do get travel expenses and per diem, and the Secretary can accept members' unpaid volunteer service despite the usual rule against that. The usual law limiting how long federal advisory committees can exist doesn't apply to this Council — it's permanent. (e) State responsibilities — (1) To get federal funding, a state's Governor must designate one state agency to manage the state's part of the system and to represent the state in developing the two-year plan, and must set up a process to oversee that system. (2) To get funding, the state agency must: (A) consult with state and local employers, program participants, and local workforce boards about what data is useful and relevant; (B) consult with career-and-technical-education agencies and school agencies to meet students' information needs and to shape career and technical education programs and career pathways every year; (C) collect and share the data described in (a)(1)(A) and (B) for the state and its localities; (D) maintain and keep improving the statewide system; (E) carry out contract and grant duties for data work; (F) do whatever other data work is needed for an effective statewide system; (G) actively involve other state and local agencies to keep data complementary, compatible, and useful; (H) use the quarterly records described in section 3141(i)(2) to help measure state performance; and (I) give career-and-technical-education agencies this data every year, on time. (3) Nothing here stops a state from doing extra data work with its own state money or with other federal money. (f) Nonduplication requirement — None of this section's activities can duplicate what's already done under the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act. (g) Authorization of appropriations — Congress authorizes specific funding for this section: $60,153,000 for fiscal year 2015, $64,799,000 for 2016, $66,144,000 for 2017, $67,611,000 for 2018, $69,200,000 for 2019, and $70,667,000 for 2020. (h) "Local area" defined — "Local area" means the smallest geographic area where data can still be produced reliably.