Non Substantive Change Justification

REQUEST FOR Non Substantive Change to TAACCCT, OMB 1205-0489

This non-substantive change request is to update the language for one of the data elements in the TAACCCT reporting package. The language is used to describe the conditions needed to report a participant as an eligible spouse or eligible veteran as currently written in the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grants: Annual and Quarterly Program Reporting Forms & Instructions document, OMB Control Number 1205-0489. The data element itself, “Eligible Veterans,” will remain in the document and will not change. The reason for the change is to keep the language consistent with the Veterans Priority of Service provisions used in the Solicitation for Grant Applications (SGA), the Jobs for Veterans Act (Public Law 107-288), the Final Rule, and ETA’s Training and Employment Guidance Letter (TEGL) No. 10-09.

OMB Control Number 1205-0489 states that an eligible spouse under the Veterans Priority is a person who is (a) the spouse of any person who died on active duty or of a service connected disability; (b) any member of the Armed Forces serving on active duty who, at the time of application for the priority, is listed in one or more of the following categories and has been so listed for a total of more than 90 days: (i) missing in action; (ii) captured in line of duty by a hostile force; or (iii) forcibly detained or interned in line of duty by a foreign government or power; (3) any veteran who has a total disability resulting from a service-connected disability, as evaluated by the Department of Veterans Affairs; (4) any veteran who died while a disability, so evaluated was in existence.

The requested change is to remove the “on active duty or” clause (as underlined above), as it is not a part of the legislative definition.

The second requested change is related to the “conditions” described for a new participant to be identified as an eligible veteran as written in, OMB Control Number 1205-0489.

The current language (from Title 38, Veterans' Benefits, Chapter 42, Employment and Training of Veterans), describes an eligible veteran as a person who meets one of the following conditions:

1. Is a person who served on active duty in the armed forces for a period of less than or equal to 180 days, and who was discharged or released from such service under conditions other than dishonorable.

2. Is a person who served on active duty for a period of more than 180 days and was discharged or released with other than a dishonorable discharge; or was discharged or released because of a service connected disability; or as a member of a reserve component under an order to active duty pursuant to section 12301 (a), (d), or, (g), 12302, or 12304 of Title 10, U.S.C., served on active duty during a period of war or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge is authorized and was discharged or released from such duty with other than a dishonorable discharge;  

The requested change is that these two conditions be changed into one which reads “a person who served at least one day in the active military, naval, or air service, and who was discharged or released therefrom under conditions other than dishonorable, as specified in 38 U.S.C. 101(2).

This change supports the Final Rule to the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (issued December 2008), which further expands the definition and requires that program operators use the broad definition of veteran found in 38 U.S.C. 101(2).

This request applies to all four rounds of TAACCCT grants and will not place a reporting burden on TAACCCT grantees as they are already reporting this information.