Trade Adjustment Assistance; Merit Staffing of State Administration and Allocation of Training Funds to States

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of the Department of Labor (Department) issues this final rule to implement changes to the regulations for the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers (TAA) program under the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (Trade Act). This rule requires that personnel engaged in TAA-funded functions undertaken to carry out the worker adjustment assistance provisions must be State employees covered by a merit system of personnel administration. This rule also prescribes the system for allocating training funds to the States, as required by amendments to the Trade Act contained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, commonly called the Recovery Act. The Recovery Act included provisions which reauthorized and significantly amended the TAA program.