To provide guidance to the states regarding the content of the WIA Annual Report Narrative including: the procedures for submission of the report to the Employment and Training Administration (ETA); acceptable approaches to fulfilling the customer satisfaction requirements for PY 2012 and PY 2013; and narrative about strategies for serving veterans (as referenced in section 4, part F). The WIA Annual Report Narrative is due on Friday, November 15, 2013.

To provide ETA funding recipients with additional information about permissible uses of funds made available through the Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 appropriations process. Since States have not yet received their full Program Year (PY) 2013 allotments due to the current Federal government shutdown, this guidance is intended to answer questions about the use of these funds (once received) for WIA activities provided on or after October 1, 2013.

To respond to questions from state workforce agencies and provide guidance about the Federal government shutdown and the Unemployment Insurance program, including Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) and Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC).

To provide ETA funding recipients with information about how the temporary suspension of the Federal government will impact the execution of ETA-funded programs and services.

To provide information to State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) about the potential for sequestration in Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 and how the Department of Labor (Department) would apply sequestration to mandatory Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs for FY 2014, so that SWAs can make necessary operational changes.

To provide the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) information on the nomination extension process for EZs, and the date when SWAs can start processing certification requests for the two target groups, which require its members to reside in EZs.

To transmit the subject computation for State Workforce Agency usage in computing minimum weekly DUA amounts for all major disasters declared during the first quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2014.

To announce the availability of funds for the 2013 ETA Research Papers Program. This initiative will provide approximately $80,000 in funds, for up to 10 projects, to doctoral and post-doctoral students interested in writing scholarly, policy-relevant research papers on topics of interest to the public workforce investment system. These applications are due on November 11, 2013.

To update ET Handbook No. 395, 5th Edition, to include BAM standards for exhaustive attempts to obtain claimant information and to establish guidelines for coding errors when claimants fail to respond.

To notify State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) of the availability of funds through the Supplemental Budget Request (SBR) process for costs related to the implementation of sequestration requirements impacting the EUC program in FY 2014.