To announce the State of New York and the Office of Workforce Security will host a Professional Development Conference for State managers, supervisors, and other key State and Federal staff responsible for nonmonetary determination quality.

To announce the release and availability of Comparison of State Unemployment Insurance Laws 2006.

To initiate the FY 2002 SQSP process and to issue supplemental instructions for the State Employment Security Agencies (States) to use to prepare the FY 2002 SQSP.

To remind the workforce investment system of the WIA performance reporting deadlines and timeline for submitting data validation results for the following programs: Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Title IB, the Wagner-Peyser Act, activities authorized under chapter 41 of title 38, United States Code (Local Veterans Employment Representative and Disabled Veteran Outreach Service programs), Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), and National Farmworker Jobs (NFJP).

To notify States of the publication in the Federal Register of the Draft ET Handbook No. 406 (ETA 9002 Data Preparation Handbook) and VETS 200 Report and Specifications. These documents are being published in the Federal Register for a 60-day comment period.

To inform states and other Employment and Training Administration (ETA)-fund recipients and sub-recipients of a new limitation on salary and bonus payments that can be made with funds appropriated to ETA and provide guidance on implementing this new provision.

To advise states of the provisions of Public Law (P.L.) 107-16 relating to the UC program.

To announce the release and the availability of ETA Occasional Paper 2006-02: Building Relationships Between the Workforce Investment System and Faith-Based and Community Organizations: A Background Paper.

To advise SESAs of performance reported for nonmonetary determinations activities under Benefits Timeliness and Quality (BTQ).

To inform state workforce agencies (SWAs) of the Employment and Training Administration’s (ETA’s) intention to eliminate its authority to pay the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) directly for “employment security” postage costs beginning Fiscal Year (FY) 2008. These plans include the following:

• Phasing out ETA payment to the United States Postal Service (USPS) for state agency penalty mail and postal management costs beginning in Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 for states volunteering to be early implementers; beginning in FY 2008, all states will assume responsibility for paying their own postage costs as well as any postal management services currently provided to states through the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Supplemental Budget Request (SBR) process;
• Implementing new procedures to fund UI, Foreign Labor Certification (FLC), Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), and Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) postage beginning with FY 2008;
• Implementing new procedures to fund Wagner-Peyser (WP) and Workforce Information Grants (WIGs) beginning with Program Year (PY) 2008;
• Providing guidance on the payment of postage costs for programs conducted by SWAs in cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS);
• Providing information on technical assistance available to states in converting from the (penalty mail) Official Mail Accounting System (OMAS) to commercial mail to improve general mail practices; and
• Soliciting UI SBRs from states for the purpose of implementing commercial mail programs and improving postage management.