BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1268
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Date of Hearing: May 15, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 1268 (John Pérez) - As Introduced: February 22, 2013
Policy Committee: Labor and
Employment Vote: 7-0
Veterans Affairs 8-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill establishes the Veterans Workforce Development and
Employment Office (the Office) within the Labor and Workforce
Development Agency (Labor Agency) for the purpose of
coordinating state veterans workforce development and employment
services. Specifically, this bill:
1)Repeals statute governing veteran affairs service coordination
with the Employment Development Department (EDD), as
specified.
2)Requires the Office to administer the programs and services
described in the federal Jobs for Veterans State Grant
Program, including, but not limited to, overseeing the federal
Local Veterans' Employment Representative program (LVER) and
the Disabled Veterans Outreach Program (DVOP), as currently
administered by EDD.
3)Transfers the administration of LVER and DVOP administrative
and support staff to the Office. A plan for the transition is
due May 1, 2014.
4)Requires the Office to coordinate with the Department of
Veterans Affairs and the Governor's Interagency Council on
Veterans. Further requires the Office to coordinate with
other state agencies that assist veterans to develop research,
a statewide plan, and strategies regarding veterans'
employment assistance and training programs available in the
state, as specified.
AB 1268
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5)Requires the Office to seek federal and other funding to
implement this measure and expresses legislative intent that
state-supported veterans employment training services meet the
same performance standards as those required under the federal
Workforce Investment Act, as specified.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)The Labor Agency will incur one-time administrative costs,
likely in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars, to
establish and organize the new division and transition the
specified programs and staff from EDD to the new division,
with ongoing costs in the range of $200,000 to coordinate and
collaborate with other state agencies providing veterans
services.
2)EDD would likely incur one-time transition costs associated
with the relocation of staff and programs to the Office.
According to EDD, the transfer of the federal Jobs for
Veterans State Grant Program will lead to $19.3 million in
annual funding shifting from EDD to the Office.
There are approximately 200 federally-funded positions at EDD
involved with this program. In addition, there are five
central office staff that support the LVER and DVOP programs
exclusively, but these staff are not funded by the federal
Jobs for Veterans Grant Program; instead, they are funded with
other federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) funds. Assuming
these five staff are transferred over to the Office, there
would be a loss of approximately $550,000 in federal WIA funds
to EDD.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . According to the California Research Bureau's
report: Overview of Veterans in California (March 2013),
California has approximately 1.9 million veterans. Of these,
about 185,000 (or 9.7%) are women. Almost one million are over
the age of 60 (52.3%). Most live in Southern California
counties, and are heavily clustered in Los Angeles (323,431 in
2012), San Diego (222,348 in 2012) and Orange counties
(132,529 in 2012).
The author contends most veterans, as documented by the United
States Bureau of Labor Statistics, experience significant
AB 1268
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difficulty in finding employment. Furthermore, the author
argues the state's current structure does not have a stellar
record in aiding veterans with employment assistance and
training programs.
This bill moves administration of specified veteran affairs
programs from EDD to a newly established Office within the
Labor Agency, as specified.
2)Related legislation . AB 171 (Chavez), pending in the Veterans
Affairs Committee, establishes the California Veterans
Services and Workforce Development Division within the
Department of Veterans Affairs for the purpose of coordinating
and administering veterans assistance programs in the state.
This bill was not heard at the request of the author.
3)Previous legislation . AB 1931 (Gorell), established the
California Veterans Services and Workforce Development
Division within the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) for
the purpose of coordinating and administering veterans'
assistance programs, and transfers those programs from EDD to
the DVA. This bill was held on the Senate Appropriations
Committee's Suspense File in August 2012.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081