On May 9, ABC led a coalition of small business and construction organizations in a letter expressing concerns with new recommendations to the U.S. Department of Labor from the DOL’s Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship.

On May 10, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship voted to approve recommendations to the DOL for potential revisions to the National Apprenticeship System. The ACA is an advisory body comprised of representatives from industries, labor organizations and other members of the public that provides advice to the agency on government-registered apprenticeship programs. These recommendations will inform the DOL’s upcoming proposed rule revising the GRAP system, currently targeted for June 2023.

Included in the recommendations are suggestions for the DOL to establish a new “Quality Seal” program for GRAPs. Programs would be required to meet certain wage requirements, completion rates and apprentice-to-journeyworker ratios in order to receive the Quality Seal and accompanying preferential treatment for federal funding of GRAPs. Employer participants in Quality Seal GRAPs would receive preferential treatment in the bidding and awarding of federal and federally assisted construction projects. Additionally, some members of the ACA recommended that all GRAPs should be required to guarantee graduates such wages deemed “family-sustaining” by the DOL.