Quiero saber acerca de...

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 47 / Friday, March 12, 2021 / Rules and Regulations Troy A. Miller, the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner, having reviewed and approved this document, is delegating the authority to electronically sign this document to Robert F. Altneu, who is the Director of the Regulations and Disclosure Law Division for CBP, for purposes of publication in the Federal Register.
Robert F. Altneu, Director, Regulations & Disclosure Law Division, Regulations & Rulings, Office of Trade, U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Approved: March 9, 2021.
Timothy E. Skud Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.
FR Doc. 202105173 Filed 31021; 8:45 am BILLING CODE 911114P

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training Administration 20 CFR Parts 655 and 656
Docket No. ETA20200006
RIN 1205AC00

Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Immigrants and Non-Immigrants in the United States;
Delay of Effective Date Employment and Training Administration, Department of Labor.
ACTION: Final rule; delay of effective date.
AGENCY:

On February 1, 2021, the Department of Labor DOL or Department proposed to delay the effective date of the final rule entitled Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States, published in the Federal Register on January 14, 2021, for a period of 60
days. The Department proposed to delay the effective date of the final rule until May 14, 2021, in accordance with the Presidential directive as expressed in the memorandum of January 20, 2021, from the Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, entitled Regulatory Freeze Pending Review. As stated in the proposal, the 60-day delay would allow agency officials the opportunity to review any questions of fact, law, or policy. The Department invited written comments from the public for 15 days on the proposed delay of effective date.
All comments had to be received by February 16, 2021. The Department received 57 comments from the
SUMMARY:

VerDate Sep<11>2014

19:32 Mar 11, 2021

Jkt 253001

stakeholder community. The Department has reviewed the comments received in response to the proposal and will delay the effective date of the final rule for a period of 60 days.
DATES: As of March 12, 2021, the effective date of the final rule published on January 14, 2021, at 86 FR 3608, is delayed until May 14, 2021.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Brian Pasternak, Administrator, Office of Foreign Labor Certification, Employment and Training Administration, Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Room N
5311, Washington, DC 20210, telephone:
202 6938200 this is not a toll-free number. Individuals with hearing or speech impairments may access the telephone numbers above via TTY/TDD
by calling the toll-free Federal Information Relay Service at 1 877
8895627.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background and Basis for Proposed Delay On January 14, 2021, the Department published a final rule in the Federal Register, which adopted with changes an Interim Final Rule IFR that amended Employment and Training Administration ETA regulations governing the prevailing wages for employment opportunities that United States U.S. employers seek to fill with foreign workers on a permanent or temporary basis through certain employment-based immigrant visas or through H1B, H1B1, or E3 nonimmigrant visas. Specifically, the IFR
amended the Departments regulations governing permanent PERM labor certifications and Labor Condition Applications LCAs to incorporate changes to the computation of wage levels under the Departments fourtiered wage structure based on the Occupational Employment Statistics OES wage survey administered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics BLS. 86 FR
3608. Although the final rule contained an effective date of March 15, 2021, the Department also included a delayed implementation period under which adjustments to the new wage levels will not begin until July 1, 2021. 86 FR 3608, 3642. A general overview of the labor certification and prevailing wage process as well as further background on the rulemaking is available in the Departments final rule, as published in the Federal Register on January 14, 2021, and will not be restated herein.
On February 1, 2021, the Department published a notice in the Federal Register proposing to delay the effective date of the final rule for 60 days from
PO 00000

Frm 00025

Fmt 4700

Sfmt 4700

13995

March 15, 2021, until May 14, 2021. The Department based this action on the Presidential directive as expressed in the memorandum of January 20, 2021, from the Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, entitled Regulatory Freeze Pending Review. The memorandum directs agencies to consider delaying the effective date for regulations for the purpose of reviewing questions of fact, law, and policy raised therein. Accordingly, ETA proposed to delay the effective date for the final rule entitled Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States to May 14, 2021, given the complexity of the regulation.
II. Public Comments Received The Department invited written comment in its February 1, 2021 notice on its proposal to delay the effective date of the final rule, including the proposed delays impact on any legal, factual, or policy issues raised by the underlying final rule and whether further review of those issues warrants such a delay. The Department further stated that all other comments on the underlying final rule would be considered to be outside the scope of this rulemaking. The February 1, 2021
notice provided a 15-day comment period on the proposed delay, with comments to be submitted electronically at http www.regulations.gov/ using docket number ETA20200006.
ETA received 57 unique comments on its proposal to delay the effective date by 60 days to May 14, 2021. Of the 57
comments, 36 were reviewed and determined out of scope either because they were comments exclusively on the final rule and did not address the proposed delay, concerned another agencys rule, or were general statements. The remaining 21 comments were reviewed and determined within the scope of the request for comments.
Of these, 17 commenters supported the delay. Four commenters opposed the delay based on their overall support of the final rule.
A. Comments Supporting a Delayed Effective Date Seventeen commenters supported the proposed delay of the effective date of the final rule, citing disapproval of the final rule overall, concerns that the process in adopting the final rule was rushed, fears that the wage data supporting the final rule was inaccurate, and the need to more thoroughly review the final rule. One commenter stated it is in favor of the proposed delay of effective date and provided a policy
E:FRFM12MRR1.SGM

12MRR1