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Recovery.gov - Track the Money

Recovery.gov is the U.S. government's official website that provides easy access to data
related to Recovery Act spending and allows for the reporting of potential fraud, waste, and abuse.

Agency Reporting


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Program Plan
Department of Labor - Department of Labor: Office of the Solicitor Recovery Plan
Updated 05/15/2009
Objectives
Program Purpose

SOL’s mission is to meet the legal service demands of the entire Department of Labor. As the Secretary of Labor and other Department officials seek to accomplish the Department's overall mission and to further specific priorities, the Office of the Solicitor (SOL) provides legal services and advice regarding how to achieve those goals. In doing so, SOL ensures that the Nation's labor laws are forcefully and fairly applied to protect the Nation's workers.


Public Benefits

As SOL provides the full range of legal support for DOL agencies, SOL activities assist in providing the public benefits available as a result of all activities by all DOL programs. By providing the legal advice necessary to implement DOL’s authority and responsibility under the Recovery Act, as well as by representing the Department’s enforcement agencies in litigation and in preparing for such litigation, SOL helps ensure that worker protection laws are fairly and vigorously enforced and that Recovery Act activities are carried out with appropriate oversight and coordination.


Measures
The measures have been revised to enrich the performance metrics for Recovery targets. In some instances, targets will not be available until additional baseline data has been collected.

MeasureTarget/Actual
2009201020112012
[-] Percent of favorable outcomes in cases submitted for litigation.
0/00/00/00/0

Measure Information
Frequency : Quarterly
Direction : Increasing
Type : Outcome
Explanation : The ultimate measure of SOL's litigation contribution to the achievement of the Department's Strategic Goals is its rate of successful outcomes. SOL has established and seeks to maintain a uniquely high rate of success in litigation. SOL's measure in this regard is congruent with that of other major Federal litigation programs.
Unit : Percent of outcomes
[-] Percent of expenditures compared to the total amount of restitution, recoveries, penalties awarded, and monetary claims defeated
0/0---

Measure Information
Frequency : Quarterly
Direction : Increasing
Type : Efficiency
Explanation : The numerator represents resources used to litigate, based on the percentage of Full-Time Employee (FTE) dedicated to litigation. The denominator is tracked through SOL's case tracking system that records the results of litigation.
Unit : percent of dollars
[-] Hours of Legal Support on Recovery Act-related Activities
608/0---

Measure Information
Frequency : Quarterly
Direction : Increasing
Type : Output
Explanation : This measure tracks the total number of hours spent on Recovery Act-related activities identified in Section 2 of this plan, which will increase by an amount equivalent to the number of Recovery Act-authorized Full Time Employees (FTE) hired by the agency. SOL will not assign Recovery Act work solely to those FTE that are hired with Recovery Act funds, because the location, exigency and complexity of the Recovery Act-related work will require the use of more seasoned staff to be performed efficiently and effectively. SOL has a time and matter reporting system called TD/SOLAR that captures all work time for attorneys and paralegals, but not for executive or administrative support staff. For every FTE (defined as 1 full time employee for 26 pay periods) that SOL hires with ARRA funds, the agency will provide TD/SOLAR generated records from staff attorneys and paralegals who currently report their time specifying at least 1280 hours of time spent performing Recovery Act-related work by SOL staff. SOL is about to implement an additional Recovery Act work time reporting system for the agency's Associate and Regional Solicitors, who comprise the executive staff. When the Recovery Act features are implemented DOL-wide on the People Time system, and have been discussed with the Department's certified employee representatives, SOL will require all staff to begin to enter Recovery Act-related work time as required by the People Time system, and will continue to provide hours that will ultimately reflect 1600 hours of work time per Recovery Act FTE. SOL will provide final statistics using data created from all of these methodologies to establish that the agency's staff has performed the requisite amount of Recovery Act work time to account for each Recovery Act FTE that the agency has hired.
Unit : hours

Schedule and Milestones

No Data Available


Milestones
Milestone Completion Date
Provide Legal Advice and Support
SOL will use the hours available as a result of Recovery Act funding to meet the legal needs of those Department agencies/programs that receive Recovery Act funding. This will enable DOL agencies to meet the milestones they identify in their own Specific Recovery Plan – for meeting such milestones is dependent on the legal advice and support provided at all phases of those plans.		 09/30/2010

Projects and Activities

Under the Recovery Act, SOL will provide the legal advice necessary to assist DOL agencies in implementing all aspects of the Recovery Act, including enforcement of worker protections, oversight and coordination related to the infrastructure and unemployment insurance investments in the Act. Specifically, SOL will use the Recovery Act funding to provide legal advice related to the grants awarded, 13(c) worker protective arrangements certified, administrative procedures and regulatory changes necessitated by the Act, and all worker protection aspects of the Act. SOL will also assist DOL agencies in preparing enforcement cases for litigation based on investigations conducted using resources provided under the Act and in litigating any such enforcement cases that are referred while funding is still available, as well as in assisting the Department of Justice in defending any litigation initiated against DOL based on activities funded by the Recovery Act.

Enforcement-Related Legal Advise and Support - The Recovery Act’s mandate for “enforcement of worker protection laws and regulations,” requires vigorous enforcement of existing worker protection laws, as well as additional worker protections provided in the Recovery Act to ensure that, while economic stimulation efforts are underway, the economic downturns and stimulus activities do not result in diminished worker health and safety, wage protections, equal employment opportunity rights, pension security, and other worker protections. SOL will increase enforcement-related legal advice, and other related “pre-referral” legal services, such as training for agency staff, as soon as practicable after engaging additional employees authorized via the Recovery Act.

Legal Services Related to Oversight Activities - In the area of oversight activities related to the Recovery Act legislation and programs, SOL will provide legal services to all affected agencies of the Department, including ETA and the Office of Job Corps with regard to contract procurement and grants. Such legal services will principally consist of legal advice, and regulatory development.

Legal Services Related to Coordination Activities - A portion of the funding will enable SOL to provide legal services to DOL regarding Recovery Act coordination activities related to the infrastructure and unemployment insurance investments in the Recovery Act. Such legal services will principally consist of legal advice, and regulatory development.


Review Process

The Solicitor’s Office utilizes the Department’s time tracking tool (People Time) as well as a time and case tracking tool (TD/SOLAR) to track total legal work hours related to the Recovery Act. TD/SOLAR is SOL’s internal time and case matter tracking system. TD/SOLAR tracks time based on case name, attorney, statute and agency-client, among other indicators. Attorneys input their time into TD/SOLAR on a regular basis and certify their time at least monthly.

TD/SOLAR generates management reports for review. Management reviews the reports and authenticates the validity of the time reported. Furthermore, performance standards require attorneys to keep time and other administrative matters up-to-date.


Cost and Performance Plan

SOL will report the increased efforts resulting from additional Recovery Act-funded FTE through work hours directed to Recovery Act-related enforcement activities, work hours directed to the other legal services necessary to support the execution of the Recovery Act funding of contracts and grants, and work hours directed to the support of DOL responses to oversight, and administrative coordination activities.

SOL’s reporting methodologies will account for one primary category of time, including the following activities: legal advice and support for all of the new activities required, or made possible, by the Recovery Act, as well as legal services to assist client agencies receiving Recovery Act funds to develop investigations and other enforcement actions before those matters are formally referred to SOL for litigation or other legal activity, and in litigating any enforcement or defensive actions related to activities under the Recovery Act within the relevant period. SOL will track the total number of work hours expended by the agency for Recovery Act related work.

Total legal work hours reported in TD/SOLAR will increase commensurate with the increase in FTE funded under the Recovery Act. The increased hours of work applicable to the Recovery Act will be derived from SOL’s matter management and time reporting system SOLAR/TD. A specific number of Recovery Act-related work hours per year (1280 plus a “roll-up” of 320 hours for management and non-legal-professional assistance, totaling 1600 work hours) will be generated for each Recovery Act funded FTE. Therefore, assuming that SOL receives the equivalent of 22 FTE for 12 month terms, SOL will provide reporting that establishes the agency performed at least 36,200 hours of Recovery Act-related work on a 12 month basis. These Recovery Act-related hours will be recorded as follows:

a. Category 1 TD (legal work attributable to a specific case or legal matter) – A uniform convention will be created for new SOLAR numbers, e.g., all related SOLAR numbers start with “ARRA Impl.”

b. Category 2 TD (legal services attributable to a specific client and/or statute, but not a specific case) – A new “Task Code” will be added to the pull-down menu in TD titled, e.g., “ARRA-related legal services,” which would be selected in lieu of, e.g., “Senior Staff Time” or “Legal Services.” This will allow continued tracking of the specific clients and statutes associated with Recovery Act-related legal services.

Managers will be held accountable for providing effective and timely legal services pursuant to DOL’s Senior Executive Service Performance Management System and all staff will be rated pursuant to annual performance plans. In addition, all SOL attorneys are subject to professional responsibilities under the codes of professional conduct of the states where they maintain bar membership.


Energy Efficiency Spending Plans

NA


Program Plan Award Types
No Data Available