§51706 Centers of Excellence for Domestic Maritime Workforce Training and Education

Summary

The Secretary of Transportation can name a qualifying training organization a "center of excellence" for domestic maritime workforce training for a 5-year period. The Secretary can take the name away if the organization is found to have done fraud, broken laws, or faced disciplinary or other adverse actions. The Secretary may give maritime career training grants to these centers to create, run, or improve career and technical training programs for United States maritime workers. To get a grant, a center must send a proposal that explains the project, how it meets worker training needs, past experience, how it fixes gaps in current training, and how employers plan to hire those trained. Grants are given competitively based on proposal quality, likely job outcomes for graduates, and past or future demand for training. The Secretary must post a Notice of Funding Opportunity within 90 days after the appropriations Act for the year, and must award grants within 270 days. Unspent grant money stays available for future grants. No more than 3 percent of funds may be used for grant administration. A center that received funds under section 54101(a)(2) for training in a fiscal year cannot get these grants in the same year. Grant money must be used for priority training activities and to upgrade workers’ skills, including required certifications and technical skills. A "covered training entity" must be in a State that borders the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean, Long Island Sound, Pacific Ocean, Great Lakes, or the Mississippi River System, and must be a postsecondary school, vocational school, nonprofit training provider, registered apprenticeship sponsor, or an earlier designated maritime training center. It must show success in maritime training and have no recent disciplinary, unresolved audit, or criminal actions. Other defined terms refer to Arctic (per Arctic Research and Policy Act section 112), career and technical education (per Carl D. Perkins section 3(5)), Secretary = Secretary of Transportation, training program (per WIOA section 134(c)(3)(D)), and the United States maritime industry (design, build, repair, operate, man, and supply vessels across trade and non‑commercial activities including recreational boating and research).