In order to assist in increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of administration of the unemployment compensation program by increasing the number of adequately trained personnel, the Secretary of Labor shall—

(1) provide directly, through State agencies, or through contracts with institutions of higher education or other qualified agencies, organizations, or institutions, programs and courses designed to train individuals to prepare them, or improve their qualifications, for service in the administration of the unemployment compensation program, including claims determinations and adjudication, with such stipends and allowances as may be permitted under regulations of the Secretary;

(2) develop training materials for and provide technical assistance to the State agencies in the operation of their training programs;

(3) under such regulations as he may prescribe, award fellowships and traineeships to persons in the Federal-State employment security agencies, in order to prepare them or improve their qualifications for service in the administration of the unemployment compensation program.

The Secretary may, to the extent that he finds such action to be necessary, prescribe requirements to assure that any person receiving a fellowship, traineeship, stipend or allowance shall repay the costs thereof to the extent that such person fails to serve in the Federal-State employment security program for the period prescribed by the Secretary. The Secretary may relieve any individual of his obligation to so repay, in whole or in part, whenever and to the extent that such repayment would, in his judgment, be inequitable or would be contrary to the purposes of any of the programs established by this section.

The Secretary, with the concurrence of the State, may detail Federal employees to State unemployment compensation administration and the Secretary may concur in the detailing of State employees to the United States Department of Labor for temporary periods for training or for purposes of unemployment compensation administration, and the provisions of section 869b [1] of title 20 or any more general program of interchange enacted by a law amending, supplementing, or replacing section 869b  of title 20 shall apply to any such assignment.

There are hereby authorized to be appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1971, and for each fiscal year thereafter such sums, not to exceed $5,000,000, as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this section.

(Aug. 14, 1935, ch. 531, title IX, § 907, as added Pub. L. 91–373, title I, § 141, Aug. 10, 1970, 84 Stat. 705.)