The Department of Labor announced proposed rules and modernization for Registered Apprenticeship that seeks to promote equity and innovation; strengthen protections; and improve outcomes. 

A few of the key provisions include:

• More stringent rules on how Office of Apprenticeship (OA) will determine an occupation is suitable for registered apprenticeship. 
• Creation of a Registered Career & Technical Education (CTE) Apprenticeship
• Revised guidelines on what all Registered Apprenticeship Standards must include, such as:
• Sponsor’s procedure for selection of apprentices
• Completion of at least 144 hours of related instruction for every 2,000 hours of on-the-job training. This would be an increase of 32 hours for Local 139 apprenticeship.
• Documentation of qualifications and experience of trainers
• Description of interim credentials, postsecondary credits, or occupational licenses/certificates that will be earned during apprenticeship
• A formal process for assessing and providing feedback to the apprentice
• A probationary process not greater than 25% of the program or 1 year
• Provide same worker allowances offered to non-apprentices (family/medical leave, workers’ comp, health and retirement benefits)
• Graduated schedule of increasing wages with at least 1 step increase during first 2000 hours and final wage at least 75% of journeyworker wage
• Revised guidelines on apprenticeship agreements
• A description of supportive services available to the apprentice (child care, transportation, tools, etc) to address potential barriers to participation
• Nature and amounts amount of unreimbursed apprentice costs
• Statement that addresses if related instruction is counted as hours worked and what the rate and fringe benefit will be.
• Cannot include a non-complete or non-disclosure provision
• Require an end point assessment to measure the apprentie’s acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies necessary to demonstrate proficiency in the occupation

To obtain additional information on all of the proposed rules for Registered Apprenticeship or to contribute comments during the comment period that is open until March 18th, please contact Laura Cataldo at laura.cataldo@bakertilly.com 

Electric vehicle legislation passes Senate with near unanimous support despite local government concerns

A bipartisan effort to unlock federal funding to expand electric vehicle charging stations in Wisconsin is gaining steam in the state Legislature.

Two bills authored by State Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, passed the state Senate this week with near unanimous support.

The measures are aimed at bringing Wisconsin’s fledgling electric vehicle charging infrastructure into compliance with the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. If successful, they’d unlock around $78 million in federal funding to build what are called Level 3 DC Fast Electric Vehicle Charging Stations every 50 miles on major state highways. 

Until current state law — which only allows regulated utilities to charge for electricity — is changed, the funding is out of reach. 

On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Senate passed both bills by a margin of 30-2.

One bill would create an exemption from utility regulations for private businesses that own and operate vehicle charging stations, require those stations to charge by the kilowatt-hour rather than per-hour. The other would authorize the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to use the federal funds to expand charging station infrastructure. 

Clean Wisconsin Government Relations Director Erik Kanter said Wisconsin is an outlier when it comes to regulating charging stations.

“Wisconsin and Nebraska are the only two states who haven’t made these changes or have these changes already in statute,” Kanter said. “So we’re sort of at the tail end of this. So, we need these bills to pass so that we can access this funding and get EV charging infrastructure built out in Wisconsin.”

While the bills have wide ranging support from utility companies, electric cooperatives, conservation groups and local governments, concerns have been raised about how they treat municipalities that have already installed electric vehicle charging stations. 

Local governments are generally prohibited from owning, operating or leasing the stations under the legislation, but amendments to one of the bills allow municipalities to own slower Level 1 and Level 2 stations and offer them for public use free of charge.

Eau Claire County Recycling and Sustainability Coordinator Regan Watts said the county spent around $76,000 when it installed three Level 2 chargers in 2022. 

“So, either we would be covering the bill on that electricity usage or we would just not provide it to the public, which is not what our aim was initially,” Watts said. “We wanted to provide them as a service to the public for those using our facilities, if they wanted to, and then for our own fleet.” 

Watts said the county was only interested in recouping its costs with the chargers and didn’t intend to make a profit. Still, she said, the county supports the legislation. 



“We know the funding is important,” Watts said. “And for the state at large, it’s important that those funding comes through.”

With the Senate’s blessing, the bills now head back to the Wisconsin Assembly, which passed a similar version of the plans earlier this session.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s (WisDOT) new interactive map and dashboard shows where federal discretionary grants were awarded to communities, municipalitie, and Tribes across the state. With more than $888 million coming into Wisconsin for transportation infrastructure projects, the impact of federal investments can be seen in all corners of the state. 

“WisDOT is committed to improving Wisconsin’s infrastructure, public safety and the future of our transportation system. This innovative map illustrates the state's efforts to meet these goals, maximize federal funding opportunities and improve the quality of life for everyone in Wisconsin,” WisDOT Secretary Craig Thompson said. 

​Geographic information systems (GIS) technology enables the map to be interactive. Users can zoom in and out on locations across the state, select a dot on the map to view a federal discretionary grant program and see detailed project information and links to project fact sheets. 

Various tabs display customized information, with data from discretionary grant funding opportunities since 2009, including:

• Applicant type 
• Federal agency grant program 
• Type of grant
• Federal agency

The charts are also interactive. Users can easily filter projects in the map view by selecting a bar or pie piece. The Proposed Award Total tallies the amount awarded by the issuing agencies.

WisDOT’s Summary Guide to Federal Discretionary Grants provides specifics on abbreviations used. It also includes detailed information on the discretionary grant by agency, program description, helpful links and more. The summary information covers the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and Appropriations Act (AA) discretionary grant opportunities.



​WisDOT’s active approach is helping communities identify federal funding available through the highly competitive discretionary grant process. A list of Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFO), calendar showing grant openings, tips on how to apply, and a simple tool to request a letter of support is available at wisconsindot.gov/BIL.

In November, North Star Policy Action published a report that details the extent of taxpayer support for low-road construction practices that exploit immigrants and other at-risk workers. We identified several problem contractors operating in Minnesota who have a history of worker abuse, and demonstrated that they're still being employed on publicly subsidized housing projects.

Today, the American Prospect published a story that digs into this problem further, specifically as it relates to United Properties which is owned by the billionaire Pohlad family in Minnesota. We know this isn't just a problem in Minnesota. If your organization would like to dig into this problem in your state, we're happy to talk about how we gathered our data in partnership with local unions and worker justice orgs. 

by: Martha G. Pugh , David L. Wochner , Matthew H. Leggett , Mary Burke Baker , Rebecca J. Kim and Nathan C. Howe of K&L Gates  - K&L Gates HUB

On 22 December 2023, the US Treasury Department (Treasury) released the highly anticipated Proposed Regulations relating to the Clean Hydrogen Production Credit (hydrogen credit) under the US Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Code),1 Section 45V (Proposed Regulations).2 We provide a high-level overview of the Proposed Regulations below. 

• The Proposed Regulations would define key terms, such as “lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions,” “qualified clean hydrogen,” “provisional emissions rates,” and “qualified clean hydrogen production facility.” They propose rules for:
• Determining lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions rates resulting from hydrogen production processes;
• Petitioning for provisional emissions rates; 
• Verifying hydrogen production and sale or use of clean hydrogen via an unrelated, qualified verifier; 
• Modifying or retrofitting existing qualified clean hydrogen production facilities; 
• Using electricity from certain renewable or zero-emissions sources to produce qualified clean hydrogen;
• Electing to treat part of a specified clean hydrogen production facility instead as property eligible for the energy credit; and
• Determining the service date for modified and retrofitted facilities. 

The rules would include designation of the applicable Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) Model. These rules, if adopted, would greatly inform the feedstock eligibility criteria for qualifying clean hydrogen, and likely will have a dramatic impact on the development at-scale of the hydrogen value chain in the United States. Treasury is seeking further comments on many topics that will inform the final regulations.