WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Labor on Wednesday opened a new national application portal for a $35.8 million incentive fund that will pay Registered Apprenticeship sponsors $3,500 for each new apprentice hired into advanced manufacturing programs, a results-based push the department says is built to accelerate President Donald Trump’s drive to reach and surpass 1 million active apprentices.
The American Manufacturing Apprenticeship Incentive Fund uses a pay-for-performance model intended to spur employers to start, expand, or join existing Registered Apprenticeship programs in advanced manufacturing, with an emphasis on helping small and mid-sized manufacturers compete for skilled labor. The portal will accept applications on a rolling basis until all available funds have been obligated, according to the department.
“By helping our manufacturers secure the talent they need, we are advancing President Trump’s mission to revitalize and restore America’s economic dominance,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in the announcement, calling the initiative a pathway to “mortgage-paying careers” and saying the partnership will connect employers to skilled workers needed for future productivity.
The program will be administered by the Arkansas Department of Commerce’s Division of Workforce Services under a cooperative agreement with the federal government, in partnership with the Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the partnership links innovation with measurable outcomes for manufacturers while aiming to ensure taxpayer dollars deliver results.
Eligible applicants include Registered Apprenticeship program sponsors as well as group sponsors or consortia. The Labor Department directed applicants to the portal at https://arkansasofficeofskillsdevelopmentaamiprogram.submittable.com/submit.
The incentive-fund launch was part of a string of late-January Labor Department actions that also included moving National Apprenticeship Week to the spring, unveiling a major proposed rule targeting pharmacy benefit manager fee transparency, and highlighting enforcement recoveries and litigation positions tied to federal benefits law.
Also on Wednesday, the department said National Apprenticeship Week 2026 will run from Sunday, April 26, through Saturday, May 2, shifting the annual showcase to the spring under the theme “America at Work: Making America Skilled Again Through Registered Apprenticeship.” The department said events across all 50 states and U.S. territories will spotlight apprenticeships in fields including skilled trades, advanced manufacturing, shipbuilding, artificial intelligence, and nuclear energy, while encouraging employers, educators, unions, and state agencies to host events and promote the model.
On Thursday, the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration issued a proposed regulation that it described as a landmark effort to force new disclosures of fees and compensation received by pharmacy benefit managers, the powerful intermediaries that negotiate and manage prescription drug benefits for employer-sponsored self-insured health plans covering about 90 million Americans. Chavez-DeRemer said the proposal would deliver “unprecedented transparency to an otherwise opaque industry,” while Deputy Secretary Keith Sonderling said it would help employers see the scope of fees and negotiate better deals for workers.
The proposal would require PBMs to disclose, among other information, manufacturer rebates and other payments, compensation tied to pricing spreads when the amount paid by a plan exceeds what a pharmacy is reimbursed, and payments recouped from pharmacies connected to prescriptions dispensed to a plan. The rule would also allow plan fiduciaries to audit PBM disclosures and provide additional relief if a PBM fails to meet disclosure obligations. The department said comments will be due Tuesday, March 31, 2026, which is 60 days after its Friday, January 30 publication in the Federal Register.
Also on Friday, the department recognized 888 employers at a Thursday ceremony at the Frances Perkins Building with the 2025 HIRE Vets Medallion Award, a federal program created by law signed by Trump in 2017 that honors employers for recruiting, employing, and retaining military veterans. Chavez-DeRemer said recipients ranged from small-town businesses to Fortune 500 companies and reflected the value employers see in veteran talent.
In another Friday action, the Labor Department filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to affirm dismissal of claims in Barragan v. Honeywell Int’l Inc., a case involving allegations that an employer breached fiduciary duties by not using forfeited funds to pay plan expenses. The department argued that the plaintiff offered only a bare allegation despite plan language providing discretion, and it rejected the idea of a per se rule requiring forfeitures to be used for administrative costs rather than reducing future employer contributions. The brief is posted at https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OPA/newsreleases/2026/01/EBSA20260176.pdf.
The department also said Friday that EBSA recovered more than $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2025 for retirement, health, and welfare benefit plans, participants, and beneficiaries, with more than half attributed to enforcement actions. EBSA said it protects more than 156 million workers, retirees, and family members covered by millions of health and retirement plans holding about $13.8 trillion in assets. Employers and workers can seek help at askebsa.dol.gov or by calling 866-444-3272, the agency said.
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