EVALUATION.

SEC. 127. EVALUATION. (a) Amendment.—Part A of title I (29 U.S.C. 720 et seq.) (as amended by section 126(a)), is further amended by adding at the end the following: “SEC. 106. EVALUATION STANDARDS AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS. “(a) Establishment.— “(1) In general.—The Commissioner shall, not later than September 30, 1994, establish and publish evaluation standards and performance indicators for the vocational rehabilitation program under this title. “(2) Measures.—The standards and indicators shall include outcome and related measures of program performance that facilitate and in no way impede the accomplishment of the purpose and policy of this title. “(3) Comment.—The standards and indicators shall be developed with input from State vocational rehabilitation agencies, related professional and consumer organizations, recipients of vocational rehabilitation services, and other interested parties. The Commissioner shall publish in the Federal Register a notice of intent to regulate regarding the development of proposed standards and indicators. Proposed standards and indicators shall be published in the Federal Register for review and comment. Final standards and indicators shall be published in the Federal Register. “(b) Compliance.— “(1) State reports.—In accordance with regulations established by the Secretary, each State shall report to the Commissioner after the end of each fiscal year the extent to which the State is in compliance with the standards and indicators. “(2) Program improvement.— “(A) Plan.—If the Commissioner determines that the performance of any State is below established standards, the Commissioner shall provide technical assistance to the State and the State and the Commissioner shall jointly develop a program improvement plan outlining the specific actions to be taken by the State to improve program performance. “(B) Review.— The Commissioner shall— “(i) review the program improvement efforts of the State on a biannual basis and, if necessary, request the State to make further revisions to the plan to improve performance; and “(ii) continue to conduct such reviews and request such revisions until the State sustains satisfactory performance over a period of more than 1 year. “(c) Withholding.—If the Commissioner determines that a State whose performance falls below the established standards has failed to enter into a program improvement plan, or is not complying substantially with the terms and conditions of such a program improvement plan, the Commissioner shall, consistent with sub-sections (c) and (d) of section 107, reduce or make no further payments to the State under this program, until the State has entered into an approved program improvement plan, or satisfies the Commissioner that the State is complying substantially with the terms and conditions of such a program improvement plan, as appropriate. 106 STAT. 4386 “(d) Report to Congress.—Beginning in fiscal year 1996, the Commissioner shall include in each annual report to the Congress under section 13 an analysis of program performance, including relative State performance, based on the standards and indicators.”. (b) Technical Amendment.— The table of contents relating to the Act is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 105 (as added by section 126(b)) the following: “Sec. 106. Evaluation standards and performance indicators.”.