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The Conference CoMmittee is presently deliberating on CETA amendments. Senate Bill S2570 3/ includes the Nelson ~_~endment which would reinstitute th~ procedure of bench- marking unemployment rates of 28 large S~SA's and nine central cities to the Current. Populafion Survey, a pro- cedure used prior to January !978. This ~~mendment was proposed because dropping the CPS benchmark and using the official BLS unemployment rate would lower the unemployment rate for these 'areas and their CETA allocations would con- sequently be affected. The Amendment would allow either of two methods to be used to calculate unemployment, depending on whick method produced the higher estimate: the official BLS rate or the rate benchmarked to the CPS. Defense ~anmower Policy 4A. This program designates labor surp!u's ar~a~ which receive preference for obtaining contracts from Government agencies. ?he methodology used to determ!ne the unemployment rate, upon which the designation for preference is based, is calculated in the same way as in the CE?A program. Thus, if ~ county is in a multi-county SMSA, its unemployment rate is disaggre- gated from the SMSA total, but if the county is not in a multi-county S~SA, an independent estimate is made. As is the case with CETA, there is no systematic bias in the way these rates are determined. A change in SMSA status may or may not benefit a particular county. Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (P.L. 87-30). The provisions or this Act which pertain to S~.~SA"s are Section 207, which sets maximum hours for employees, and Section 213, which exempts from that prpvision announcers, news editors, and chief engineers at radio and television studios in cities and towns with populations less than 100,000, unless that city or town is in an S~SA with a total population above 100,000. Labor Market Information Program. This Orooram is manaa~e~ un,er Section 312 Of CE?A and instructs the Department of Labor to establish a comprehensive system of labor market information on a national, State, local, or other aporopriate basis. Under this Program, SMSA definitions are used to provide many kinds of local information. If the geographic area of an S~SA expands considerably, it becomes more difficult for the program to me~ the need for local data. ? This bill was passe~ ~y the Congress in October 1978.