Despite daunting issues in workforce development, success that results from collaboration and real cooperation were obvious on the Employment and Training Council’s (ETC) site visit in New Orleans during the 67th Annual Conference. ETC members visited the Treme neighborhood, the oldest African-American community in the country, which is undergoing a renaissance. Dinner was hosted at Treme’s Corner Cafe, where out-of-school youth are trained in food service and restaurant management while obtaining GEDs. The following day ETC members toured a housing project, where the National Center for the Urban Community was established in conjunction with Tulane and Xavier Universities, to provide job assistance to residents. They also visited the Marriott Hotel and learned about its national welfare-to-work job program.

The dilemma of the disproportionate numbers of former Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF) recipients remaining on the rolls in cities was on the minds of the workforce development professionals who came together to discuss welfare-to-work and the regulations under the new Workforce Investment Act (WIA). Over 30 ETC members, DOL officials and guests from the Center of Law and Social Policy and the Northeastern University Center for Labor Market Studies were in New Orleans.

Many ETC members stated that cities may loose their identity, as a result of incorporation with larger SDAs. This may alienate the inner-city poor from jobs, where transportation is an issue. ETC members urged mayors and local elected officials to examine labor market demand in their cities when considering changes in SDAs, and called for the need to conduct a survey on labor market restrictions which exist in urban areas. ETC members agreed with findings in a February 1999 article from the Brookings Institute and urged utilizing economic resources in cities so as to serve the inner-city poor.

According to the Brookings report, urban areas bear the burden of welfare cases in their states despite a national reduction in the number of recipients receiving welfare. However, it is the concentration of welfare cases in cities that still represent the most under-served and unskilled sector of poverty in our country. In an update on "Welfare-to-Work" and the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Stephen Heyman, the newly appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Labor, shared information with ETC members. In April, Representative Benjamin Cardin (MD) introduced H.R. 1482, which would reauthorize Welfare-to-Work funds in the amount of $1 billion for an additional year. Heyman stated that H.R. 1482 "reflects the [Clinton] Administration’s priorities" and places a greater emphasis on the role of non-custodial parents. Yet, the passage of Cardin’s legislation, and Sen. Daniel Akaka’s (HI) similar bill about to be introduced in the Senate, poses a "significant challenge" due to budget pressures, according to Heyman.

Heyman suggested that because of the $3 million TANF surplus, there may be Congressional resistance to fund the Welfare-to-Work program, and stressed the need for support of the reauthorization saying: "we want people, at the local and state level, to come together to discuss what their challenges are."

The Department of Labor is facing significant challenges for many of its programs, including the newly introduced Youth Opportunity Grants program, due to delays and dissension in passing appropriations bills in the House. A significant reduction in budget authority over President Clinton’s FY 2000 request could jeopardize the summer jobs program and possibly eliminate the Youth Opportunity Act if the funding cut reduces the appropriation for youth to under $1 billion.

Eric Johnson, Director of the WIA Implementation Task Force, and Dennis Lieberman, Director of the Office of Welfare-to-Work, both of the Department of Labor, provided more Washington perspective at the ETC meeting. Johnson reminded the group that the comment period for the Interim Final Rule (IFR) would end July 14, and that a "full, comprehensive, and relevant performance package" may be released by the end of the year. Johnson stressed the need for ETC support of WIA implementation, saying, "this is a locally owned, not federally run, process." Johnson spent three days sharing information with the ETC members. In addition DOL Assistant Secretary Raymond Bramucci addressed members prior to his meeting with the Mayor’s Jobs, Education and the Workforce Committee.

Dennis Lieberman responded to a June 1, 1999 Associated Press article, which argued that welfare-to-work funds are not being spent properly. According to Lieberman "this does not paint a pretty picture" of the welfare-to-work effort in general. Lieberman stated that this kind of bad press, threatens Cardin’s legislation. ETC members agreed with Lieberman that the public should not expect grant results right away, when the infrastructure is not in place yet. In response to these criticisms, DOL will sponsor several TANF/WtW problem-solving conferences in the near future that will bring federal, state, and local authorities together.

Other speakers at the meeting included ETC Vice President, Conny Doty, Director of Jobs and Community Services in Boston, where a one-stop system has been implemented, complete with membership cards and hand-held scanners. The $11,000 effort has cut down on paperwork, promoted better customer service and a created a higher degree of integrity in dealing with clients, according to Doty. The system was lauded by other ETC members and represents a new innovation in government assistance programs.

Mark Greenberg, of the Center on Law and Social Policy, offered a clear picture of what has happened since President Clinton’s TANF law took effect in 1996, with the number of families on welfare dropping dramatically from 5 million in 1996 to 2.8 million families in December 1998. General trends in the economy have "made work pay" for many former welfare recipients, through the Earned Income Tax Credit, expansions in child care subsidies and Medicaid, and a slight increase in the minimum wage.

Neil Fogg, Labor Economist at the Northeastern University Center for Labor Market Studies, presented the daunting challenges of the workforce development system in our country. Despite the booming economy, many residents in cities, particularly youth, are either not entering or ascending in the labor market. Earnings are determined by educational attainment, basic skills, family background and the industry and occupation of work. With the work-first environment in WTW and WIA , the task of preparing a quality workforce is even more challenging. Fogg closed the meeting with expressing his hope that we will get to a place where earnings are higher, as they were in 1973, and where those with the greatest challenges are moving into the economic mainstream in greater numbers. "We can get there again, if we work."