December 19, 2011

The U.S. Conference of Mayors sent on December 9 a bi-partisan Fiscal Year 2012 (FY12) Appropriations Workforce Investment Act (WIA) funding support letter with the signatures of 122 Conference of Mayors members to Appropriation leadership in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

The letter urges legislators to retain the Senate committee-reported provisions that level-fund key workforce development programs, including WIA adult, youth, and dislocated worker training programs, WIA national programs, adult basic education, and career and technical education as they finalize the FY12 Labor-HHS Appropriations bill.

With more than 14 million U.S. workers currently unemployed, and more than six million out of work for six months or more, it is critically important that Congress invest in the programs that put people back to work. While there has never been a more critical time to invest in the American worker, the House Majority's FY12 draft Labor-HHS appropriations bill would eliminate $2.2 billion - almost 75 percent – in funding for WIA programs. These cuts would decimate local workforce systems - eliminating virtually all opportunities for dislocated workers and those needing new skills to access the training they need to find stable employment and depriving businesses of a valuable tool for finding the talent that meets their hiring needs.

There has been a great deal of recent activity surrounding WIA reauthorization on the Hill. On December 8, members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce introduced two proposals to reform the nation's workforce investment system. Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, Virginia Foxx (NC), introduced the Streamlining Workforce Development Programs Act of 2011 (H.R. 3610), which aims to consolidate and streamline "redundant and ineffective federal workforce development programs to increase accountability, reduce administrative bureaucracies and put Americans back to work." Foxx's legislation consolidates 33 programs into four funding streams or "Workforce Investment Funds":

• The bill authorizes $4.3 billion in formula funding annually to states for FY 2013-2018 for a Workforce Investment Fund to provide job training services to adults, unemployed workers and youth;

• The bill authorizes $1.9 billion in formula funding annually to states for FY 2013-2018 for a State Youth Workforce Investment Fund to provide services to disadvantaged youth, with an emphasis on completing school;

• $218 million in formula funding is provided annually to states for FY 2013-2018 to support a Veterans Workforce Investment Fund to serve veterans' employment and training services; and

• The bill authorizes $581 million annually in formula funding to states for FY 2013-2018 for a Targeted Populations Workforce Investment Fund to assist special populations including Native Americans and migrant and seasonal farm workers.

The bill gives governors greater power to designate workforce areas, and requires state and local officials to establish common performance measures for all employment and training programs. It also permits states to submit single workforce development plans for all job training and related programs, including TANF and Perkins. It also repeals authorization for a number of current job training programs including Jobs Corp, Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), Wagner-Peyser programs and others.

That same week, Senators Susan Collins (ME) and Claire McCaskill (MO) announced agreement on a common'sense jobs bill, the Bi-Partisan Jobs Creation Act. The legislation aims to create jobs by cutting taxes on business and investing in the nation's critical transportation infrastructure; and it is paid-for with a surtax on taxpayers earning more than $1 million annually and an end to tax giveaways to big oil companies. The proposal includes an extension of the payroll tax cut.

The plan, which the Senators' said can earn broad bi-partisan support, aims to put Americans back to work by extending the tax cuts for small businesses and American workers; providing an infusion of tens of billions of dollars to rebuild and repair roads and bridges and help ensure a sage water supply; cutting federal red tape for manufactures and employers; and consolidating and strengthening federal job training programs.

The bill requires the Office of Management and Budget to reduce the number of job training programs and administrative costs at the federal, state, and local level. All remaining programs would be consolidated under one federal agency, with half the resulting savings going to Individual Training Accounts and the other half going to deficit reduction.

With the unemployment rate at an alarmingly high level, the number one priority of the American people and America's mayors is saving and creating jobs in our county. Through this letter, the Conference of Mayors members draw attention to the vital importance of building upon the locally-based business'led workforce system originally established in WIA.