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Appropriations
Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis appeared before the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor-HHS on May 12 and 13 respectively. For the most part, members expressed satisfaction with the major funding decisions proposed, but expressed concern with a few choices. House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (WI) described “gaps that the Administration needs to be aware of and concerned with.”
Although Senator Patty Murray (WA) did not confront Solis on flat-funding for the workforce system at the hearing, she released a statement following the hearing saying “we need to do more to rebuild the system’s capacity and adequately serve our workers.” She expressed particular concern over the lack of continued funding for a Summer Youth employment program.
During both hearings, lawmakers asked about further increases in funding for Job Corps. Murray, in fact, chastised the Secretary for not seeking to expand the program.
The Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee will hold its next hearing on the proposed fiscal 2010 Appropriations for programs under its jurisdiction on May 21.
Appropriations Letters Update
On May 7, President Obama released his FY2010 Budget which level-funds the WIA system and is consistent with the budget reconciliation passed by Congress on April 29th. The Conference of Mayors’ position on the President’s budget is that the lack of a substantial investment in WIA programs will delay cities’ ability to tackle our current economic crisis.
Please ask your mayors and WIB chairs to draft letters supporting this increase in WIA funding. Below are letters to House and Senate Appropriators requesting a significant increase in WIA funding for fiscal year 2010, a sample Appropriations letter, and an Appropriations justification chart. Please send copies of all letters to kamoroso@usmayors.org by May 21, 2009.
To view the letter sent to the House Appropriators click here.
To view the letter sent to the Senate Appropriators click here.
To view the sample Appropriations letter click here.
To view the Appropriations justification chart click here.
WIA Reauthorization Hearing Scheduled for House Higher Education Lifelong Learning and Competitiveness Subcommittee
The Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee is holding another in its series of field hearings on reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act entitled “New Innovations and Best Practices Under the Workforce Investment Act” on May 29 in Henderson, Nevada.
DOL to Host Webinar on National Emergency Grants under ARRA
The Department of Labor will hold a Webinar entitled National Emergency Grants: Program Design under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Technical Assistance Webinar Series on May 19 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. The Webinar will compliment the guidelines recently issued by the Department of Labor on the National Emergency Grants (NEGs) in the Recovery Act which fund states and other eligible applicants to provide training and employment services to dislocated workers. Specifically the webinar will cover two new types of Recovery Act-funded NEGs: regional economic impact NEGs and formula funds replenishment NEGs created to address the wide-ranging impacts of the economic downturn on local areas resulting in situations which may not satisfy the traditional regular or dual-enrollment NEG criteria.
Registration is limited and is determined on a first-come first-served basis.
To register for the National Emergency Grants: Program Design under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) Webinar click here.
This Webinar will also be recorded and archived on www.workforce3one.org.
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