Washington Update – May 22, 2014 ift.tt/1gnvefO Washington Update – May 22, 2014 Parties reach deal on workforce act House and Senate negotiators on Wednesday announced a bipartisan deal to consolidate federal job training programs in a rare election-year breakthrough. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act would eliminate 15 federal programs and overhaul requirements throughout the job training system. The congressional agreement is a compromise between the House-passed Skills Act and a Senate bill that advanced out of committee last year but never received a floor vote. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the House would vote on the bill as soon as it cleared the Senate, adding that he hoped it would lead to more bipartisan agreements, particularly on jobs bills that the House has already passed. The agreement was struck by a bipartisan group of seven House and Senate members including Patty Murray, Chairman of the committee in charge of Senate work-force issues, Rep. John Kline and Senator Tom Harkin. Republicans involved in the negotiations said Wednesday that while they compromised in many details, the agreement adhered to four central principals they had included in the Skills Act: consolidation of programs, increased accountability metrics, a focus on training for in- demand jobs and lower administrative costs. The GOP’s Skills Act called for the elimination of 35 federal programs while the Senate version would have eliminated six. They compromised at 15. The federal workforce laws, first written in 1998, had been overdue for reauthorization for more than a decade. The new agreement is a six year bill. It has not yet been scored by the Congressional Budget Office. There is no timetable for when it will come up for a vote in the Senate. The White House praised the lawmakers but stopped short of voicing explicit support for the legislation. While the House bill kept funding at 2012 levels, the final agreement authorizes a 17% increase through 2020 in line with the agreement Murray struck with Paul Ryan in December. The bill reduces the size of the state and local workforce boards. It retains a federal youth training program and many protections for migrant, seasonal and Native American workers that were either eliminated or turned into block grants in the House bill. The accountability measures would require programs demonstrate that they had met thresholds for job placement and wages or risk losing funds. Julian Martinez Washington, DC [email protected] ift.tt/1728HQg
Posted on: Thu, 22 May 2014 18:38:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015