On May 18, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved, by voice vote, a bill (S. 1021) to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) (P.L. 105-220). Enacted by Congress in 1998, WIA consolidated more than 60 job training programs into block grants to states and established a centralized, one-stop delivery system providing federally funded employment and training services. The House approved its version of the bill (H.R. 27) on March 2 (see The Source, 3/4/05).
Sponsored by Chair Mike Enzi (R-WY), the Workforce Investment Act Amendments would reauthorize WIA through FY2011. Unlike the House bill, the Senate bill would not combine into one funding stream the WIA adult program, the WIA dislocated worker program, and the employment services state grants. The measure also would not include a House provision allowing faith-based organizations to consider religion in the hiring of individuals. In addition, S. 1021 would not authorize a Personal Reemployment Accounts demonstration program that was included in the House bill.
During the mark-up, Sen. Enzi stated that today “we are facing an economic challenge that threatens our ability as a nation to compete in the global economy…This bill provides the important resources that are needed to prepare our workforce with the skills necessary for jobs and careers in high-wage and high-skilled occupations.”
S. 1021 would authorize such sums as necessary for dislocated worker employment and training activities. States could use funds to develop strategies for effectively addressing hard-to-serve populations, including single parents and single pregnant women; implement innovative programs for displaced homemakers; and create programs to increase the number of individuals training for nontraditional employment.
The measure would create a Youth Challenge Grant program to provide job training for youth aged 14-21 to assist them in acquiring the skills, credentials, and employment experience that are necessary to succeed in the labor market. Activities could include training and internships for out-of-school youth; dropout prevention activities for in-school youth; activities designed to assist special youth populations; activities combining remediation of academic skills, work readiness training, and work experience, including linkages to postsecondary education, apprenticeships, and career-ladder employment; and activities, including work experience, paid internships, and entrepreneurial training, in areas where there is a migration of youth out of the area. In general, not more than 60 percent of the funds available for youth activities could be used for in-school youth.
The bill would establish a National Institute for Literacy to identify the “effectiveness of instructional practices and organizational strategies relating to literacy programs on the acquisition of skills in reading, writing, English acquisition, and mathematics.” The Department of Education would administer the institute. A National Institute for Literacy Advisory Board also would be established under the bill.
