Strengthening Job Training for American Workers

June 2006

• On March 2, 2005, Workforce Committee leaders – Current Education & the Workforce Committee Chairman, Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) and former Chairman and current House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) – introduced the Job Training Improvement Act (H.R. 27), WIA reauthorization legislation that would strengthen and improve America’s job training system to help states and communities ensure workers get the training they need to find good jobs. 

• Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan says strengthening worker training and education programs is critical to putting Americans back to work and creating jobs.  In testimony before the Education & the Workforce Committee, Greenspan emphasized that providing "rigorous education and ongoing training to all members of our society" is essential for future job growth and worker security in the United States.

The Job Training Improvement Act Builds on 1998 WIA Reforms  

• Passed by the House in March 2005, the Job Training Improvement Act (H.R. 27) builds upon the significant reforms made in the bipartisan Workforce Investment Act (WIA) improvements that were enacted in 1998.  While those reforms have provided workers with the resources and tools necessary to rejoin the workforce or retrain for better jobs, areas of inefficiency and duplication remain. 

• Duplication of services under the current WIA system reduces the amount of money that could be used to efficiently provide job training services to individuals seeking new employment.  Overlap in training programs under current law have contributed to the growth of a confusing patchwork at the state and local level.  Governors and state and local officials need the flexibility to target these resources toward the unique needs of their communities.

• The Job Training Improvement Act would help improve job training opportunities for Americans striving to get back to work by streamlining unnecessary bureaucracy, increasing cooperation among workforce development partners, protecting the rights of faith-based service providers participating or seeking to participate in the job training system, and creating personal reemployment accounts of up to $3,000 to help unemployed Americans purchase job training and other key services. 

Highlights of the Job Training Improvement Act (H.R. 27) include:

• Eliminating duplication and waste: The bill creates a consolidated funding stream to streamline program administration and create more program efficiency at the state and local level.  Funds continue to be targeted for those most in need of critical reemployment services.  Priority is given to unemployed and low-income individuals in the adult grant program.   

• Strengthening employment services to help job seekers get back to work:  Under the bill, employment services continue to be provided as core services in the one stop career centers.  To be clear that such services will continue, the bill incorporates current employment service functions into the description of core services.  For example, the bill requires one stop centers to provide labor exchange services, including job search and placement assistance, as well as appropriate recruitment services for employers.

• Ensuring the one-stop delivery system is demand-driven: The bill requires state and local workforce investment boards to ensure that the system is dynamic and reflective of the workforce needs in the local area, and would increase connections to economic development.  The measure also allows training for incumbent workers so employers may upgrade the skills of current workers, and would encourage the highest caliber training providers, including community colleges, to offer training through the one-stop system.

• Removing barriers to job training: The bill eliminates arbitrary provisions of current law that prevent someone from accessing training immediately if appropriate to meet his or her employment goals.  State and local areas would have the flexibility to tailor services to meet individuals’ needs.

• Protecting the rights of faith-based groups to help train and re-train workers: The bill protects the rights of faith-based organizations participating or seeking to participate in the nation’s job-training system.  Democrat leaders believe faith-based groups should be forced to abandon their religious identities as a condition of participating in the WIA system, arguing such groups should not be allowed to take religion into account when hiring staff.  But the 1964 Civil Rights Act gives faith-based groups the right to hire workers on a religious basis, and President Clinton himself signed a number of major laws upholding this right.