Statement of Administration Policy: S. 143 - Workforce Development Act of 1995

(Senate)
(Sens. Kassebaum (R) KS and Kerrey (D) NE)

The Administration supports S. 143 for purposes of Senate passage. The Administration supports several key features of S. 143, including: substantial program consolidation and simplification; establishing a one-stop career center delivery system for adult training; providing a clear role for State and local education agencies in the administration of workforce education programs; and targeting workforce education funds to areas with the greatest need. It also ensures strong connections between the workforce development system and the vocational rehabilitation system. The Administration is also pleased that S. 143 provides support for States and local communities to continue the implementation of their School-to-Work Opportunities Act plans.

The Administration continues to have many significant concerns with the bill and will work to address these concerns during Senate-House conference. Among the most significant concerns are:

• Insufficient empowerment of adult trainees through Skill Grants. A key component of the President's G.I. Bill for America's Workers is to put training resources directly into the hands of adults through Skill Grants, enabling them to choose the education and training that best meets their needs. Skill Grants would support accountability with a market-driven system based on personal responsibility- informed customer choice, and provider competition. We understand that bi-partisan modifications to S. 143 are under consideration which would signify that Skill Grants should play an important role in training for adults. These welcome modifications, however, are still not sufficient to ensure that workers will be able to exercise choice and that the training offered under S. 143 will be responsive to their diverse needs and the demands of the labor market.
  
  
• Insufficient funding when compared to the needs of the workforce and the economy. While the President has proposed to increase funding for vocational education and training programs by $1 billion, S. 143 would cut funding by about 15 percent. It would also reduce any Administration's ability to directly aid victims of mass layoffs and defense downsizing through targeted grants administered at the national level. Reduced authorization levels undermine the ability to provide American workers with the job training, education, and employment services they need to meet the demands of the 2ist century. In addition, the bill does not provide adequate national leadership funds for data collection, research, evaluation, technical assistance, and dissemination of effective practices.
  
  
• Inadequate accountability for 38 billion in Federal training and vocational education funds. S. 143 lacks clear, firm lines of accountability and responsibility between the Federal Government and States. At the Federal level, S. 143 would establish an unwieldy new bureaucracy under the direction of a part-time National Board, which could not assure taxpayers that Federal funds were achieving the goals of improving workers' skills, facilitating individuals' transition from school-to-work, and helping severely disadvantaged people enter the education and work mainstream.
  
  S. 143 may pose problems under the Appointments Clause of the Constitution by requiring the President to select certain members of the National Board from a limited pool of State Governors and education providers, and by imposing a political affiliation restriction upon the President's choice with respect to two of the National Board members.
  
  
• Downsizing and eliminating the successful Job Corps as a national program. By devolving Job Corps to the States, S. 143 would create over 40 costly, duplicative State administrative arrangements for Job Corps. The provisions to close 25 Job Corps centers would effectively deny opportunities for about one in four seriously disadvantaged youth currently served, despite the program's proven success in turning around the lives of young people.
  
  
• Elimination of Trade Adjustment Assistance retraining services. In repealing the TAA and NAFTA/TAA training programs, S. 143 retreats from our long-standing, special commitment to workers dislocated by our trade policies. This commitment was renewed less than two years aero when NAFTA passed, and last Fall when GATT passed.

There are a number of additional aspects of the bill that the Administration believes need to be improved by the Senate or in conference. .These issues include: targeting services to those most in need — including dislocated workers, economically disadvantaged adults, and displaced homemakers; ensuring the establishment of private sector-led local workforce development boards that would provide a significant continuing local role in workforce development; and dedicated funding that would allow for a summer jobs program to serve disadvantaged youth at a level comparable to the current program.

Finally, the Administration understands that bipartisan amendments might be offered to:

• ensure that S. 143 reserves funds for adult education and the literacy activities;
  
  
• establish a national reserve: to help workers affected by major dislocations (including military base closings, plant closings, mass layoffs, and natural disasters) obtain new jobs through services that may include Skill Grants; to provide employment services that meet the unique needs of migrant and seasonal farmworkers; and to authorize incentive grants to States that use Skill Grants for training; and
  
  
• provide for an equal distribution of funds among workforce education, workforce employment and training, and the flex account.

The Administration would strongly support these amendments.

Pay-As-You-Go Scoring

S. 143 would affect direct spending and receipts; therefore, it is subject to the pay-as-you-go requirements of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990. The Office of Management and Budget's scoring estimate is currently under development.