By a vote of 343 to 60, the House of Representatives adopted HR 1385, the Employment, Training, and Literacy Enhancement Act of 1997. The bill will be forwarded to the Senate, which is currently drafting its version of job training reform legislation.
The bill consolidates more than 60 workforce development and education programs under three block grants to states and localities. They are adult employment and training, disadvantaged youth employment and training, and adult education and literacy. The bill eliminates authorization for a number of job training programs that currently receive no authorization. Unlike the bill that was defeated last year in conference, this bill does not include any amendments to vocational education.
According to Rep. Howard McKeon (R-Calif.), employment and training subcommittee chair, the bill would accomplish three key reforms.
The first is individual choice, by granting customers substantial control over their training and employment decisions. The second is quality training through a consolidated training and employment system. The third is the transfer of resources and authority for employment, training and literacy programs to states and local communities.
"This legislation will go far to help states and local communities to reform employment, training and literacy programs that address the individual skill needs of their citizens," McKeon said in address to the House.
"And it will go far to empower individuals to break the cycle of dependency that has plagued our country for far too long," he said.
Before concluding his remarks, McKeon announced that "the National Governors' Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the National Association of Counties have reached an important agreement with regard to this legislation that will be reflected in an en bloc package of amendments that I plan to offer. And I would like to thank these organizations for all of their efforts to help us in development of the bill."
If it becomes law, HR 1885 would require that each state establish a "collaborative process" through which the state plan is developed. The collaborative process would come under the aegis of the governor. Through it, a state would establish local workforce development areas, address formula issues, develop state benchmarks and set the overall tone of the state's workforce development activities. The working group would have a broad-based and diverse membership selected from state and local government and the private sector.
HR 1385 would mandate that each state, except certain smaller ones, establish local workforce development areas based on local labor markets, political boundaries and other factors the collaborative process deems important.
No state, except the smaller ones, could set up a single statewide workforce development area.
Cities and counties with populations of more than 500,000 could request automatic designation as local workforce delivery areas. All other workforce development areas would be established through the collaborative process and reflected in the state plan.
Employment and training activities funding would be passed through to localities in three different funding streams.
The first would be for economically disadvantaged adults. The second stream would be for dislocated workers. The third would be for economically disadvantaged youth. Funds from the last stream could be used by localities for summer jobs and year-round training; the summer jobs program is considered an essential element of the economically disadvantaged youth funding.
Funding of local programs would be partly passed through by a federally mandated formula to local workforce development areas and partially through a formula developed through the collaborative process.
Seventy percent of all funds for local areas would be distributed by formula and 30 percent would be distributed through a mechanism designed by the collaborative process and included in the state plan.
The bill would require that qualified training providers be identified in the state plan. The bill also requires that performance accountability, including state and local benchmarks, be arrived at by states and localities. This would ensure that expectations for each workforce development area are responsive to the unique aspects of each state and the local workforce areas within the state. The bill also requires that state plans describe the workforce development area selection process and lay out plans for establishing local workforce development boards.
HR 1385 grants local elected officials authority to appoint local workforce development boards. Each workforce development area's chief local elected official and local workforce development board would be responsible for developing the local plan.
Each local plan must include plans for delivering services to economically disadvantaged adults and youth, and dislocated workers. It must also include plans for summer jobs and year-round youth programs. It must also lay out the strategy for establishing the workforce development areas one-stop system.
Local boards will be responsible for implementing the plan, selecting
the vendors for the one-stop system and training and employment programs,
and ensuring the day-to-day operations of the program.