When President George W. Bush presented his proposed budget to Congress, there was an overall sigh of relief because the budget included substantial increases for national defense and homeland security. Like local governments and associations around the nation, NACo was very pleased that two key concerns—homeland security and the costs associated with providing that security—were addressed by the president.
The overall budget, however, undid the last five years of bipartisan efforts to create a balanced budget. Valued at $2.13 billion, the president’s budget called for the largest defense buildup since the Cold War, the first deficit in five years and cuts to hundreds of domestic programs. Not the least of those cuts was targeted at the Workforce Investment Act.
The proposed budget would all but eliminate the Youth Opportunity Grants program by cutting funding for that program by 80 percent. That program, which is targeted to youth in exceptionally poor central cities and rural areas, has been meeting the educational and job training needs of thousands of youth and needs to be continued, or the funds need to be made part of the larger year-round youth program. But even that program is cut.
Traditionally a very popular program with members of Congress, the year-round youth program was designed to provide mostly out-of-school youth with the skills training they need to make the transition from economic dependence to independence. A substantial change from previous youth programs, this type of education and training program was supposed to meet the academic and workforce needs of young people who are out of school and out of work.
The Administration also went after the adult training program designed to assist all adults by reducing funds by about 5 percent. The proposed budget would also reduce the nation’s dislocated worker program by 13 percent overall.
From NACo’ s perspective, the proposed reductions in Workforce Investment Act programs would be devastating to the nation’s workforce development system.
The overall cut of 12 percent would mean local job training programs would be forced to reduce the numbers of clients they can serve and the number of training opportunities they can offer. Funds that have been used to support the mandatory one-stop centers, places where all Americans should be able to go to obtain workforce services, would have to be withdrawn, and the system of one-stops that is just beginning to emerge around the nation might be in jeopardy.
If there is good news in this budget proposal it is that many in Congress are not comfortable with massive increases in some areas of the budget at the expense of important domestic programs like the Workforce Investment Act. And many, while supporting the president’s proposal for increased defense and homeland security investments, are vowing to restore the cuts in programs the president has proposed.
“There is a certain irony to the president’s proposal,” commented Cook County Commissioner Deborah Sims, the Labor and Employment Steering Committee chair, when she learned of the cuts. “These proposed reductions in funding are coming at the same time that unemployment remains at near record levels, and the nation faces severe workforce shortages in fields for which some level of training is needed,” she said.
The president would also cut those funds originally dedicated to high-skills worker training programs established under the H1B visa program. The training program was to be funded by the application fees employers pay to bring highly skilled foreign nationals into the United States to fill positions that American workers are unable to fill.
The Administration has proposed eliminating the program in its entirety because it argues that it has been ineffective.
NACo has informed Congress and the Administration that it believes that this is the time to enhance and not diminish funds for the Workforce Investment. “We need to ensure that America’s counties can continue to achieve one of President Bush’s three announced goals — overcoming the recession and moving people into jobs,” concluded Sims.
