President George W. Bush has called on Congress to reinstate nearly $200 million in dislocated worker funds cut in a supplemental funding bill and increase National Emergency Grant funds for U.S. Department of Labor-funded dislocated worker programs by nearly $550 million.
Bush’s decision occurred after meeting with his top economic advisors and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
The proposed funding increases, designed to assist workers laid off from their jobs, was introduced shortly after Congress acted to increase the number of weeks an individual could receive unemployment insurance.
The president told a large crowd in Missouri it was not enough to simply extend unemployment benefits. “We need to help workers now. Given the uncertain economic outlook, we need an economic security package to boost growth now and get people back to work.” The president added, “more than 900,000 Americans have lost their jobs and without assistance, more than 300,000 workers may not be able to find jobs.”
The funds would go a long way to aid the increasing numbers of workers dislocated either because of the events surrounding the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States or the economic recession that began about one year ago. The dislocated worker funds would be allocated to local workforce investment areas to provide training and employment services to laid off workers.
The National Emergency Grants (NEGs) would be awarded to states and localities by the U.S. Department of Labor for mass dislocations like those that occurred at the airlines in the weeks and months following Sept. 11.
Despite overall support for the proposal, NACo prefers that the additional funds be directed to local workforce programs around the nation, not to the Labor Department.
“We need these funds at the local level to be spent locally in a way that responds to individual worker needs,” commented Labor and Employment Steering Committee Vice Chair Harry Van Sickle of Union County, Pa. “While it is helpful to have these funds at the national level for specific dislocations like we have seen at the Boeing Company or the Enron Corporation, this kind of funding does not help the vast majority of workers who are laid off from their jobs. Most laid-off workers are not part of a mass dislocation. We need the funds at our local one-stops to ensure that we can help the vast majority of unemployed workers,” said Van Sickle.
NACo is calling on Congress to support the president’s overall funding goals but to make sure that most if not all of the funds are distributed to local workforce development programs like those that operate at the county level.
