NWA has been heavily engaged in the Labor-HHS Appropriations process throughout the year to protect the workforce system. We have been the only workforce organization invited to work on a steering committee coordinated by House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) comprised of key interest groups from the health and education sector to increase support for the bill in the hope of creating a veto proof majority. We followed this effort by convening the other national groups representing the workforce community in Washington and directing them on what their organization can do in response to our strategy. We also included them in the steering committee's sign on letter from the groups supporting the bill that eventually received the signatures of over 1,000 organizations nationally.

NWA's ongoing goals in the appropriations process this year are two fold:

1. Reject the Administration's funding cuts to WIA;
2. Include language preventing changes to WIA by the Administration until WIA is reauthorized;

In the House, Chairman Obey's Labor-HHS bill also restored the Administration's proposed budget cuts to WIA with no rescission and has strong bill and report language protecting the local workforce system. However, when the bill was brought before the full Appropriations Committee, Ranking Member Jim Walsh (R-NY) requested that the Administration's proposed $335 million WIA rescission, previously rejected in Subcommittee, be used as an offset to increase funding for the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), one of the most popular programs in the bill.

Walsh's proposal to use WIA as an offset was not until the night before the markup and its late timing forced Chairman Obey to choose between protecting WIA funding and risking the loss of bipartisan support for the bill as it moved through Committee. As a result, he reluctantly accepted the WIA rescission as the offset. NWA has learned that Walsh offered WIA funding as his offset to increase IDEA funding after checking with DOL, which claimed that there is over $1 billion in WIA carryover and a $335 million could be made without impacting services.

NWA responded to this unanticipated WIA rescission by meeting with Chairman Obey the day after the markup to discuss this issue. Chairman Obey is very open to restoring the WIA rescission when the bill goes to Conference. He was also clear that he would oppose any amendment to shift funding within the bill on the floor, including the restoration of the rescission. As a result, our focus turned to restoring the rescission in conference, rather than on the House floor. We also met the day after markup with key Senate Labor-HHS Committee staff to get their sense of the prospects for restoring the rescission in Conference. The Senate staff were adamant in their desire to prevent a rescission in Conference.

Our goal in Conference is clear --- restore the rescission and preserve full funding for the workforce system. We communicated our strategy to the other organizations representing workforce groups this week and directed them to contact their House Members to thank Chairman Obey for his restoration of WIA funding and request his help to rescind the WIA rescission in Conference. We have been told that many of these organizations have followed our directive in their news letters to the field. NWA's effort has focused on engaging key Members of the authorizing Committee, which were happy to assist us in this effort. Our effort will be ongoing through the summer and fall to ensuing that WIA is fully funded at the end of the appropriations process this year.

NWA will be the only national organization representing locals that has been invited by the Subcommittee to testify on reauthorization and will be a terrific opportunity to highlight NWA's key recommendations for reauthorization. NWA has been working closely with Committee Members in preparation for this hearing. Other expected witnesses include representatives from NGA, AFSCME, Vocational Rehabilitation, and other workforce organizations involved in the Department's WIRED initiative.

Twomey will use the opportunity to testimony to urge the Subcommittee to quickly reauthorization of WIA, particularly after the House WIA funding rescission, which was a direct result of DOL's claim of large unspent WIA formula carryover. Reauthorization will provide Congress with the ability to revise the way DOL currently collects WIA system spending and ensure it receives accurate information, preventing DOL from continuing to claim large amounts of WIA carryover as a rationale for budget cuts or future rescissions.

We are working with the Committee in preparation for the hearing. If you would like to submit a question to be asked of any of the witnesses, please email us at info@nwaonline.org.