Labor-HHS
Bill Completed
The Senate
late last night passed the revised Labor- HHS Appropriations
Conference Report, attaching the bill on a procedural motion to the
Defense Appropriations bill. The Senate has recessed until January
18th and the House will reconvene following a pro forma session
today, on January 31st.
The revised
Labor-HHS bill passed the House last week on a party line basis with
only minor changes from the version that was defeated in the House a
month ago. None of these changes affected the workforce system.
Funding for the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services,
and Labor all took a cut in the bill. WIA funding was cut by $223
million below current levels, primarily because the President’s
Community College initiative was cut in half this year to $125
million and all earmarks, including $57 million in the ETA account,
were eliminated in the bill. On top of the funding cuts in the
Labor-HHS bill, the Defense Appropriations bill also contained a 1%
across the board cut to be applied to all discretionary programs,
except for veterans health benefits.
Two major
victories we spearheaded for the workforce system are contained in
the Labor-HHS bill. Language is included to prohibit the Secretary
from allowing states to redesignate their local areas until WIA is
reauthorized. The bill also contains language to prevent the
Secretary, for the second straight year, from changing the
definition of administrative costs. These two provisions provide
strong protections from the Administration’s efforts to use the
delay in reauthorization as an opportunity to fundamentally change
WIA locally led governance structure.
WIA
Reauthorization Still on Hold in the Senate
The hold
that was placed on WIA reauthorization to prevent it from coming to
the Senate floor has not been lifted, despite our efforts in meeting
with leadership and senior HELP Committee officials over the past
three weeks to press the importance of moving WIA reauthorization
before the Christmas recess. Unfortunately, the fights over the past
few weeks between the two parties over budget reconciliation, ANWR,
the Patriot Act, and completion of the remaining Appropriations
bills has only exacerbated the lack of trust between the two
parties. One of the core issues dividing this lack of trust is the
faith based issue, the uncertain resolution of which continues to
block the reauthorization of a number of domestic programs,
including WIA. Until there is some sort of resolution of this
divisive issue, it will be difficult to remove the hold on WIA
reauthorization.
