Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Susan Collins (R- ME) began circulating a Dear Colleague letter today urging the Budget Committee to restore funding for WIA and the Employment Service. We worked closely with Senator Cantwell in crafting this Dear Colleague and its message to restore the cuts proposed in the Administration’s FY 07 budget proposal. (The text of the letter is attached at the end of this document).

This Dear Colleague is a key component of our strategy to get more funding for Labor, HHS, and Education programs in the Budget Resolution, so that appropriators will have adequate funding for these programs after the budget process has concluded. The President’s FY 07 proposal would cut funding for Labor, HHS, and Education by $4.5 billion if enacted, forcing draconian cuts to all of these programs, which is why the fight to increase funding in the budget is critical.

We are hearing that next week’s markup in the Senate may slip as there considerable concern among moderate Republicans about the deep cuts proposed by the President in a range of domestic programs. If the bill passes through the Senate Budget Committee, it will still be very difficult to pass a budget resolution on the floor without more funding for Labor-HHS programs. We expect Senator Harkin to offer a bipartisan floor amendment to restore funding cuts to these programs when the budget reaches the floor. We will alert you when the exact details of this amendment are made public.

Please contact your Senator and ask him or her to sign on to the Cantwell/Collins Dear Colleague that restores the proposed cuts to WIA. Every WIB (not just WIB’s from Washington and Maine) should also send an email to Senator Cantwell and Collins thanking them for taking the lead in protecting the funding for the workforce system. Senator Cantwell can be emailed at http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm . Please go to Senator Collins’ website http://collins.senate.gov/ and click on the email form to send Senator Collins a thank you message.