Just before Thanksgiving, House Education and Workforce and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee leadership released their bipartisan, bicameral agreement to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) – A Stronger Workforce for America Act (ASWA). Congressional leadership is now working to gain support for the negotiated bill text in the narrowing lame duck calendar.
NLC has been working in a coordinated fashion with other local government stakeholder partners — the National Association of Counties and the U.S. Conference of Mayors — and in collaboration with local workforce board stakeholders to uplift local concerns. Over the summer, our organizations sent a letter in addition to specific legislative text recommendations. Last month, a follow-up letter to Senate and House leadership reiterated our reauthorization recommendations. This week, we released a press statement on the challenges this proposed legislation would present to local governments.
Advocacy has Yielded Positive Results
The bipartisan efforts to update our nation’s public workforce system have yielded positive updates to the legislation including:
- Strengthening workforce education programs at community colleges that align with in-demand jobs,
- Emphasizing industry partnerships, enhancing workforce data quality standards and emphasizing the need for digital literacy skills and
- Promoting wider skills-based hiring efforts and codifying a program to help justice-involved individuals transition back to meaningful employment and access skills and career pathways.
Concerns for Local Leaders Remain
However, there are provisions of the bill that would hamper local flexibility and circumvent the voice of local stakeholders who are best equipped to address the distinct needs of job-seekers and employers within their communities.
- Redesignation of Local Workforce Development Areas: The proposed redesignation of Local Workforce Development Areas, including allowing for single-area designations in well over half of all states, could diminish local accountability and restrain innovation, which are cornerstones of a demand-driven workforce system.
- One-Size-Fits All Mandates: Federal mandates related to training and overly prescriptive work-experience requirements for youth would be counterproductive, harming some of the nation’s most vulnerable and underserved populations that the bill would continue to prioritize.
- Increased Governor’s Set-aside for “Critical Industries Fund”: In addition to the existing Governor’s 15 percent Reserve Fund, the bill would allow additional funding to be reserved at the state level for a variety of uses. This has the practical effect of increasing the overall state-level set-aside allowance to 25 percent and would leave even fewer resources for local entities to implement the significant changes envisioned in the bill.
Make Your Voice Heard
With Congress set to finish their work for 2024 at the end of next week, now is the time to share your perspective with your members of Congress on this bill and its impact on your local workforce development strategies and programs.
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