House WIA mark-up this week.

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UPDATE 06.05.2012: The House Education and Workforce Committee has officially noticed this hearing, and the mark-up of H.R. 4297 will take place on Thursday, June 7.

National Skills Coalition has been informed that the House Education and the Workforce Committee plans to mark-up its WIA reauthorization bill—the Workforce Investment Improvement Act of 2012 (H.R. 4297)—this Thursday, June 7. (NOTE: This date is subject to change until the Committee officially notices the hearing.) In preparation for the mark-up, NSC sent a letter to the Committee outlining some of our main concerns with the bill.

NSC recently testified at a legislative hearing on H.R. 4297, during which NSC Executive Director Andy Van Kleunen emphasized that any federal workforce policy reforms should be driven by three core goals:

• Enhancing the effectiveness of our nation’s workforce system in meeting the skill needs of all U.S. workers and businesses;
• Strengthening accountability across all of our workforce and education programs; and
• Promoting innovation by building on the lessons learned and best practices developed over the past 15 years by the workforce field.

Unfortunately, the Workforce Investment Improvement Act as currently drafted fails to meet these goals, and instead will likely reduce access to federally-funded skills training, particularly for those individuals with the greatest barriers to employment. It is our hope that the Committee will use the mark-up process as an opportunity to improve the bill and move toward bipartisan legislation that addresses the needs of jobseekers and employers alike.

NSC will continue to provide updates as information becomes available. Be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for up-to-the-minute news on the latest in workforce development.

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