On June 29, the Senate approved, by unanimous consent, legislation (S. 1021) reauthorizing the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) (P.L. 105-220) through 2011, after adopting a substitute amendment by the bill’s sponsor Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) and replacing the provisions of H.R. 27, the House version of the WIA reauthorization, with the substitute. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved the bill on May 20, 2005 (see The Source, 5/20/2005).
Enacted by Congress in 1998, WIA consolidated more than 60 job training programs into block grants to states and established a centralized, one-stop delivery system providing federally funded employment and training services.
“Passing the Workforce Investment Act amendments is an important step toward ensuring America’s competitiveness in the global economy” said Sen. Enzi. He continued, “We need a skilled workforce to maintain our competitive edge in this technology-driven economy. This reauthorization of our job-training system created under the Workforce Investment Act, WIA, will help our workers obtain the skills they need to find good jobs with good wages and fulfilling careers in high skilled occupations. This bill will help our businesses find the skilled workers they need to grow and remain competitive.”
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) said, “The reauthorization renews our commitment to raising the skills of the American workforce and helping workers compete in the job market. The bill will increase opportunities for workers to find new or better jobs, enable them to hold the good jobs of the future, and help the nation maintain its leadership in the global economy. The Senate’s passage of this reauthorization today is a strong sign of support for the workforce system and the programs that help millions of American workers find new and good jobs.”
Unlike the House bill, the Senate bill does not contain provisions that would allow faith-based groups that receive job-training grants to base their hiring decisions on the religions of job applicants. The measure also does not include a provision that would create a $3 billion block grant to states to replace several separate job training programs and services.
The legislation would establish a National Institute for Literacy to identify the “effectiveness of instructional practices and organizational strategies relating to literacy programs on the acquisition of skills in reading, writing, English acquisition, and mathematics.” The Department of Education would administer the institute. A National Institute for Literacy Advisory Board also would be established under the bill.
The Adult Education and Family Literacy Act would be amended to define education and literacy activities as “programs and services which include reading, writing, speaking, or mathematics skills, workplace literacy activities, family literacy activities, English language acquisition activities, or other activities necessary for the attainment of a secondary school diploma or its state recognized equivalent.”
