On November 14, the Senate approved, by unanimous consent, a bill (H.R. 1261) to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act (WIA)(P.L. 105-220). The text of S. 1627, as approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on October 2 (see The Source, 10/3/03), was substituted for the bill.
Approved 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.
H.R. 1261, as approved by the House on May 8 (see The Source, 5/9/03), would consolidate the WIA adult program, the WIA dislocated worker program, and the employment service state grants into one block grant. The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), does not consolidate those programs. Both bills would include pregnant and parenting teens as eligible for youth services that provide the skills and credentials necessary to obtain employment.
