- The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) expired in 2003 and, due to partisan disagreements on approach, has not been reauthorized since. WIA was created in 1998 to replace the Job Training Partnership Act to incentivize business to participate in localized workforce development services. In order to accomplish this, Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) were created and private sector members of the local community were to chair the boards.
- The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006 was an update to a bill first signed into law in 1984. The bill was passed almost unanimously in 2006 and is set to expire at the end of 2012. The goal of Perkins is to increase the quality of technical education in the U.S. and provides almost $1.3 billion in federal support.
- The Higher Education Act of 1965 was last reauthorized in 2008 and is set to expire in 2013. The original intent of the law was to “strengthen the educational resources of our colleges and universities and to provide financial assistance for students in postsecondary and higher education.” The law has been reauthorized nine times since its enactment and through the course of the reauthorization has seen a great deal of changes to reflect the needs of the time.
- The Elementary and Secondary Education Act funds primary and secondary education while explicitly preventing the creation of a national curriculum. The law also focuses on equal access to education and establishes standards and accountability. This law is more commonly referred to as the No Child Left Behind Act.
Future blogs will go into greater detail in each of these key pieces of workforce legislation. Meanwhile, as the dust continues to settle post-election, let’s examine the state of the House and Senate workforce committees.
House Committee on Education and Workforce
The committee’s chairman, Rep. John Kline, and ranking member, Rep. George Miller, will retain their leadership roles. Although only one Republican member will not be returning to Congress next session, there will still be some new blood as committee assignments shift with various vacancies. The Democrats will have at least five open seats on the committee to fill.
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP)
Tom Harkin will remain as chairman but due to term limits, there will be a new ranking member, most likely Lamar Alexander. Currently, the committee is only set to lose one of its members but of course anything can change as the committee assignment process plays out.
The good news is that it is a new day and members of Congress are able to start from scratch and put the previous two years – if not more – behind them. It is our hope that the committees will throw out the partisan drafts of overdue bills that have kept them from reaching a deal thus far and will work together to make some much-needed changes to outdated programs. We also are hopeful that the committees will not let bills set to expire continue as the status quo past their due date. We are eager to help facilitate these conversations and look forward to working with members of Congress and their staff on important legislation.
