Ashe Mountain Times

Representative Virginia Foxx rallied local Republicans around the House of Representatives’ passage of the new Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills (SKILLS) Act Saturday afternoon, during the Ashe County Republican Convention on March 16.

“(This) is a bill that Republicans have been trying to get passed for a long, long time,” Foxx told local Republicans gathered at Ashe County Courthouse.

H.R. 803 passed the Republican controlled House of Representatives 215-202 on March 15, and can now be considered by the Senate.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill’s passage would affect discretionary spending, and would cost $26 billion through 2018.

According to Foxx, the SKILLS act brings needed modernization to 35 workforce investment programs by “streamlining duplicative and ineffective job training programs,” according to GOP.gov.

A 2011 report by the Government Accountability Office labeled 47 federal jobs training programs as, “ineffective or duplicative,” and also said, “little is known about the effectiveness of employment and training programs we identified,” as only five reported demonstrating outcomes that were attributable to the program through an impact study. Fully half the programs had not had a performance review since 2004.

“That is unacceptable,” Foxx said Saturday afternoon.

The SKILLS act eliminates and consolidates 35 federal programs, “including 26 identified in the GAO report,” according to GOP.gov.

The bill also eliminates two programs, according to Foxx, and gives block grants to each state and lets state and local governments to run and administer the programs.

“My position is that federal government shouldn’t be doing these (programs) at all,” Foxx said. “It’s not the role of the federal government. However, I’m a practical person, a realistic person — those programs are going to be reauthorized, and they’re going to keep going. So we have a choice. Do we do our best to make them better or do we just leave them alone?”

The bill creates a “workforce investment fund to serve as a single source of federal support for employers,” and ensures that two thirds of state and local workforce investment board members are employers.

The bill also requires an independent evaluation of training programs every five years, and “strengthens the ability of governors to designate the location of workforce areas in their respective states,” and allows governors to consolidate additional programs into the workforce investment fund for the express purpose of providing greater administrative flexibility.

The bill also reforms Job Corps, to ensure “that career and technical education and training is geared toward in-demand occupations and that disadvantaged youth receive a regular high school diploma or recognized postsecondary credential.”

House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) praised the bill and said the bill will empower job seekers.

“It will streamline ineffective programs, eliminate unnecessary waste and cut through government red tape,” Rodgers said. “With nearly 4 million jobs unfulfilled, this legislation is exactly what the millions of jobless Americans in this country need.”

Acting Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris, on March 15, said he was “disappointed that the House majority chose to pass a partisan bill,” rather than one that builds on the Workforce Investment Act.

"We must modernize, streamline and strengthen this system that has done so much for so many — with more than 2,700 American Job Centers serving roughly 33 million participants a year. But there is a right way and a wrong way to approach reform. The SKILLS Act is the wrong way."

Harris said the SKILLS Act falls short of what America’s workers need by freezing funding over the next seven years and “eliminating or consolidating key programs in a way that would not serve job seekers.”

Job seekers with specialized needs or barriers to employment, including veterans, disadvantaged youth, people with disabilities and migrant and seasonal farmworkers will all be impacted negatively by the bill, according to Harris.

“Furthermore, the SKILLS Act doesn’t ensure a voice for key stakeholders,” Harris said. “Nor does it succeed in promoting continuous innovation or the replication of best practices.”

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill’s passage would affect discretionary spending, and would cost $26 billion through 2018.