[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 8 (Friday, January 13, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E92]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     INTRODUCTION OF THE WORK FORCE PREPARATION AND DEVELOPMENT ACT

                                 ______


                        HON. WILLIAM F. GOODLING

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 13, 1995
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, the education, literacy, and skills levels 
of the American work force are more important to U.S. competitiveness 
today than ever before, and yet this country's programs designed to 
prepare its students and workers are seriously fragmented and 
duplicative. Because education and training programs have been 
developed independently over many years, there is no national strategy 
for a coherent work force preparation and development system. As 
everyone knows, last Congress, the U.S. General Accounting Office [GAO] 
identified 154 different Federal programs, totaling $24 billion 
administered by 14 different agencies, which offer some form of 
education, job training, or employment assistance to youth and adults 
in the United States. A major focus of any reform effort undertaken by 
the Congress in this area must be to eliminate unnecessary duplication 
and fragmentation in these systems, and at the same time, provide 
States and localities with the flexibility needed to build on 
successful existing programs and initiate change where appropriate.
  Last year, a number of my colleagues and I introduced the 
Consolidated and Reformed Education, Employment, and Retraining Systems 
[CAREERS] Act, a multitiered job training reform effort that was 
designed to achieve reform in four ways: By streamlining work force 
preparation programs at the Federal level through the consolidation of 
over 80 separate job training programs into 7 block grant systems; 
providing flexibility needed by States and local areas to further 
reform State and local systems; requiring the National Commission for 
Employment Policy to study and make recommendations for further reforms 
and consolidation, where appropriate, in U.S. work force preparation 
programs within 1 year of the date of enactment; and by eliminating 
programs that have been found to be ineffective, or to have outlived 
their usefulness or original intent. Under our legislation, savings of 
$1.4 billion per year--or $7 billion over 5 year--would have been 
achieved.
  This Congress, while I continue to believe that last year's CAREERS 
Act represents a comprehensive and realistic approach to reform of the 
Nation's education and job training programs, I want to carefully 
consider all options that are available to us in the design of a 
national work force preparation system. I sincerely believe that we can 
go even further with reform and with consolidation of work force 
preparation programs than was provided for in the CAREERS Act, and end 
up with a more streamlined and efficient system of work force 
preparation. That is why I am joining with Mr. McKeon, all of the 
Republican members of the Committee on Economic and Educational 
Opportunities, and with Mr. Kasich, Mr. Zeliff, Mr. Boehner, and Mr. 
Mica, today, in introduction of the Work force Preparation and 
Development Act, which resolves that the Congress will carefully 
evaluate and subsequently enact legislation that significantly 
consolidates and reforms all Federal career-related education, job 
training, and employment assistance programs into a true system of work 
force preparation and development prior to the end of the 104th 
Congress.
  Under our legislation, we pledge that the Congress will thoroughly 
evaluate the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of U.S. work force 
preparation programs. Subsequently, we pledge to enact legislation 
that: First, eliminates duplication and fragmentation in Federal work 
force preparation programs through the consolidation and, where 
appropriate, elimination of such programs; second, transfers major 
decisionmaking to States and local communities for the design, 
governance, and implementation of comprehensive, integrated work force 
preparation systems; third, stresses the vital role of the private 
sector, at all levels, in the design and implementation of a national 
work force preparation system, and encourages the utilization of State 
and local employer-led boards responsible for strategic planning and 
program oversight of State and local systems; fourth, establishes a 
national work force preparation system that is market driven, 
accountable, reinforces individuals responsibility through attachment 
to employment, and provides customer choice and easy access to 
services; and fifth, establishes a national labor market information 
system that provides employers, job seekers, students, teachers, 
training providers, and others with accurate and timely information on 
the local economy, on occupations in demand and the skill requirements 
for such occupations, and information on the performance of service 
providers in the local community. Finally, the Work force Preparation 
and Development Act calls for the repeal of existing work force 
preparation and development programs, as appropriate, upon enactment of 
reform legislation.
  Again, I want to stress how important it is that we make sense of our 
current, confusing array of Federal education and job training programs 
in this country. For the United States to survive competitively in the 
future, we must have the best work force preparation system in the 
world. I think that the legislation we are introducing today sets us in 
the right direction, and I look forward to continuing our work on such 
reforms.


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