[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 52 (Friday, May 1, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4022-S4027]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              WORKFORCE INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP ACT OF 1997

  The Senate continued with consideration of the bill.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I commend my colleagues, Senators Jeffords, 
Kennedy, Wellstone and DeWine for their tireless efforts to bring this 
bipartisan bill to the Senate floor. I hope that any remaining 
disagreements can be worked out in Conference.
  Few issues that we have a chance to debate and vote on are as 
critically important to the future of this country as the one before us 
today. The strength of our workforce is directly linked to a lifetime 
of quality education and training. And never have the challenges been 
greater. We must remain steadfast in our efforts to continue educating 
and training our workforce so that more of our companies can 
successfully adapt to the rapid developments of modern technology.
  The Workforce Investment Partnership Act is the culmination of many 
years of hard work. The current maze of more than 160 separate programs 
which are administered by 15 separate federal agencies has become 
unnecessarily cumbersome for both those in need of training assistance 
and those employers seeking to hire skilled workers. This bill 
streamlines these programs by giving more authority to state and local 
governments, but retaining crucial federal requirements in order to 
ensure that the most vulnerable and deserving members of our 
population, including disadvantaged youth and displaced workers, 
receive the support and training assistance they need. This focus will 
ensure that these individuals have a chance to share in our nation's 
continued economic prosperity and growth. In addition, by emphasizing 
results and accountability from job training programs, our workers will 
be better equipped with the skills they need to land high-wage and 
high-skilled jobs.
  I know firsthand the struggle many hard-working individuals face as 
their company downsizes or scales back production. For many years, the 
Connecticut economy was dependent on defense-oriented industries. In 
the past few years, many qualified, highly skilled workers in 
Connecticut have lost their jobs as a result of military downsizing. In 
the last 12 months, more than 1,500 defense related jobs were lost in 
my state.
  The Workforce Investment Partnership Act ensures that defense 
employees who are adversely affected by base closings and military 
downsizing will have access to job training and supportive services 
through the National Reserve Account in title III of the Job Training 
Partnership Act. If these workers receive access to training, they can 
acquire the skills needed for employment in the technology driven 
economy of the 21st century.
  The Connecticut economy is changing. In February, a group of 120 
business leaders stated that a highly educated and trained work force 
is the only way that Connecticut can capitalize on the promises of the 
new technology driven sectors such as software development, information 
technology and photonics. For too long, we were focused on job loss. It 
is now time to focus on the rebuilding of our economy and ensure that 
all potential employees, including former welfare recipients and 
displaced workers, receive the training and skills they need.
  I am especially pleased that a cornerstone of the job training bill 
will be streamlined service delivery. The bill accomplishes this 
integration by building on the One-Stop system to unify the patchwork 
of fragmented job training and employment programs into a single, 
customer-friendly environment. The proposed legislation would expand 
the concept of universal access to services for job seekers and 
businesses without eligibility criteria.
  Connecticut is nearing completion of implementation of its One-Stop 
Career

[[Page S4023]]

Center System, Connecticut Works, which is being financed through a 
grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. This network has reformed the 
delivery of job training services in Connecticut. To date, a total of 
16 centers have been created across the state and I have had the 
privilege of visiting many of them. Gone are the dreary unemployment 
centers of the past.
  Each of the centers in Connecticut offers a broad array of services 
including a variety of job search workshops and self-service research 
rooms with computer and Internet access. A wide range of written 
material is provided in the research rooms, and customers have access 
to fax machines and telephones to assist them in their job search. 
Enhanced and coordinated services to businesses are provided through 
the use of an Employer Contact Management System. Customer surveys and 
performance measurements ensure that customer needs are addressed. The 
partnership with the State library has brought access to electronic 
labor market and job search services through local libraries to over 
one hundred sites throughout Connecticut, bringing services to more 
customers with expanded days and hours of operation.
  Mr. President, vocational educational activities are also provided 
for within the Workforce legislation. Significantly, WIPA will put into 
place challenging performance measures to gauge the efficiency of the 
educational programs it oversees. These measures will require 
proficient training in the areas of job readiness skills, vocational 
skills, and placement, retention, and completion of educational 
opportunities. The Carl D. Perkins vocational educational title, which 
will separately appropriate and administer all vocational educational 
programs, will teach participants computer skills and new technologies 
to prepare them for the burgeoning high-tech labor market.
  WIPA further provides for the coordination of adult education and job 
training systems, allowing adult education to play a crucial role in a 
participant's job training program. In the area of adult education and 
literacy, WIPA specifically targets those communities demonstrating 
significant illiteracy rates to receive adult education programs on a 
priority basis. I am pleased that the Workforce legislation also 
includes a provision that will direct funds designated to support 
English as a Second Language (ESL) programs to those ESL programs in 
communities with designated need. This means that ESL programs with 
waiting lists--those in communities with the greatest need for the 
valuable services these programs provide--will receive funds on a 
prioritized basis.
  Mr. President, in order to better assist non-native English speakers 
and fully assimilate them into our society, we must help them become 
more fluent in English. I can think of few more important factors in 
determining whether or not someone new to this society will 
successfully make this difficult transition than their ability to speak 
English.
  A clear and effective grasp of the English language is still the best 
indicator of success for non-native English speakers. The ability to 
speak English for anyone in today's marketplace represents an ``open 
door,'' Mr. President. This ``open door'' can lead to greater 
employment and advancement opportunities for those whose first language 
is not English.
  The reauthorization of the Rehabilitation Act, offered as an 
amendment to the Workforce legislation, is critically important 
legislation that I am proud to cosponsor. The Rehabilitation Act 
provides comprehensive vocational rehabilitation services designed to 
help individuals with disabilities become more employable and achieve 
greater independence and integration into society.
  Under the Rehabilitation Act, States, with assistance provided by the 
federal government in the manner of formula-derived grants, provide a 
broad array of services to individuals with disabilities that includes 
assessment, counseling, vocational and other educational services, work 
related placement services, and rehabilitation technology services. In 
1995 alone, Mr. President, more than 1.25 million Americans with 
disabilities were served by vocational rehabilitation programs.
  I am particularly pleased that a provision dealing with assistive 
technology was included in the reauthorization legislation. This 
provision, Section 508, will require the federal government to provide 
assistive technology to Federal employees with disabilities. This 
provision will put into place for the first time regulations requiring 
the federal government to provide its employees with disabilities with 
access to appropriate technology suited to their individual needs.
  This legislation would allow the federal government to take the lead 
in providing critical access to information technology to all federal 
employees with disabilities in this country. It strengthens the federal 
requirement that electronic and information technology purchased by 
federal agencies be accessible to their employees with disabilities.
  Electronic and information technology accessibility is essential for 
federal employees to maintain a meaningful employment experience, as 
well as to meet their full potential. We live in a world where 
information and technology are synonymous with professional 
advancement. Increasingly, essential job functions have come to involve 
the use of technology, and where it is inaccessible, job opportunities 
that others take for granted are foreclosed to people with 
disabilities.
  Presently, there are approximately 145,000 individuals with 
disabilities in the federal workforce. Roughly 61 percent of these 
employees hold permanent positions in professional, administrative, or 
technical occupations. Nationally, there are 49 million Americans who 
have disabilities, nearly half of them have a severe disability. Yet 
most mass market information technology is designed without 
consideration for their needs.
  It is critical, Mr. President, given the rapid introduction into the 
workforce of novel technologically-advanced products, that persons with 
disabilities not be allowed to fall behind. The federal government must 
truly be an equal opportunity employer, and this equal opportunity must 
apply fully to individuals with special needs.
  I view Section 508 as a hopeful first step in an effort to ensure 
that all individuals with disabilities have access to the assistive 
technology providing them the ability to reach their full ability. 
Though Section 508 will presently only affect federal employees, it is 
my hope that one day all individuals with disabilities will have the 
same access to assistive technology now afforded federal employees 
because of Section 508.
  Lastly, Mr. President, I would like to commend Senators Jeffords, 
DeWine, Kennedy and Wellstone for the important role they each played 
in making the Workforce legislation and the reauthorization of the 
Rehabilitation Act a reality. They worked closely with myself and my 
staff to address numerous concerns and for that I wish to thank them.
  Ms. COLLINS. The Workforce Investment Partnership Act restates the 
Senate's long commitment to vocational education, adult education, job 
training, and vocational rehabilitation. Yet it does more than just 
continue this tradition; it builds upon our experiences and moves us 
forward--improving our education and training programs. S. 1186 will 
provide better opportunities for America's citizens to get the skills 
they, as individuals, need to obtain work and that America's businesses 
need to retain their competitive edge in the global economy.
  S. 1186 is a commitment to meeting the challenges faced by America to 
produce the workforce that we need for the 21st century. It 
incorporates almost seventy categorical programs and builds an 
integrated workforce system as a replacement for the current group of 
fragmented or duplicative programs.
  The vocational education section is particularly significant in its 
emphasis on the inclusion of a strong academic component in vocational 
education assuring that students in vocational programs receive the 
strongest possible education and the broadest possible base on which to 
build careers. It requires the states to explain how duplication will 
be avoided, and how the activities of related programs will be 
coordinated. Finally it requires the establishment of rigorous 
performance measures of both state and local progress toward concrete 
goals.

[[Page S4024]]

  The job training components will lead to more comprehensive and 
efficient state systems for workforce development with linkages to 
strengthen welfare to work activities. It gives greater authority and 
flexibility to the states in the way each responds to the education and 
training needs of its citizens and its business community. For example, 
under S. 1186, a governor in a state with a ``Work-Flex'' program can 
waive requirements that prevent a local workforce area from responding 
efficiently to local needs. It allows governors to consolidate 
administrative funds and state reserve funds from different funding 
streams to coordinate and manage the use of these funds for a state's 
priorities.
  The Workforce Investment Partnership Act will also encourage efforts 
by the states to improve the integration of previously separate 
programs, a change that is especially welcome in Maine where extensive 
efforts are already underway to coordinate the efforts of the 
vocational high schools, the technical colleges, adult education and 
job training programs and vocational rehabilitation. This streamlining 
and integration of federal programs will support Maine's priorities in 
this area.
  I am especially pleased that the bill includes incentive grants that 
will reward states that exceed their goals and will support states in 
the development of innovative programs tailored to their own needs. 
This will result in new models and methods for vocational education and 
job training. The incentive grants should encourage the states to move 
toward the important goal of improved integration of vocational 
education, adult education and job training.
  This bill also incorporates the Rehabilitation Act, which I 
cosponsored. In doing so it provides important links between vocational 
rehabilitation and a state's workforce system. It simplifies the access 
of persons with disabilities to vocational rehabilitation services and 
streamlines the administration of these services.
  The Workforce Investment Partnership Act challenges each state to 
improve the vocational education and vocational rehabilitation that it 
provides to its citizens, to be sure that its vocational and job 
training programs respond to and anticipate the changing demands of the 
economy, and that it fosters programs helping those on welfare move to 
work. This bill will help the states turn these challenges into 
opportunities.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I am very pleased we are about to pass 
what may be one of the most significant and positive pieces of 
legislation to be enacted into law this Congress--S. 1186, the 
Workforce Investment Partnership Act. It is the outcome of an open, 
cooperative and bipartisan process beginning with a number of hearings 
on the subject last year in our Labor Subcommittee on Employment and 
Training. As soon as possible, following passage here, I hope we can 
proceed to a conference with members of the House and reconcile the 
differences between this bill and the one which that body passed last 
year. Some of those differences are substantial, but most are not 
fundamental.
  This major re-write of job training and workforce development law is 
vitally needed. If we can keep a conference bill close in most respects 
to this Senate bill, it will, upon enactment, represent an important 
step forward for the country's economy, workers and businesses. I agree 
with President Clinton's statement regarding this Senate bill, 
contained in a letter he wrote recently to the Majority Leader. The 
President correctly observed that the bill is ``essential to widening 
the circle of opportunity for more Americans and keeping our economy 
growing steady and strong.''
  I would like to commend the Chairman of the full Committee, Senator 
Jeffords, as well as the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Employment and 
Training, Senator DeWine, for their leadership on the bill. Senator 
DeWine in particular has been tireless in pushing the process forward 
to make this bill happen. I commend my colleague for his work, as well 
as that of his staff. Likewise, I thank my friend and colleague, the 
Ranking Member of the full Labor Committee, Senator Kennedy, as well as 
his staff, for their work on this bill. It has been a formidable amount 
of labor. Department of Labor officials and staff also have provided an 
enormous amount of technical assistance. We appreciate their 
dedication.
  Arriving at this point has required compromise. As is usually the 
case with a bill of this magnitude, no senator or group with an 
interest in this key area of federal policy is likely to call our bill 
perfect. But the wide array of organizations and associations who 
support it are testimony to the fact that we have engaged in a very 
democratic process. We have endorsements of the bill from the U.S. 
Chamber of Commerce, The National Association of Manufacturers, the 
National Association of Private Industry Councils, the Society for 
Human Resource Management, the National Alliance of Business, the 
Business Round Table, the National League of Cities, the National 
Conference of State Legislators, the National Association of Counties, 
the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Job Corps Coalition, the 
American Vocational Association, the American Association of Community 
Colleges, and the National Association of State Directors of Vocational 
Technical Education, to name a few. It is a good bill, with widespread 
support.
  The Workforce Investment Partnership Act will fundamentally improve 
our federal system of job training. It incorporates adult and 
vocational education without threatening those programs' separate 
funding streams. With the inclusion of Senator DeWine's amendment, it 
will also include reauthorization and improvement of vocational 
rehabilitation programs, again without threatening separate funding for 
vocational rehabilitation programs.
  The bill will help coordinate, streamline and decentralize our 
federal job training system. At the same time, it will make that system 
more accountable to real performance measures. It gives private sector 
employers--the people who have jobs to offer and who need workers with 
the right skills--a greater role in directing policy at the state and 
local level, which is where most decision-making power resides in this 
bill.
  S. 1186 will move the whole country to where Minnesota and a number 
of other states have already moved decisively: to a system of One-Stop 
service centers where people can get all the information they need in 
one location. It will replace currently over-bureaucratized systems in 
many states and localities with systems driven more by the needs of 
those who utilize them. Adults seeking training will receive Individual 
Training Accounts to give them direct control over their own careers. 
High quality labor market information will be accessible through the 
One-Stops, and training providers will be required to report publicly 
on their performance. Men and women will have the ability to make their 
own choices based on the best information about which profession they 
should pursue, about the skills and training they'll need, and about 
the best place to get those skills and that training.
  I have visited Minnesota One-Stops. They work. I would like to 
commend the Minnesota Department of Economic Security, by the way, 
which is the agency responsible for job training in my state. 
Commissioner R. Jane Brown and her staff do excellent and important 
work. I appreciate the cooperation we have received from them 
throughout the legislative process on this bill.
  The bill targets resources from the federal level to those who need 
them. It assures separate funding to adults, to youth, and to 
dislocated workers according to state formulae, and also according to 
formulae within states. There was no attempt this time to do away with 
NAFTA Trade Adjustment Assistance or to threaten other important 
dislocated worker assistance.There was no effort to drastically reduce 
funding for job training systems based on hoped-for savings from 
consolidation of programs. That is crucial. This bill does not 
overreach. It does not block-grant job training, adult education and 
vocational education progams. It retains crucial federal priorities, 
then allows state and local authorities to decide how best to address 
their needs.
  For example, even when our economy is performing generally well, as 
it currently is, many workers will lose their jobs due to forces beyond 
their control,

[[Page S4025]]

due to economic change. We cannot abandon Americans who can and want to 
be productive. We need to respond quickly to plant closings and mass 
layoffs with job search assistance and retraining for new jobs. The 
current dislocated worker program serves about half a million 
dislocated American workers a year. It usually succeeds in training 
displaced workers for new jobs--jobs which provide over 90 percent of 
their previous wages.
  It is even more true that many youth, especially in poor urban and 
rural areas, are being left behind by our prosperity. Many have dropped 
out or are at risk of dropping out of school. This harms us all. We 
lose productivity. We lose revenue. Most importantly, we lose the 
potential of our young people. The bill's Out-of-School Youth 
initiative is extremely important. It targets funds directly to youth 
in high-poverty urban and rural areas. It concentrates its resources to 
help bring fundamental change to the neighborhoods it will serve. It 
emphasizes work and private sector employment. And it is already paid 
for. Congress provided a $250 million advance appropriation for the 
initiative last year, contingent upon enactment of this bill.

  One of the principles we had in mind as we drafted the bill is the 
following: we wanted the money and the decision-making power to go down 
to the local level. We wanted this to be a decentralized system. The 
bill achieves that. The governors have a strong role in this system, as 
they should. Governors write their state plans. They name the statewide 
workforce partnership. They receive the money on a formula basis. They 
administer the programs statewide. They have a good deal of 
flexibility.
  But the local level is just as important. This bill represents a 
crucial step forward in that respect. Money and decision-making power 
flow down to the local level. The bill includes an in-state formula 
funding mechanism. Local workforce boards selected by local government 
leaders will make policy at the local level. Local business people, 
local elected officials and local citizens are in the best position to 
know local workforce needs.
  We received important assistance in drafting the bill from national 
organizations representing different levels of government--the 
governors, mayors, state and local elected officials, as well as 
counties. Our job training system requires coordination and cooperation 
among all levels of goverment. The ``governance coalition'' that 
provided key advice for us played a vitally helpful role.
  The Federal Government is providing a lot of money for this system. 
What we ask is that it be spent according to certain priorities. We 
believe we are correct to establish priorities--a stream of money for 
adults, a stream for dislocated workers, a stream for youth. And we ask 
that reasonable performance objectives are met. That is another key 
feature of the bill. We require measurable results. For too many years 
appropriators have correctly asked us, ``how do we know whether the 
programs are delivering any benefits?'' It is appropriate to require 
measurable results. The bill requires states and local workforce boards 
to establish and meet measurable standards for success in placement of 
trainees in jobs related to the training they received, in wages that 
trainees receive over 6-month and 12-month periods, and other relevant 
measures.
  In addition to programs for adults, youth and dislocated workers, the 
job training title of the bill also contains renewal of four important 
``national'' job training programs. These are programs currently 
authorized by the Job Training Partnership Act and operated on a 
national basis by the Department of Labor, rather than through the job 
training infrastructures of the 50 states. One of these is the Job 
Corps program. The Hubert H. Humphrey Job Corps Center in St. Paul is 
one of the best-performing Job Corps centers in the nation. Last year 
we had Ralph DiBattista, former director of that center, as well as 
Dave McKenzie, the current director, at our Subcommittee hearing on 
youth training. They were joined that day by Susan Lees, a very 
impressive young trainee at the Humphrey Center, at that time on her 
way to becoming an auto technician at a Ford dealership.
  The Job Corps and other federal employment training programs for the 
nation's youth represent a crucial and cost-effective investment. 
Providing opportunities to youth, especially at-risk youth, is 
absolutely necessary. Training allows youth to gain the skills they 
need to be productive, to make the most of their abilities, and 
ultimately to support themselves and become fully contributing citizens 
in our economy and society.
  The bill also renews current national Native American programs, 
Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker programs, and Veterans programs. These 
are key elements of the country's system of helping to ensure that 
those Americans who need and qualify for training in order to be the 
most productive workers they can be get the best and most cost-
effective services that the federal government can provide.
  I am pleased we were able to make some improvements in the job 
training programs in the bill with respect to veterans. As a member of 
the Veterans Affairs Committee, I wanted to be sure that veterans job 
training programs would serve today's veterans. Therefore we updated 
the program's eligibility provision to ensure that Gulf War veterans 
and other veterans with significant barriers to employment, including 
homeless veterans, will be served. The managers' amendment also makes 
an improvement for veterans in the bill's state plan section. It will 
require that Governors, as they write and implement their state plans, 
provide reasonable assurances that veterans will receive services on a 
fair basis in state-administered programs.
  I also am pleased we were able to include in the bill provisions to 
continue the authorization and operation of four rural Concentrated 
Employment Programs (CEPs). These CEPs currently operate in Minnesota, 
Kentucky, Montana and Wisconsin. Congress established CEPs in 1964 as 
part of the War on Poverty's Economic Opportunity Act. With the 
creation of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) 
program, Senator Humphrey and Congressman Perkins acted to continue an 
authorization for the four CEPS I mentioned. When the Job Training 
Partnership Act was passed in 1983, they were continued again. The CEPs 
do an excellent job serving difficult, high-unemployment rural areas. I 
intend to work hard if necessary to retain this provision in 
conference, although I anticipate no opposition.
  There are five amendments to the bill which we have agreed to accept. 
The first of these is by Mr. DeWine. It is the vocational 
rehabilitation bill. The Rehabilitation Act assists well over a million 
Americans with disabilities annually through comprehensive vocational 
rehabilitation services. It is a crucial and successful set of 
programs. It embodies the commitment of the federal government and the 
American public to those among us with physical and mental 
disabilities. I am very satisfied with this set of improvements to that 
Act. Jay Johnson of East Grand Forks, Minnesota testified on behalf of 
the National Council on Independent Living at a Subcommittee hearing 
last year. Mr. Johnson is executive director of ``Options,'' a center 
for independent living in East Grand Forks. I am very proud of the 
disability community in Minnesota for their advocacy and for their 
determination. I think this bill does right by them.
  The amendment by Mr. Lautenberg gives units of local government which 
are currently service delivery areas under the Job Training Partnership 
Act and which have population of 200,000 or more an automatic right to 
appeal to the Secretary of Labor a decision by a Governor not to 
continue that area as an SDA. Without the amendment the bill would give 
units of local government with a population of 500,000 or more 
automatic certification to continue as SDAs, whereas those with 200,000 
or more would be entitled only to an automatic right to request 
continuance as SDAs. I consider the amendment by the senator from New 
Jersey to be an improvement to the bill, and I intend to support it in 
conference, as well.
  I do not support either of the amendments offered by my friend from 
Missouri, Mr. Ashcroft. We are accepting them for now, but I hope they 
can be modified or removed in conference. The first would require that 
job training service recipients be drug tested. It is bad policy. It is 
an unwarranted invasion of privacy. It is wrong because it

[[Page S4026]]

sends a distasteful message about a presumption regarding Americans who 
benefit from improving their skills through job training--a presumption 
which I hope none of us really holds. And it would drain large amounts 
of money from the program, money which should go to training.
  The second Ashcroft amendment also is objectionable. It prohibits 
funds authorized in the bill from funding activities authorized in the 
School to Work Act. Our bill does not authorize making grants under the 
School to Work Act. But we encourage states and localities to integrate 
and coordinate their vocational education and job training systems. Of 
course we want to facilitate lifelong learning and the continual 
development of productive skills.
  School to Work Programs have been a great success. They take a new 
approach to learning. They are programs which operate on the idea that 
a young person learns best when he or she can apply school-learning to 
life situations. In March of 1996, I invited a School to Work student 
to Washington to tell his story. Cameron Dick was a student at the 
American Indian Opportunity Industrial Center, one of nine schools in 
the Phillips area of Minneapolis. Phillips is predominantly poor and 
has one of the highest concentrations of Native Americans among urban 
centers in the United States. The American Indian OIC is in its fourth 
year of a 5-year Urban Opportunity Grant for its School to Work 
program. It works with high school dropouts who have decided to give 
high school another shot by both educating and training them for jobs. 
The idea is to ``Get a diploma and get a paycheck.'' Cameron was a high 
school dropout, but through the OIC program became an A student, 
participated in afternoon employment programs and tutored other young 
people. The programs work.
  Mr. President, I believe this Congress will succeed where we did not 
during the last Congress. I am very hopeful that following passage of 
this bill we can reach an acceptable conference agreement with the 
House and that we can then send major, important legislation to the 
President for his signature.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, this morning I rise in support of the 
Workforce Investment Partnership Act. This bill was unanimously passed 
out of the Labor and Human Resources Committee. It is good and sensible 
legislation, crafted in a bipartisan fashion. I commend Subcommittee 
Chairman DeWine and Senator Wellstone as well as Chairman Jeffords and 
Ranking Member Kennedy for their excellent leadership. There is one 
section in this legislation of particular importance to me; one that I 
believe merits special attention. If this body is successful in passing 
S. 1886, this program will benefit greatly. The section I am referring 
to is Job Corps.
  Job Corps is America's only national residential education and 
training program for at risk youths. I emphasize only, Mr. President, 
because my colleagues need to be aware that there is no other program 
that annually assists more than 65,000 of this country's most 
disadvantaged young men and women to become meaningful and productive 
members of society. Job Corps is the largest and most comprehensive 
program that offers a second chance to those who would otherwise be 
left behind. The young men and women who make a commitment to 
themselves and the Job Corps program deserve our support. This program 
ensures them access to educational and vocational training, fully 
preparing them to meet the needs of this country's employers. Indeed, a 
recent survey of small businesses indicated that a lack of trained 
employees is the largest current impediment to business growth. As a 
result, the Job Corps program provides invaluable assistance not only 
to disadvantaged youth, but also to employers and the host communities 
of Job Corps centers, which benefit from community service projects 
completed by students.
  This bill represents a comprehensive Congressional effort to enhance 
all components of the Job Corps program. Great pains have been taken to 
create a continuum from the day a Job Corps student is recruited into 
the program to the day that student starts his or her job, and beyond.
  Mr. President, let me take a minute to expand on these improvements. 
Job Corps has been and continues to be a model for other education and 
training programs. The placement rate of the program is phenomenal: 
this year over 80% of Job Corps graduates will be placed in good paying 
jobs, enter the military, or go onto post-secondary education. The 
performance measurement standards of Job Corps have long been praised 
for being thorough and rigorous. These demanding standards have 
stimulated the program's ongoing self-assessment and improvement over 
the years. Thanks to this legislation, Job Corps' performance standards 
can serve as a model for other programs. With enactment of this bill, 
all programs under WIPA will be challenged to increase their 
performance and accountability to achieve the results Job Corps does.
  Mr. President, support for this legislation will help Job Corps 
become even better. First, with this legislation, Job Corps will become 
a core partner with one-stop training centers, making sure that every 
young, disadvantaged person walking into a neighborhood one-stop site 
will learn about this program and know it is an option. If the young 
person is ready to commit to his or her future, pledging not to drink 
or take drugs, the program is ready to offer an intensive, self-paced, 
state of the art education and training. Second, every Job Corps campus 
will form partnerships with the private sector in order to develop 
training programs suitable for available, local employment; identify 
job opportunities for students; and help integrate the Job Corps campus 
and facilities into the fabric of a community. Third, a stringent 
process will be put in place to ensure that poor performing centers are 
quickly identified and offered help to improve their performance. 
Finally, every year, Congress will receive a report on the program's 
performance that will include how many students graduated from each 
center and from which trade, how many were employed, their wages when 
hired, and what these students are making a year later. This kind of 
information will be instrumental to make sure we improve upon the 
success that has been Job Corps' for more than 30 years.
  Mr. President, in the Administration's current budget President 
Clinton has followed the initiative taken by Congress last year to 
moderately expand the program. Support for such expansion was 
demonstrated overwhelmingly when forty-one of my colleagues joined me 
in a letter to Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Specter and Ranking 
Member Harkin in support of this budget increase. Job Corps gains this 
breadth of support in Congress because Members are aware of the 
positive impact it has on literally millions of lives. This legislation 
improves upon a program with a demonstrated record of success. 
Therefore, Members can be confident that the program will continue to 
serve more disadvantaged young people with as high a rate of success. 
It is my hope, Mr. President, that soon the Job Corps program will 
become truly national, with a center in every state of our nation. My 
home state of Rhode Island is currently involved in the application 
process for a center. Our Governor, local elected officials, employers, 
educational institutions, and civic organizations have all committed to 
developing a high-performance center in our state. I have been actively 
working on the federal level to assist them.
  Thank you, Mr. President. I urge my colleagues to support this worthy 
legislation.


                     amendment no. 2329, as amended

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to amendment No. 
2329, as amended.
  The amendment (No. 2329), as amended, was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there further debate on the committee 
substitute?
  If there is no objection, the committee substitute amendment, as 
amended, is agreed to.
  The committee substitute amendment, as amended, was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on the engrossment and third 
reading of the bill.
  The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading and was read 
the third time.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Labor 
Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 1385, the 
Employment

[[Page S4027]]

Training and Literacy Act, and the Senate proceed to its consideration. 
I further ask unanimous consent that all after the enacting clause be 
stricken and the text of S. 1186, as amended, be inserted in lieu 
thereof, the bill be read a third time, and a vote occur on passage of 
H.R. 1385 on Tuesday, May 5, at 5:30 p.m.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (H.R. 1186) as amended, was ordered to a third reading and 
was read the third time.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. I ask unanimous consent that, at 4:30 on Tuesday, there 
be 60 minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form for closing 
remarks prior to the vote on the passage of the bill. I further ask 
unanimous consent that, following passage of the bill, the Senate 
insist on its amendment and request a conference with the House and the 
Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate. I 
finally ask unanimous consent that S. 1186 be placed back on the 
calendar.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. I yield back the remainder of my time, and I also have 
authority to yield back the remaining time of the minority.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time is yielded back.

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