[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 20, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H1397]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                REAUTHORIZE THE WORKFORCE INVESTMENT ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Tierney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TIERNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to 
support legislation that I, along with Congressman George Miller of 
California and Ruben Hinojosa of Texas, are introducing later today to 
reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act.
  The Workforce Investment Act, or WIA as it is commonly known, is the 
primary Federal law governing how employment and training services are 
provided to adults, youth, and dislocated workers. It was enacted in 
1998 when unemployment was below 5 percent and before many of today's 
high growth industries even existed. It is long past time for WIA to be 
modernized and retooled to address our country's current challenges.
  The bill I'm introducing today does just that. This bill increases 
access to training and improves the delivery of employment services. It 
strengthens the law's accountability standards to better evidence 
program effectiveness and provide assurances that our taxpayer dollars 
are being well spent.
  My bill ensures that the kind of innovative work that's being done by 
the North Shore Workforce Investment Board in my district and elsewhere 
across the country can be replicated and taken to scale, and it expands 
the role of community colleges in job training.

                              {time}  1040

  This is the kind of commonsense legislation on which this Congress 
should be acting. We need to make sure we provide the training and 
education so that Americans have the skills to fulfill the jobs of 
today and tomorrow. Too many businesses have job vacancies because they 
can't find qualified candidates. Working together to help workers and 
those looking to hire them should not be a partisan issue. We need to 
find those qualified candidates and put them to work.
  Modernizing and strengthening WIA will help both workers and 
employers, and it will ensure that our country can remain competitive 
in this global economy. I urge my colleagues' support for it.

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