[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 101 (Thursday, June 26, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4124-S4126]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WORKFORCE INNOVATION AND OPPORTUNITY ACT
Mr. COONS. Madam President, something important, something unusual,
something worth noting happened this week, happened yesterday in this
Chamber that I don't want to let pass without a few moments of comment.
Yesterday a broad bipartisan majority of this Senate came together to
pass the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
First, I congratulate Senators Murray, Isakson, Harkin, and Alexander
who led so capably on this bill. Senators Murray, a Democrat of
Washington, and Isakson, a Republican of Georgia, spent years working
through the details, policy, and language, and months making sure that
they got this bill to a point where the Senate and the House in a
bipartisan, bicameral way could adopt legislation.
What is this about? It is about something simple, important, and
powerful: investing in America's workforce so we can compete with
anyone around the world in the 21st century.
This is an area I have focused on a lot here in the Senate which I
believe is critical to our Nation, our competitiveness, to
strengthening our middle class, and to growing good jobs.
In manufacturing, it is a core challenge for us to ensure that our
workers have the training employers are looking for, and that our
manufacturing companies are globally competitive. Manufacturing is
important to America, to our future, to our middle class, to our
communities, and to our families because it pays well, it drives
innovation, it contributes greatly to other sectors in our economy and
in communities.
That is why a few months ago I launched the Manufacturing Jobs for
America initiative that has brought together dozens of Senators. We
initially pulled together Democrats from across my caucus to introduce
34 bills, some of the best and broadest ideas we could bring to the
table about how to accelerate America's recovery of employment and
steady growth in manufacturing. Roughly half of these bills are
bipartisan.
Part of the goal of this Manufacturing Jobs for America initiative
was to put good ideas out on the floor and get them in the mix as we
debate things going forward. So I wish to take a moment today and
celebrate that the ideas of many of our partners in this campaign,
ideas drawn from many of the bills that are part of this initiative,
ended up being important parts of the Workforce Innovation and
Opportunity Act that was passed this week.
Let me briefly touch on the five most important who contributed ideas
that were embedded in this bill that passed.
First, the Adult Education and Economic Growth Act which was
sponsored by Senators Reed and Brown. In our rapidly changing economy,
ensuring we can train Americans of all ages for all jobs is critical.
Senator Reed's bill takes an important step in that direction by
investing in adult education, expanding access to technology and
digital literacy skills and improving the coordination of State and
local programs.
A bill that was endorsed by the National Association of Manufacturers
is the AMERICA Works Act, sponsored by Senators Hagan and Heller.
Another challenge we face is ensuring employers can quickly recognize
whether a worker has the skills they need. So Senator Hagan's bill
helped solve this by ensuring we prioritize programs that invest in
training that delivers portable national and industry-recognized
credentials. This encourages job training programs to match the skills
of workers with the needs of local employers, training individuals for
the jobs currently available in their communities right now.
A third bill that contributed importantly to this bill that was
enacted here yesterday, adopted by the Senate yesterday, was the
Community College to Career Fund Act, sponsored by Senator Franken and
Senator Begich. Senator Franken came to the floor yesterday and gave
another passionate, important floor speech in support of these ideas.
It is something that as I presided--and I have been with Senator
Franken in caucus and have heard him speak many times. It is about
equipping workers with the skills they need by investing in
partnerships between our community colleges and our employers. Senator
Franken, Senator Begich, myself and others have seen this work in our
home communities. We have seen community colleges learn from
manufacturers what today are the actual relevant modern manufacturing
skills they need and then deliver customized training courses that make
a difference in the skills, in the lives, in the college affordability
and access of those who seek to join today's manufacturing workforce.
The fourth bill, the On-the-Job Training Act, cosponsored by Senators
Shaheen and Cochran, contributes to the idea that we need to invest in
on-the-job training. Because of Senator Shaheen's leadership on this
bill, we will now make new and important investments so workers can
learn what they need to do in the job that needs to be filled, rather
than in an academic setting and then search the skills that may match
the skills they learn. On-the-job training in this bill sponsored by
Shaheen and Cochran is an important contribution to modernizing
America's workplace skills.
The last, the SECTORS Act, cosponsored by Senators Brown and Collins,
is a provision that helps meet the fundamental challenge of connecting
our schools with our businesses by requiring State and local workforce
investment boards to establish sector-based partnerships.
With all of these bills there is an important and common theme. In
the 21st century, rapid economic change is a given. In order to
compete, in order to grow our economy and grow employment, in order to
be productive and to have a successful and growing workforce, we need
to be able to adapt as
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quickly as our economy does and we need to invest in modernizing the
skills of the American worker.
With the passage of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
yesterday, we have made a strong statement that in a bipartisan way we
are willing to invest in America's workers, the jobs of today and the
jobs of tomorrow. This is just one of many encouraging moments here in
the Senate that sometimes go without note or commentary in our
communities at home, but I thought it was important to bring to the
floor today this range of five different bills, three of them
bipartisan, all of them strong, whose ideas were part of the package
adopted on the floor yesterday and that I am confident will be adopted
by the House and signed into law by our President. This Senate can,
will, should continue to make bipartisan progress in investing in
American manufacturing.
I thank the Chair.
Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I strongly support the bicameral,
bipartisan Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, WIOA. This long
over-due reauthorization will help Americans to develop the skills
necessary to participate in today's global economy. I would be remiss
if I did not commend the leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions Committee--especially Senators Harkin, Alexander, Murray,
and Isakson--for their hard work on crafting this important jobs bill
which will benefit job seekers and their families, employers, and the
economy. Their House counterparts--Representatives John Kline, George
Miller, Virginia Foxx, and Rubeen Hinojosa of the House Committee on
Education and the Workforce--also deserve our praise and thanks.
Congress passed the Workforce Investment Act, WIA, in 1998. It
expired in 2003, but Congress has relied on annual appropriations bills
to extend WIA's authorization 1 year at a time. These appropriations
bills often have made modest policy changes. Some of the policy changes
have been retained in subsequent years but continuity isn't guaranteed.
This patchwork approach to improving our workforce education and
development system is far from ideal, especially as the labor market
changes rapidly in response to the global economy.
As our Nation continues the long, arduous climb out of the worst
recession since the Great Depression, effective education and workforce
development opportunities are vital to sustaining a building and
sustaining a vibrant middle class. The Workforce Innovation and
Opportunity Act will allow local workforce investment boards to create
a system which prepares workers for the 21st-century labor market and
helps employers find the skilled labor needed to compete and create
good jobs here in the United States.
Let me provide a report on the workforce development progress we have
made in Maryland. The Workforce Investment Network for Maryland is
comprised of Maryland's 12 workforce investment area/workforce
investment boards. The network reports assisting more than 216,000
Marylanders with job placement assessment, job search workshops, resume
preparation, and myriad other services from July 2012 to June 2013.
Nearly 16,000 job seekers completed job training programs, with several
thousand receiving nationally recognized certificates and credentials.
Through an aggressive outreach process, the Workforce Investment
Network for Maryland engaged more than 7,700 businesses and was able to
match nearly 44,000 jobs seekers with employers.
In Maryland, our local workforce investment boards know how to
respond to the needs of the local community. The field of cyber
security is projected to grow by 41 percent over the next 8 years, and
jobs in this expanding field pay a median hourly wage of $38 per hour.
Maryland is a hotbed of activity in the cyber security field since it
is home to the U.S. Cyber Command, the National Security Agency, the
Defense Information Systems Agency, the Navy Fleet Cyber Command, and
hundreds of Federal contractors and private technology companies. In an
effort to address the lack skilled cyber security workers and increase
the number of qualified workers in the pipeline, a three-way
partnership--the Pathways to Cybersecurity Careers Consortium--was
created to bring together the efforts of six workforce development
agencies, three community colleges, and the local business community.
The partnership, led by Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corporation,
was awarded a $4.9 million community-based job training grant to create
the Pathways to Cyber Security Program. The grant was intended to
assist 1,000 new, dislocated, underemployed, recently separated
veterans, and incumbent workers in obtaining cyber security
certifications identified as critical industry shortages by regional
businesses and government agencies. I am proud to report that nearly
1,150 workers have received training in the program, 755 program
participants have received cyber security certifications, and 721
program graduates have been hired by an employer or improved their
skills with an existing employer. Some of the graduates of the cyber
security programs have begun to work with a number of Federal agencies
in my home State.
As I have traveled across Maryland, I have seen firsthand the
positive effect of effective programs in action. This past March, I had
the opportunity to visit students at Chesapeake College's Continuing
Education & Workforce Training Culinary Arts Program. The students in
the culinary arts program learn the principles of food preparation,
obtain a nationally recognized safe food handling certificate, and
finish the program ready to enter the workforce in local area hotels
and restaurants. Having tasted a number of dishes the students
prepared, I can tell you their training is going well. I was impressed
by the dedication and enthusiasm of the students. One of them travels
more than 2 hours by bus, one way, to attend class each day. I am
confident these men and women will continue to hone their skills and
enhance their employment prospects.
Our Nation's at-risk youth present special challenges we must
overcome. Aaron Sierak, a resident of Aberdeen, MD, dropped out of high
school during his junior year. After he became discouraged about his
future and expressed a desire to change, he learned about the
Reconnecting Youth dropout recovery program run by the Harford County
Public Schools in partnership with the Susquehanna Workforce Network.
The Susquehanna Workforce Network helped Aaron obtain his GED, enroll
in Harford Community College, and obtain a Pell grant to help cover the
cost of his first year of tuition. Aaron now plans to obtain an
associate's degree and registered nursing certification so he can find
work in a high-demand--and rewarding--occupation.
The Workplace Innovation and Opportunity Act improves upon the
existing youth services that helped put Aaron back on a path to
economic mobility and a middle-class livelihood. WIOA places a priority
on out-of-school youth by requiring that 75 percent of youth services
funding at the State and local level be targeted to career pathways for
youth, dropout recovery efforts, and education and training programs
that lead to the attainment of a high school diploma and a recognized
postsecondary credential.
The Workplace Innovation and Opportunity Act is bipartisan, bicameral
legislation that will improve our workforce development system and help
put Americans back to work, preparing workers for the 21st-century
workforce and helping businesses find the skilled employees they need
to compete and create even more domestic jobs. WIOA creates a
streamlined workforce development system by eliminating 15 existing
duplicative programs. It applies a single set of outcome metrics to
every Federal workforce program under the act. It creates smaller,
nimbler, and more strategic State and local workforce development
boards. It integrates intake, case management, and reporting systems
and strengthens program evaluations. And it eliminates the ``sequence
of services.'' Finally, WIOA empowers local boards to tailor services
to their region's employment and workforce needs with on-the-job,
incumbent worker, and customized training and pay-for-performance
contracts.
According to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the
Workforce, by 2022 the supply of United States workers with
postsecondary
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education--including 6.8 million workers with bachelor's degrees and
4.3 million workers with a postsecondary vocational certificate, some
college credits, or an associate's degree--will fall short of the
demand for workers with those credentials by 11 million. This mismatch
will impede our economic growth and harm our international
competitiveness. It also represents a huge lost opportunity for
millions of hard-working Americans and their families. To maintain our
position as the world's economic leader, we need to educate and train
our workers to fill the skilled jobs of the knowledge-based economy.
And the workforce development system needs to pivot from short-term
crisis intervention to long-term human capital development. WIOA does
that, and the substitute amendment the Senate has passed demonstrates
that here in Congress, we can come together to work on legislation that
will boost the economic recovery and help all Americans.
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