[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 13937]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                WORKFORCE INNOVATION AND OPPORTUNITY ACT

  Mr. SCOTT. Madam President, I am pleased the President signed the 
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, WIOA, into law last week to 
improve job training in the United States. WIOA is the result of a 
commitment in both parties and both Chambers to modernize our workforce 
development system to ensure American competitiveness. The last time a 
Workforce Investment Act reauthorization was signed into law was in 
1998, far too long ago, and the significant skills gap we face as a 
nation is evidence that our fragmented system simply is not working.
  Despite the billions of taxpayer dollars we invest annually on 
Federal job training programs, there are 4.5 million unfilled jobs and 
a staggering 10 million unemployed Americans. We need to bridge this 
gap, and WIOA helps get us there by reducing bureaucracy and providing 
American workers with a more flexible and effective workforce training 
system. Over the past year, I have heard from businesses, elected State 
and local leaders, and families back home about the critical need for 
reforms to our job training system, and I am glad to have had the 
chance to work on this bill and be a part of this process in the 
Senate.
  This legislation incorporates many reforms contained in the SKILLS 
Act, which I introduced in the Senate earlier this year, including the 
elimination of 15 programs identified as duplicative or ineffective and 
countless Federal mandates on States and local boards. In addition, 
WIOA establishes common performance metrics and requires independent 
evaluations every 4 years of all workforce programs to ensure 
effectiveness and accountability to taxpayers. By reducing bureaucracy 
and enhancing flexibility, WIOA eliminates delays that hinder job 
seekers from immediately accessing job training services and reentering 
the workforce.
  I thank Senators Alexander, Harkin, Isakson, and Murray and 
Representative Foxx for their leadership on this issue and am pleased 
to see this important legislation was signed into law without delay.

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