[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 11131]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  WIOA

  Mr. SCOTT. Madam President, I am pleased the Senate voted this week 
to improve job training in the United States. The Workforce Innovation 
and Opportunity Act, 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 appreciate my colleagues' work on this important issue and look 
forward to swift passage of WIOA in both Chambers.

                          ____________________