Tea Leaves Reveal Significant Obstacles for Job Training Bill

As discussed in last week’s blog, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee recently cleared legislation (S. 1356) that would reauthorize federal investments in the nation’s core job training programs. With the House having passed its Workforce Investment Act (WIA) reauthorization bill on March 15, the HELP Committee’s action sets a new high-water mark in the decade-long effort to pass a reauthorization bill. Yet two significant obstacles remain before final passage.

Senate Floor Time a Precious Commodity

Getting floor time is the first obstacle. This week, Congress took a recess for the August district work period. When Congress reconvenes on September 9, the end of the fiscal year will be just three short weeks away. Policymakers’ first order of business is to hammer out a deal to fund government programs once the new fiscal year begins on October 1.

Without an FY 2014 spending agreement, the federal government will shut down. Unfortunately, little progress has been made up to this point due to a fundamental disagreement about the total amount that should be spent in FY 2014. House Republicans insist on spending no more than $967 billion to support discretionary programs, while Senate Democrats are pushing to spend $1.058 trillion.

All this is to say that Senate leaders may not want to spend precious time to consider WIA reauthorization when the stakes are so high with regard to fiscal issues. In addition, Senate Republicans may decide to offer floor amendments to consolidate job training programs, similar to the approach taken by the House version (H.R.803). Such an amendment would promise to be contentious and consume valuable floor time.

Unless there is bipartisan agreement to move the bill forward in a manner that minimizes the consumption of Senate floor time; don’t expect the Senate to consider the bill anytime soon.

Stark Differences Between House and Senate Versions

In the event that the Senate is somehow able to advance the bill to the floor and pass it; reconciling the stark differences between House and Senate versions represents a second obstacle.

The most fundamental difference between the House and Senate bills is their approach to consolidation. The House proposal would consolidate 35 federal job training programs into a single block grant to states. House Republicans and Democrats were bitterly divided over consolidation. In fact, House Democrats walked out at the end of the Education and Workforce Committee’s WIA reauthorization proceedings. By contrast, the Senate legislation would essentially maintain the current structure, and is the result of a bipartisan effort. In fact, the committee voted 18-3 to approve the bill.

Another key House-Senate difference involves the makeup of state and local workforce investment boards (WIBs), which are responsible for developing state and local job training plans, selecting service providers and overseeing the operation of local one stop career centers. The House bill proposes that WIBs have at least two-thirds business representation on the boards. This very proposal was a central cause for stalling WIA reauthorization negotiations in the Senate during the last (112th) Congress. As a result, the Senate version would now maintain current law, a simple business majority.  Such a hard-fought issue promises to complicate any effort to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions.