Supplemental appropriations bill on the House floor and in Senate markup today The House may take the FY 08 supplemental appropriations bill directly to the House today, while the Senate will mark up their version of the bill in the full Appropriations Committee. Senators Patty Murray and Tom Harkin have been trying to include funding for WIA in the supplemental bill for the last few weeks arguing that in this economic downturn there should be additional workforce funding targeted to summer jobs and dislocated workers. They have been joined in this effort on the House side by House Appropriations Chairman David Obey, who has been supportive of additional summer jobs and dislocated worker funding. The bill is targeted to providing funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with nearly $180 billion dedicated to the military. President Bush is threatening to veto the bill if any items unrelated to the war, particularly domestic spending items, are included in the bill. The House and Senate leadership have decided that they will push all but a few domestic items to the second economic stimulus package, the timing of which is unclear at this juncture. The bill will include extended UI benefits, but even this provision is causing significant concern in the Democratic leadership, as conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats want offsets for additional UI funding and Republicans are opposed to providing extended UI when there is only 5% unemployment. Senior Administration officials are also signaling that the bill will be vetoed with UI included, stating that the supplemental should only be used to pay for emergency military spending. As a result, Chairman Harkin and Senator Murray, who has continued to argue on behalf of including WIA in the stimulus in talks with the leadership, indicated to NWA that any additional WIA funding will have to wait until the second stimulus package. There has been support from other Members of the Committee for additional WIA funding. In other developments, you should be aware that Senators Harkin and Murray have offered to have Senator Kohl join their effort to increase funding for workforce in the stimulus bill. Secretary Chao offers testimony to the Senate Appropriations Labor-HHS Subcommittee Secretary Chao appeared before the Senate Appropriations Labor-HHS Subcommittee yesterday in support of her FY 2009 budget request. Secretary Chao argued vociferously against the newly released IG and GAO reports criticizing over $250 million in sole source grants overseen by the Secretary under the President’s High Growth Job Training Initiative. The reports focused on the lack of evaluation and poor follow up by DOL in the administration of these grants. Senator Harkin led the extensive questioning regarding these sole source grants and also disputed Chao’s assertions of continued WIA formula carryover, citing Iowa as an example of a place with very little carryover. He highlighted that in a recent survey, 19 out of 20 states are using PY 07 funding to pay for the rescission because PY 05 and 06 funds are already exhausted. Senator Patty Murray questioned Chao about the GAO’s findings that the $900 million in workforce funds used for three key presidential initiatives had little benchmarking or measures to judge performance or evaluate the outcomes of the sole-source grants. She asked Secretary Chao whether she was concerned about declining funding for the workforce system. Chao responded she was concerned about declining resources, but what the system needed fundamental reform, due to the duplicative services being offered, continued carryover, and need for demand driventraining for jobseekers. Murray responded they have a difference in philosophy regarding the needs of the workforce system that will not be resolved during Chao’s remaining months in office. McKeon continues to press WIA reauthorization House Education and Labor Ranking Member Buck McKeon told NWA that he continues to press WIA reauthorization with his Democratic counterparts on the Education and Labor Committee in just the past couple of weeks. He also released a press release Friday when the April unemployment numbers were released, encouraging Democrats to move on reauthorization to help improve the employment situation. Mr. McKeon also indicated he and Senate Ranking Member Mike Enzi were encouraging Senate HELP Chairman Ted Kennedy once again to move WIA. However, it does not appear that reauthorization is on the House agenda at the moment, as Committee staff have been meeting with interest groups to discuss key items for a more comprehensive reauthorization in 2009.
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