Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act

Last updated
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
Great Seal of the United States (obverse).svg
Long titleTo reform and strengthen the workforce investment system of the Nation to put Americans back to work and make the United States more competitive in the 21st century.
Announced inthe 113th United States Congress
Sponsored by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
Citations
Public law Pub. L. Tooltip Public Law (United States)  113–128 (text) (PDF)
Codification
Acts affected Workforce Investment Act of 1998, Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Wagner-Peyser Act, Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, Immigration and Nationality Act, and others.
Authorizations of appropriations$3.3 billion for fiscal year 2017 [1]
Legislative history

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) is a United States public law that replaced the previous Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) as the primary federal workforce development legislation to bring about increased coordination among federal workforce development and related programs.

Contents

Although the Employment Service (ES) is one of 19 required partners in the One-Stop delivery system, its central mission—to facilitate the match between individuals seeking work and employers seeking workers—makes it critical to the functioning of the workforce development system under WIOA.

The One-Stop Delivery System

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates public domain material from The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and the One-Stop Delivery System. Congressional Research Service.

WIOA continues the requirements of WIA for each state to establish a One-Stop delivery system to

Employment Service

Although the Employment Service (ES) is one of 19 required partners in the One-Stop delivery system, its central mission—to facilitate the match between individuals seeking work and employers seeking workers—makes it critical to the functioning of the workforce development system under WIOA. To this end, one of the key functions played by the ES is to deliver many of the "career services" established by WIOA. ES staff often are the first to assist individuals seeking employment assistance and refer individuals to other programs in the One-Stop system of partners.

Services provided by the ES include:

Labor exchange services are provided via three tiers of service delivery:

Provisions

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates public domain material from The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and the One-Stop Delivery System. Congressional Research Service.

WIOA includes five titles:

Title I

Title I of WIOA authorizes programs to provide job search, education, and training activities for individuals seeking to gain or improve their employment prospects, and which establishes the One-Stop delivery system. In addition, Title I of WIOA establishes the governing structure and the performance accountability for all programs authorized under WIOA. Title I programs are administered by the US Department of Labor (DOL), primarily through its Employment and Training Administration (ETA).

Elements of WIOA that are collectively intended to comprise a "workforce development system" are:

Title II

Title II of WIOA is the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA). AEFLA supports educational services, primarily through grants to states, to help adults become literate in English and develop other basic skills necessary for employment and postsecondary education, and to become full partners in the education of their children.

Title III

Title III amends the Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933, which authorizes the Employment Service (ES), to make the ES an integral part of the One-Stop system amended by WIOA.

Title IV

Title IV of WIOA amends the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and authorizes funding for vocational rehabilitation services for individuals with disabilities. Most programs under the Rehabilitation Act are related to the employment and independent living of individuals with disabilities.

History

Background

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates public domain material from The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and the One-Stop Delivery System. Congressional Research Service.

The first substantial federal training programs in the postwar period were enacted in the Manpower Development Training Act (MDTA; Pub. L. Tooltip Public Law (United States)  87–415) in 1962, although federal "employment policy," broadly defined, had its origin in New Deal era programs such as Unemployment Insurance (UI) and public works employment. Starting with MDTA, there have been four main federal workforce development programs. The MDTA provided federal funding to retrain workers displaced because of technological change. Later in MDTA's existence, the majority of funding went to classroom and on-the-job training (OJT) that was targeted to low-income individuals and welfare recipients. Funding from the MDTA was allocated by formula to local communities based on factors of population and poverty. Grants under MDTA were administered through regional DOL offices and went directly to local service providers.

The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), enacted in 1973, made substantial changes to federal workforce development programs. CETA transferred more decision-making authority from the federal government to local governments. Specifically, CETA provided funding to about 470 "prime sponsors" (sub-state political entities such as city or county governments, consortia of governments, etc.) to administer and monitor job training activities. Services under CETA—which included on-the-job training, classroom training, and public service employment (PSE)—were targeted to low-income populations, welfare recipients, and disadvantaged youth. At its peak in 1978, the PSE component of CETA supported about 755,000 jobs and accounted for nearly 60% of the CETA budget. CETA was amended in 1978 in part to create private industry councils (PIC) to expand the role of the private sector in developing, implementing, and evaluating CETA programs. The composition of PICs included representatives of business, labor, education, and other groups.

In 1982, changes to federal workforce development policy were made by enactment of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). Major changes implemented under JTPA, which provided classroom and on-the-job training to low-income and dislocated workers, included service delivery at the level of 640 "service delivery areas," federal funding allocation first to state governors and then to PICs in each of the service delivery areas (unlike CETA, which provided allocations directly to prime sponsors), prohibition of the public service employment component, and a new emphasis on targeted job training and reemployment. With a new emphasis on training (rather than public employment), JTPA required that at least 70% of funding for service delivery areas be used for training. Although this percentage was dropped to 50% in the 1992 amendments to JTPA, the emphasis on training remained.

The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) replaced JTPA and continued the trend toward service coordination by establishing the One-Stop system through which state and local WIA training and employment activities were provided and in which certain partner programs were required to be colocated. WIA replaced PICs with Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs), which were responsible for the design of services for WIA participants. In addition to these changes, WIA enacted changes that included universal access to services (i.e., available to any individual regardless of age or employment status), a demand driven workforce system responsive to the demands of local area employers (e.g., the requirement that a majority of WIB members must be representatives of business), a work-first approach to workforce development (i.e., placement in employment was the first goal of the services provided under Title I of WIA as embodied in the "sequence of services" provisions), and the establishment of consumer choice for participants who were provided with Individual Training Accounts (ITAs) to choose a type of training and the particular provider from which to receive training.

Procedural history

The Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills Act (SKILLS Act) was introduced into the United States House of Representatives on February 25, 2013 by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC). [2] It was referred to six House committees: Agriculture, Education and the Workforce, Energy and Commerce, Judiciary, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Veterans Affairs. It was reported (amended) on March 12, 2013 alongside House Report 113-14 part 1. [2] On March 15, 2013, the House voted in Roll Call Vote 75 to pass the bill 215-202. [2]

The bill was received in the Senate on March 18, 2013 and referred to the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee. [2] On June 25, 2014, the Senate changed the name of the bill to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, amended the bill, and then voted in Roll Call Vote 214 to pass the bill 95-3. [2] [3] Before the bill's passage in the Senate, the House and the Senate spent several months debating compromise positions to find a bill they could agree on. [4] The House then voted on July 9, 2014 to agree to the amendments that the Senate had made. The amended bill passed the House 415-6 in Roll Call Vote 378. [2]

President Barack Obama supported the bill. [4] He signed it into law on July 22, 2014 and it became Pub. L. Tooltip Public Law (United States)  113–128 (text) (PDF).

The Departments of Labor and Education issued draft regulations on how to carry out the law on April 16, 2015, [5] considered thousands of comments, and issued the final regulations June 30, 2016, [6] effective October 18, 2016. [5]

Debate and discussion

Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said that "it's too hard to find a job. It's too hard to create a job. We have some differences of opinion on what to do about it, but I think we agree that matching job skills to a job is a solution to millions of Americans." [3]

Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) said that "the need to improve our workforce investment system has crystalized during the Great Recession... employers say they have open positions they cannot fill because they cannot find workers with the skills they need today." [3]

The original bill that the House passed focuses mostly on getting rid of redundant workforce programs, as identified by the Government Accountability Office, while the Senate's earlier drafts kept all of the redundant programs and added additional ones. [4]

The bill was supported by the National Skills Coalition. [4]

The group Business Roundtable also supported the bill, arguing that the legislation "will narrow the skills gap and prepare American workers for the jobs of today and tomorrow." [7]

Amendments

In 2015, the bill was amended by the act entitled "To amend the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to improve the Act" (Pub. L. Tooltip Public Law (United States)  114–18 (text) (PDF)).

Funding, costs, and expenditures

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates public domain material from CBO - H.R. 803, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on March 6, 2013. Congressional Budget Office . Retrieved 26 June 2014.
PD-icon.svg This article incorporates public domain material from The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and the One-Stop Delivery System. Congressional Research Service.

WIOA would consolidate job training programs under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) into a single funding stream. It also would amend the Wagner-Peyser Act, reauthorize adult-education programs, and reauthorize programs under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (RA). Those programs, which received discretionary funding of $7 billion and mandatory funding of $3 billion in 2013, provide job training, adult education, and employment service assistance. Enactment would affect direct spending, but those costs are already assumed to continue in the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) baseline; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. (Enacting the bill would not affect revenues.) Implementing the act would affect discretionary spending. Assuming appropriation of the authorized amounts, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 803 would cost $26 billion over the 2014-2018 period. WIOA would not impose intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA).

The vast majority of funds (97%) for Employment Service activities are allotted to states on the basis of each state's relative share of the following two factors: civilian labor force (CLF) and total unemployment. Specifically, two-thirds of the ES state funding is allotted on the basis of the relative share of CLF and one-third on the basis of the relative share of total unemployment. The remaining 3% of total funding is distributed to states with civilian labor forces below 1 million and to states that need additional resources to carry out ES activities. Of the total allotment to states, 90% may be used for labor exchange services such as job search and placement assistance, labor market information, and referral to employers. The remaining 10% (Governor's Reserve) of the state allotment may be used for activities such as performance incentives and services for groups with special needs.

See also

Related Research Articles

The Northern California Indian Development Council, Inc. (NCIDC) is a private nonprofit corporation that annually provides services to 14,000 to 15,000 clients statewide. NCIDC was established in 1976 with the following goals:

The Job Training Partnership Act of 1982 was a United States federal law passed October 13, 1982, by Congress with regulations promulgated by the United States Department of Labor during the Ronald Reagan administration. The law was the successor to the previous federal job training legislation, the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). It was repealed by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 during the administration of President Bill Clinton.

The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 was a United States federal law that was repealed and replaced by the 2014 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Employment and Training Administration</span>

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is part of the U.S. Department of Labor. Its mission is to provide training, employment, labor market information, and income maintenance services. ETA administers federal government job training and worker dislocation programs, federal grants to states for public employment service programs, and unemployment insurance benefits. These services are primarily provided through state and local workforce development systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States House Committee on Education and the Workforce</span> Standing committee of the United States House of Representatives

The Committee on Education and the Workforce is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. There are 50 members of this committee. Since 2023, the chair of the Education and the Workforce committee is Virginia Foxx of North Carolina.

Pennsylvania CareerLink is a collaborative project between multiple agencies to provide career services to Pennsylvania employers, potential employees, and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oklahoma Employment Security Commission</span>

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC) is an independent agency of the state of Oklahoma responsible for providing employment services to the citizens of Oklahoma. The commission is part of a national network of employment service agencies and is funded by money from the United States Department of Labor. The commission is also responsible for administering the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 on behalf of the state.

Workforce Investment Boards were regional entities created to implement the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 in the United States, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The implementing law was replaced by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act in 2014.

The National Skill Standards Board (NSSB) was a coalition of community, business, labor, education, and civil rights leaders. It was tasked with building a national voluntary system of skill standards, assessment, and certification to enhance the ability of the United States workforce to compete effectively in the global economy.

The Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) is a federal agency under the United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, and is headquartered within the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. It was established to administer portions of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Its mission is to provide leadership and resources to assist state and other agencies in providing vocational rehabilitation (VR) and other services to individuals with disabilities to maximize their employment, independence and integration into the community and the competitive labor market.

Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) is a national nonprofit organization in the United States established in 1962 by Jane Fleming and Mary Janney in Washington, D.C.

The New York State Department of Labor is the department of the New York state government that enforces labor law and administers unemployment benefits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development</span>

Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) was a project of the United States Department of Labor. It provided a new approach to workforce and economic development. Through the WIRED model, regions integrated economic and workforce development activities to demonstrate that talent development can drive economic transformation in regional economies across the United States.

The America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science Act of 2007, also known as the America COMPETES Act, was authored by Bart Gordon and signed into law on August 9, 2007, by President George W. Bush. The act aimed to invest in innovation through research and development and improve the competitiveness of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas Workforce Commission</span>

The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) is a governmental agency in the U.S. state of Texas that provides unemployment benefits and services related to employment to eligible individuals and businesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgia Department of Labor</span>

The Georgia Department of Labor is an administrative agency of the U.S. state of Georgia. With approximately 4,000 employees in 2008, it provides services to the state's current and emerging workforce.

Assistive Technology Acts provide federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education to each state and territory to support "State efforts to improve the provision of assistive technology to individuals with disabilities of all ages through comprehensive statewide programs of technology-related assistance." Assistive Technologies are equipment, items or devices used to improve or keep the functionality of an individual with a disability. This will allow an individual with a disability to be more independent in life, this includes: education, recreation, and any daily activity. The services being offered for Assistive Technology include being able to use AT devices, assessment for the devices, and any maintenance included, such as customization, repair, and training. Under the Assistive Technology laws, federal grants are granted to each state to fund an Assistive Technology Act Project (ATAP) which provide services for individuals with disabilities, their families, guardians and more for their life span. The act, first passed in 1988, expires each years and needs to be continuously renewed to ensure the services can still be used.

One-stop career centers are public employment offices in the United States. They are workforce information and education offices set up by Workforce Investment Boards as directed by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. The Workforce Investment Act was repealed and replaced by the 2014 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act with an annual budget of $3.3 billion.

Welfare in California consists of federal welfare programs—which are often at least partially administered by state and county agencies—and several independent programs, which are usually administered by counties.

Dislocated worker funding is typically used to help workers in events of mass employment loss. A dislocated or displaced worker is defined as an individual who has been laid off or received notice of a potential layoff and has very little chance of finding employment in their current occupation when attempting to return to the workforce. Displaced workers are most frequently found in the manufacturing industry. Legislation addressing training for these workers was first introduced in 1959 through the passing of the Area Redevelopment Act of 1959. Over the years, legislation funding these programs has included wording holding states and private businesses accountable for the roles in the dislocation of workers. Due to the importance of this funding and the negative economic impact of displaced workers, the United States has passed continuing legislation as recent as 2014 and 2015.

References

  1. ↑ "FY 2018 DEPARTMENT OF LABOR BUDGET IN BRIEF" (PDF). U.S. Department of Labor. 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-06-03. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "H.R. 803 - All Actions". United States Congress. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 Marcos, Cristina (25 June 2014). "Senate passes job training bill in 95-3 vote". The Hill. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Severns, Maggie (25 June 2014). "Workforce bill clears Senate". Politico. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
  5. 1 2 US Dept of Labor (2016-08-19). "Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act; Joint Rule for Unified and Combined State Plans, Performance Accountability, and the One-Stop System Joint Provisions; Final Rule PDF file icon" (PDF). Federal Register. 81: 55792 – via GPO.
  6. ↑ "Obama administration announces new regulations to strengthen employment and training opportunities for millions of Americans". www.dol.gov. U.S. Department of Labor. 2016-06-30. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  7. ↑ "CEOs Applaud Senate Vote to Reauthorize Workforce Investment Act; Urge House to Follow Suit". Business Roundtable. 25 June 2014. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.