Skip to Content

Press Releases

Foxx on Democrat Efforts to Hand the Nation’s Workforce Development System to Bureaucrats

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 17, 2022
Today, Education and Labor Committee Republican Leader Virginia Foxx (R-NC) spoke on the House Floor in opposition to H.R. 7309, the reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which gives Big Labor and Washington bureaucrats more power over our nation’s workforce development system.
Republican Leader Foxx’s remarks:
 
“Republicans are committed to preparing America’s workforce for the 21st century. This reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act will not help our country live up to its potential. In fact, this reauthorization moves our workforce development system in the wrong direction.
 
“Our labor market is not facing a lack of job openings or a lack of workers. Currently there are 11.3 million open jobs, but unfortunately there are too few Americans with the skills needed to fill them effectively. That is why we need a robust workforce development system that will prepare workers for in-demand skills.
 
“During the Education and Labor Committee markup of H.R. 7309, Republicans offered an amendment that would:
  • empower employers to respond to local economic needs;
  • streamline the workforce development system by increasing local collaboration and putting program qualification decisions at the state and local level;
  • strengthen outcomes and accountability by adding evidence-based practices, maintaining common performance-based metrics, funding programs with a track record of success, and improving transparency measures; and
  • reduce bureaucracy by requiring the Department of Labor to address regulatory bottlenecks.
“Democrats blocked all those commonsense proposals.
 
“Republicans also pushed to allocate more funds for upskilling workers and support robust postsecondary education programs that focus on in-demand skills. Instead of embracing innovative models, Democrats rely on an 85-year-old federal apprenticeship model from the Great Depression. This model has not been working and throwing more money at it won’t change that. 
 
“Our nation’s job creators are in a far better position to help run workforce development programs, but this bill puts Washington in the driver’s seat. Instead of putting workers first, this legislation makes bureaucrats and labor unions the priority.
 
“For example, provisions in this bill increase the size of state and local governing boards and dilute employer input to increase the power of labor unions. Too often, labor unions have the interests of their union bosses in mind instead of the interests of workers. Giving Big Labor an outsized role on these boards will render these programs less responsive to industry needs.
 
“H.R. 7309 also promotes progressive gender ideology and critical race theory by requiring states to develop and publish state equity reports regarding performance outcomes on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Leave it to the Left to destroy equality in pursuit of equity, a word one author aptly described as ‘dispens[ing] unequal treatment in order to achieve equal outcomes.’ Taking the focus of our job programs off upskilling workers and putting it onto a woke agenda will do a disservice to all our job seekers.
 
“This legislation also increases cumbersome administrative hurdles for employers. If we want employers to participate in these programs, we need a system that has fewer barriers and is easier to navigate. This process should be streamlined instead of making it more complex.
 
“And instead of making this program more efficient, provisions in this reauthorization will end up costing taxpayers more. H.R. 7309 will require Job Corps contractors to comply with onerous local prevailing wage requirements. This will significantly increase the cost of all Job Corps projects without improving the program’s effectiveness. On top of that, the bill weakens expectations for Job Corps’ success. Job Corps is a program that has been fraught with negative issues for decades. This is a program in which 30 different government reports and audits have raised concerns over its safety and security. People have literally been killed in this program and the Left wants to make it less accountable. Other provisions in the bill water down performance metrics, reducing the ability of Congress to measure the success of workforce development programs.  
 
“More accountability and measurable outcomes are clearly necessary. According to a 2018 investigation by the Tampa Bay Times, some local workforce boards had significantly misreported their outcomes and took credit for finding thousands of jobs for people who never even participated in the program.
 
“Other data demonstrate that these programs are not always effective, even when being operated honestly. Less than one-quarter of young enrollees and barely one-third of adults exited programs with occupations related to the workforce development program in which they were enrolled. Clearly, something isn’t working. Let me repeat: fewer than 25 percent of young enrollees and only 30 percent of adults came out of the programs into jobs related to the workforce development program in which they were enrolled.
 
“If we hope to enhance our nation’s economic competitiveness and upskill workers for in-demand jobs, we must create a workforce development system that actually works. This bill utterly fails to do that. The American people deserve so much better.”  
 
Watch Foxx’s floor speech here.

###
Stay Connected