Today, Rep. Cindy Axne (IA03) voted with a bipartisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives in favor of legislation that will invest in strengthening and modernizing the nation’s workforce development system and will allow the U.S. to train nearly 1 million workers per year by 2028.
Rep. Axne is a cosponsor of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2022 (WIOA), which will reauthorize the primary federal program providing training and career services to help working people across the country get the skills they need.
“With this bill, the U.S. will be able to train nearly 1 million workers per year by 2028 and help people gain the skills they need to access better-paying jobs in high-demand fields,” Rep. Axne said. “I hear from employers in Iowa every day who can’t find the workers they need, and investing in workforce development has been a priority of mine since day one. I am proud to have joined my colleagues in passing this bill to help employers here in Iowa and across the country secure a qualified workforce.”
WIOA includes funding for job training for adults, dislocated workers, and youth as well as supportive services to help participants complete training and join the workforce. The authorization for WIOA expired in 2020 and federal investment in workforce development has fallen overtime. Even though the U.S. labor force has grown by nearly half during the last four decades, federal spending on workforce development has fallen by two-thirds.
This has resulted in essential workforce development services often being unavailable to the people who need them most, even when the COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of workers into unemployment or underemployment, and left employers with millions of job openings.
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2022:
- Fully funds WIOA programs by authorizing $78 billion over six years, which will allow the workforce system to train one million workers per year by 2028
- Establishes a permanent Department of Labor program to help individuals released from incarceration transition back to employment and access sustainable career pathways
- Expands summer and year-round jobs programs for youth
- Strengthens the quality of the Jobs Corps program
- Codifies partnerships between employers and community colleges to provide high-quality job training
- Strengthens industry and sector partnerships to better meet the needs of both employers and job seekers; and
- Provides funding for innovative approaches to workforce development.
Original source can be found here.
