Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. I rise in support of the manager's amendment for H.R. 803, the Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills Act, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

The issue before us can no longer be ignored. Last week, we received encouraging news as the Nation's unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent; but the reality remains that millions of Americans are still searching for work, and too often they cannot access the support they need to compete for in-demand jobs.

Each year, hardworking taxpayers spend $18 billion to fund more than 50 Federal workforce development programs administered by nine different agencies. Many of the programs overlap or are duplicative and few have ever been evaluated for efficacy. Our Nation's economy is only as strong as its workforce. Right now, the need to reform our broken workforce development system could not be more critical. As Friday's job report illustrated, 12 million Americans are still searching for full-time work; yet employers reported another month with more than 3 million unfilled job openings, in part because there aren't enough qualified workers to fill them.

We know the jumbled state of today's workforce development system is unimaginable, as well as the ineffective maze of programs each of today's workers has to navigate in order to receive assistance or education to help in their job hunt. I have a chart that shows this. Americans deserve a system that is more efficient, more accountable, and more responsive than that. What we propose today will take care of that, and this is the chart that shows where we will go with this system.

Today, many of my colleagues have discussed how the SKILLS Act would foster an employer-driven system that prepares job seekers for a successful career in the 21st-century economy. I would like to highlight a few technical changes included in the manager's amendment that will enhance efforts to eliminate waste, safeguard taxpayer dollars, and provide education and support to American workers.

First, the manager's amendment will improve accountability and ensure officials aren't wasting taxpayer dollars by requiring the Government Accountability Office to evaluate the administrative savings that will occur at the Federal and State levels due to the streamlining of workforce development programs.

Second, we recognize that local leaders are much better informed and equipped to serve the needs of local job seekers than we are in Washington. That is why our approach relies on a bottom-up approach when designating local workforce investment areas. Local leaders will submit applications for designation and establish the processes needed to align their areas with other service delivery and labor market areas in their region. In doing so, the designation process will be more effective and transparent, and will naturally serve the priorities of local communities.

Finally, the manager's amendment requires State and local workforce development leaders, when serving individuals with disabilities, to detail how they will focus on employment opportunities that foster independence and integration. These commonsense changes help build a more dynamic and inclusive system that will provide maximum support for workers and employers.

In his 2012 State of the Union address, President Obama urged Congress to cut "through the maze of confusing training programs.'' Today we have the opportunity to do just that.

We cannot encourage economic growth or put Americans back to work without reforming an antiquated system that fails to meet the fundamental needs of today's job creators and workers. We cannot continue to defend the outdated policies of the past. It is time we reform these programs to create an efficient and effective system that supports the true backbone of our economy: the American people.

Madam Chairman, I strongly urge my colleagues to support the SKILLS Act, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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