Nomination of Kent Yoshiho Hirozawa to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board -- Continued

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I thank the Senator. Senator Isakson has been absolutely great to work with. We have been spending a lot of time on this.

Let me make a few remarks.

Over the past several weeks and months, we have spent a lot of time in the Senate debating everything from the Federal budget to separate spending bills, and throughout those debates Members of both parties have agreed it is absolutely critical that we are working to write laws and policies that put hardworking Americans back to work, help our businesses grow and invest, and position our economy to compete and win in the 21st century.

We have had some disagreement on how to achieve those goals, but as our Nation now recovers from the recession, our first priority has to be getting Americans back on the job. So I wish to join with Senator Isakson to talk about the tremendous progress we have made in the HELP Committee; that is, the work to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act--and to do just that: put Americans back to work.

Before I get to the importance of the bill itself, I do wish to take some time to talk about the bipartisan process we have had at the committee level to move this forward.

From the very beginning of this process I have worked very closely with my Republican cosponsor Senator Isakson, whom you just heard from, and though I know we represent very different States with different industries and different issues, we have each remained very committed to writing a bill that works for all American businesses and workers.

This process has never been about scoring political points or pitting interests against each other. I think it has been a rare and needed example of true bipartisan legislating, and I thank my friend Senator Isakson, again, for his hard work and commitment throughout this process.

I also wish to thank our committee chairman and ranking member--Senator Harkin and Senator Alexander--who have both worked extensively on this legislation and have now signed on as cosponsors as well.

It has been 15 years since we first passed the Workforce Investment Act or WIA. But perhaps more important, it has been a full decade since the legislation was due to be reauthorized. So this law--which was first written in the late 1990s--was designed to be changed and updated back in 2003. Since then, as we all know, our country and our economy have changed a lot.

In the late 1990s, the Internet was changing the way we do business and driving our economy, and the housing sector was as strong as ever. But as we all know, unfortunately, both of these industries went bust.

But back then, we in Congress were willing to take the long view and make meaningful commitments to and investments in our workforce development systems. So back in 1998, we wrote and passed the Workforce Investment Act to help our workers and educators and businesses respond to an economy that was changing faster than ever before.

Lately, we have not done much of that, but I am very optimistic that by improving and reauthorizing WIA, we can get back on track. This is the very law that was written to help us respond to a changing economy and provide the framework for our Nation's workforce development system. But it is still written to address the issues we faced more than 10 years ago.

So working with Senators from both sides of the aisle and the business, labor, and education communities, we are bringing to our committee tomorrow a very strong reauthorization bill that brings WIA into the 21st century.

This bill puts more than a decade of experience and data to use by doing a few things. It requires a single unified workforce plan in each State and replaces all the overlap and confusion between separate State agencies.

It recognizes that we need data and analysis to understand which workforce programs are working well, what makes them work well and how to improve them and, just as important, which programs are underperforming, why, and how to fix them. It makes changes to align our workforce systems with regional economic development and labor markets.

This bill is focused on using real-world data to measure the returns we get on our workforce investments, and getting good return on the Federal dollars we invest is exactly what Americans are calling for today.

So while we are making important changes to the existing version of WIA, I wish to finish my remarks with an example of the incredible success this law has already had in helping our economy.

Last year, the WIA adult and dislocated worker programs produced some remarkable statistics. Over 1 million adults and dislocated workers were placed in jobs. Those workers earned more than $12 billion over just the first 6 months of their employment. In that same period, WIA funds spent on those programs came to about $2 billion.

Let me say that again. In just 6 months, an investment of $2 billion yielded a return of more than $12 billion. So the investments we make through WIA programs are having an incredible impact on our economy. The important point is we can do more.

That is why a lot of organizations across the country have called for a modernized 21st century version of the Workforce Investment Act--organizations such as the National Business Roundtable, the National Metropolitan Business Alliance, labor and education leaders, and the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce in my home State. All of these organizations are supporting the efforts we have put together.

We are here today to announce to our colleagues that tomorrow we are going to begin marking up our reauthorization bill in committee, and I look forward to continuing working with my colleagues from both sides of the aisle.

In a time when bipartisan legislation has become difficult to achieve, I hope we can set an example of what we are still capable of doing together to strengthen our country and our economy.

I again want to thank Senator Isakson and all those who have worked very hard to put this bill together. I am proud of what we have accomplished and look forward to working with him as we move through this process.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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