Job Training Improvement Act of 2005
JOB TRAINING IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2005 -- (Extensions of Remarks - March 08, 2005)
SPEECH OF
HON. BETTY McCOLLUM
OF MINNESOTA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2005
The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 27) to enhance the workforce investment system of the Nation by strengthening one-stop career centers, providing for more effective governance arrangements, promoting access to a more comprehensive array of employment, training, and related services, establishing a targeted approach to serving youth, and improving performance accountability, and for other purposes:
Ms. MCCOLLUM of Minnesota. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to H.R. 27, the so-called Job Training Improvement Act of 2005.
Millions of Americans are unemployed today and finding it harder to get a job. According to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, job seekers in Minnesota still out-number unfilled jobs by two-to-one.
Unfortunately, H.R. 27 does nothing to put people back to work. It doesn't shorten the lists of people waiting to use the resources at my one stops. It won't meet the needs of the approximately 8,000 Minnesota youth who can't get WIA job-related services every year. Instead, this bill unravels the very programs that ensure these workers have the skills and training they need to find high paying, long-term jobs.
H.R. 27 eliminates targeted programs designed to help both dislocated workers and unemployed adults find a job. It block grants dedicated assistance forcing low-income workers and welfare recipients to compete with dislocated workers for the same limited federal resources.
This bill eliminates dedicated funding for job search services, like Minnesota's Job Bank, which assists thousands of Minnesotans. This funding supports a rapid response system that meets the immediate needs of workers affected by mass layoffs. These changes threaten to break apart Minnesota's statewide workforce development system at the very time when these services are needed most to help unemployed workers find jobs.
In addition, H.R. 27 does nothing to ensure that these limited funds are used for training. It allows governors to take money away from adult education and veterans' job programs and use it to cover bureaucratic costs. Sadly, it also restricts youth funding to out-of-school youth. This will devastate the Building Lives Program, which Ramsey County uses to provide job training services to troubled teens during school hours.
Most concerning, however, is that this bill repeals basic civil rights protections for employees of job training programs by allowing organizations that receive Federal job-training funds to discriminate on the basis of religion.
I speak as a person who was brought up by a Lutheran mother and a Catholic father. I remember when my mother went to church to see her little girl receive her first communion and wasn't made to feel welcome. I don't want to go back to those days. I don't want the children I represent to know how it feels to be kept from fulfilling their dreams or meet their potential because someone doesn't like the church, mosque or synagogue you attend. Yet, this bill leads our country in that direction.
Mr. Chairman, I strongly believe that we must strengthen our workforce investment system to help Minnesotans get back to work. H.R. 27, however, fails to meet that goal and at the same time encourages rolling back civil rights protections. I urge my colleagues to reject this bill today.
http://thomas.loc.gov