Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, just last month I joined seven of my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats from the House and the Senate, to introduce a critical piece of legislation called the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. It is a bill to reauthorize and dramatically improve the Workforce Investment Act, or WIA, which authorizes a number of critical workforce development programs in all 50 States.

This legislation is something I have been working on for several years with a number of our colleagues. It is something that is long overdue--for more than a decade. Since we introduced a compromise deal last month, we have been working feverishly with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Capitol to iron out any issues they might have and make a few small technical fixes. We have made sure that every single Member of the Senate and their staffs have had the time to look through this deal, ask questions, and propose amendments. Now, today, we are one final step away from sending this tremendous bipartisan deal to the House of Representatives and then hopefully to the President's desk.

I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a list of over 100 organizations supporting this bill, including business groups, labor, educators, Governors, mayors, and countless others.

Improving our Federal workforce programs is, as I said, something I have been working on for more than a decade. During that time, I have heard from so many workers and businesses in my home State of Washington and across the country who tell me how important effective workforce programs are for themselves and their communities. Business owners, large and small, have told me that while existing programs help, it has become harder and harder to find workers with the skills they need to fill new jobs in the 21st century. Workers who want to advance their careers or get back on the job after being unemployed have told me that it is more and more difficult to get the education and skills they need to compete for the new jobs.

I am thrilled that we have reached this important step in the process. The reason this agreement was even possible is the incredible bipartisan process we have had over the last 2 months to reach a compromise on which we could all agree. So today I thank my coauthors of this bill in the Senate for all of their hard work through the process and their work to rally support for it today: Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa, the great chairman of the Senate HELP Committee; Senator Lamar Alexander, from whom you heard, a Republican from Tennessee and the esteemed ranking member of the HELP Committee; and finally, my very close partner in this process, Senator Johnny Isakson from Georgia.

Senator Isakson and I are the coauthors of the Senate version of this bill to reauthorize WIA. Throughout this process it has been an absolute pleasure to work across the aisle with him to get this done. His integrity and his commitment have been key to making this a reality.

Senator Isakson's office is right next door to mine. Whether it was on the phone or while the two of us were walking over here to the Chamber to cast votes, we must have had hundreds of conversations on how to reach this point. So it means a lot for me to be here with him today.

I also thank a few other Senators whose commitment to improving our workforce systems has been remarkable.

First of all, I thank Senator Enzi, our colleague from Wyoming. Senator Enzi and I have been working for a very long time to reauthorize WIA. More than once, we would be at the White House for meetings, and regardless of the topic, wherever we were, he would tell President Bush and now President Obama: This should be a bipartisan effort we can all agree on. I think today's actions are proof that he was right all along.

Second, I wish to recognize and thank Senator Sherrod Brown from Ohio for his years of leadership on these issues. Senator Brown's understanding of the changes in the American economy and our places of work is unparalleled. The State of Ohio should be very proud to have him represent them in the Senate.

In particular, Senator Brown's work on the issues of skills, manufacturing, economic competitiveness, and education reform have been critical. In crafting this deal, we were fortunate to be able to draw on his SECTORS Act and weave the concepts of that throughout this bill. In fact, it is because of Senator Brown's strong advocacy that we were successful in requiring SECTOR initiatives at both the State and local levels, as well as including them in plans and functions and reports. I know that in my State of Washington, we use SECTOR strategies in everything from aerospace industries to maritime, health, construction, gaming, finance, renewable energy, and viniculture. They all work to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our workforce system. I am very proud that we have included sections in this bill and have worked with Senator Brown closely and have benefited from his knowledge and leadership.

I also thank Senator Kay Hagan from North Carolina for her work on this legislation. Her America Works bill provided us with a great framework to think about skills and certification and credentials and the need to be closely aligned with employers. Because of her leadership and her vision, this bill requires that training that leads to recognized postsecondary credentials receive a priority, meaning that both workers and employers benefit from the training provided through this act.

We also require that all States and locals report on the number of credentials offered, meaning that the entire workforce system will be more closely aligned to the needs of employers and workers and will yield more direct value in and for the marketplace.

I also wish to mention that Senator Hagan worked hard to ensure that we focused not just on initial credentials but credentials that are industry-recognized and both portable and stackable.

Finally, I thank Senator Franken from Minnesota, who represents the same State as the late Senator Paul Wellstone, who was my Democratic predecessor lead on this bill.

True to Senator Wellstone's legacy, Senator Franken has shown a deep understanding of the needs of job seekers, workers, and employers, as well as a passion to help them all advance and succeed.

I was very pleased to work closely with him on this legislation and ensure that a number of his priorities were included. Lead among his priorities was building closer ties with our community colleges, and we worked hard to make sure that happened.

I am also pleased that we benefited from a truly innovative program in Minnesota, Twin Cities RISE!, which has been a pioneer in pay-for-performance models for many years and which helped to inform our inclusion of pay-for-performance provisions in this bill.

So it is clear this bill is the product of many authors. And while we know that nobody gets everything they want, I think at the end of the day we can all proudly say this bill will help our workers, our businesses, and our economy for years to come, because Federal workforce programs have proven time and again that the best investment we can make as a country is an investment in our American workers.

I have seen firsthand in my home State of Washington workers who were laid off who were able to get new training, new skills, and new jobs. I have seen so many Washington State businesses--from our aerospace companies to video game design firms--that were able to access workers with the new skills they needed to grow and compete.

But with millions of new jobs that would require postsecondary education and advanced skills in the coming years, we will fall behind if we do not modernize our workforce development systems and programs now. We have to make sure that when high-tech jobs of the 21st century are created, Americans are ready to fill them, and that is exactly what we have all done in this bill.

We have doubled down on the programs that work, we have improved the programs that have become outdated, and we have created a workforce system that is more nimble, adaptable, better aligned with what our businesses need, and more accountable so that they can continue to make it better.

We started with a House proposal, a Senate proposal, and we all met in the middle. That is exactly what the American people sent us here to do, to work together to help our workers and help our economy grow.

This is an all too rare opportunity for all of us to get behind a strong, bipartisan, bicameral bill.

I urge all of our colleagues to support the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and send it to the House for a vote.

I thank my great friend and partner, who has spent innumerable hours getting us to this point. I thank him, his staff, and all of our staffs who have worked hard to find a compromise and not to find a fight.

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, as we end this debate, I thank my coauthors and managers of this bill, Senator Isakson, Senator Harkin, and Senator Alexander. And I also again thank Senator Enzi who was for years my partner on this bill.

For over a decade now some combination of us, along with others, has been working to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act, and I am so excited that we are finally on the verge of passing this long overdue legislation through the Senate.

Let me remind everyone that the workforce development system serves over 20 million people every year. That is one of every eight working-age adults in this country--people who are looking for work, people who want to change their jobs, people who want to upgrade their skills. And the system serves thousands of employers every year--manufacturers, construction firms, health care providers, financial institutions. The list goes on.

Let's also remember that our workforce development system is a vital partner of economic developers all around the country, making sure that companies being recruited or expanded have access to training and skilled workers necessary to compete and grow.

With millions of new jobs that will require postsecondary education and advanced skills in the coming years, we will fall behind if we do not modernize our workforce development system and programs now. We have to make sure when high-tech jobs of the next century are created, Americans are ready to fill them. That is what we have done with this bill. We have doubled down on the programs that work, we have eliminated programs that have become outdated, and created a workforce system that is more nimble, adaptable, better aligned, and more accountable.

I am very proud to be at this point. I again especially thank my partner who has been with me so many critical times, Senator Isakson from Georgia, who has been incredibly hardworking and diligent in getting this done.

I look forward to the votes. We have two amendments--I will be joining all of our cosponsors in voting against those amendments--and then final passage. I again thank everyone who has worked so hard on this legislation for so many years.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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Mrs. MURRAY. I want to thank our chairman and ranking member, Senator Harkin and Senator Alexander, for their tremendous work and backing us as we worked through this process. I again thank my partner, Senator Isakson, who was so diligent and true to his word and worked through every issue with us. I want to thank him for that.

I also will take a minute this afternoon to extend a sincere thank you to all of the staff who worked so hard to help put this bill together, worked through its challenges, and got us to this point today where we have passed it in the Senate. If the Senate will bear with me, we have a lot of names, but I think that tells you how many people worked so hard on this. From my office: senior advisor Scott Cheney; my chief of staff Mike Spahn; my Budget Committee staff director Evan Schatz; Stacy Rich and Emma Fulkerson from my floor and leadership staff; my entire communications team, especially Eli Zupnick and Sean Coit; and everyone else from my team who has worked so very hard to move this bill forward.

I thank the wonderful staff from Senator Isakson's office: Tommy Nguyen, staff director of the HELP Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety, as well as Brett Layson and Michael Black who have been incredible to work with.

I thank Chairman Harkin's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee team: senior education policy adviser Crystal Bridgeman; chief education counsel Mildred Otero; disability policy director Michael Gamel-McCormick; disability counsel Lee Perselay; Derek Miller, staff director of the HELP Committee; deputy staff director and labor policy director of the HELP Committee Lauren McFerren; and labor policy adviser Liz Weiss; and many more on his staff who have helped.

I also thank the staff of Senator Alexander: education policy adviser Patrick Murray; education policy director and counsel Peter Oppenheim; Bill Knudsen, education policy advisor; and HELP Committee staff director and chief of staff David Cleary.

We also benefited from the expertise of the Congressional Research Service. I thank David Bradley, Benjamin Collins, and Adrienne Fernandes-Alcantara.

I would be remiss if I did not thank the professionals in the Senate Legislative Counsel's office, especially Liz King, Amy Gaynor, Kristin Romero, and Katie Grendon.

As you can see, a lot of people worked a very long time to get us where we are. This has been an 11-year process, so there have been a lot of staff who worked on various versions of this reauthorization over the years. I cannot name them all, but there are some who deserve recognition as well: Gerri Fiala, Bill Kamela, Beth Buehlmann, Kelly Hastings, Pam Smith, David Johns, and Glee Smith.

Of course, my thanks to the staff in the House and the administration, of whom there are far too many to mention here.

I think that tells all of us that this is a bill that was worked on diligently by many over the years. Who will benefit at the end of the day are our workforce and our employers and our country.

I thank again my counterpart Senator Isakson for working with me to get this done.

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