U.S. Senator Susan Collins today announced that she recently sent a letter to Senate leadership supporting the nation’s workforce programs and requesting the restoration of $250 million in job training funding. Senator Collins drafted the letter with Senators Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA). The letter was signed by a bipartisan group of 29 other senators.
Each year, one in ten workers nationally, or over 14 million workers, will seek assistance from the nation’s 3,200 career centers. However, current federal law requires states to return job training funds.
“In just the first last four months of this year, we've seen 340,000 jobs lost across the country.” noted Senator Collins. “Currently, 7.6 million Americans are without work. This is not the time for the government to be turning its back and failing to support our unemployed workers. I hope that Congress can work to restore the $250 million dollars in job training funding for our workers.”
A full text of Senator Collins’ letter follows:
Dear Chairman Byrd and Harkin and Ranking Members Cochran and Specter:
We write to voice our continued support for the nation’s workforce programs and request a restoration of job training funds recently rescinded by the U.S. Department of Labor.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008 required states to return unspent funds from workforce programs for youth, adults and dislocated workers. While Congress was told the impact on states would be minimal, a recent hearing in the LHHS Subcommittee revealed that many states will dip into current year funding to pay their portion of the rescission. (A chart detailing the impact on states is attached.)
Indeed, state grants for employment and training programs for adults and low-income youth lose $50 million and $42 million respectively. And states must return $158 million intended for dislocated worker programs which assist those who lose their job because of a plant closing or mass layoff.
This could not come at a worse time. In the first three months of 2008, the economy lost more than 240,000 jobs and today, more than 7.6 million Americans are currently unemployed, while another 6 million are marginally attached to the workforce.
Over 14 million workers, or one in ten workers nationally, will seek assistance from the nation’s 3,200 one-stop career centers. However, because of the $250 million rescission, states have returned badly needed job training dollars and are making plans to close and reduce services provided by one-stop offices.
With the reality of many Americans losing jobs, it’s more important than ever to ensure resources are in place to retrain unemployed workers. With these new skills, individuals are more likely to find decent-paying jobs to support their families. Job training initiatives also help employers seeking to hire skilled workers by improving efficiency and productivity while easing some of the burden of training new employees.
If Congress moves a second stimulus bill, we would like to work with you to restore the $250 million in job training funding for adult, youth and dislocated workers.
Sincerely,
###