Yesterday House Republicans introduced their Workforce Investment Act (WIA) reauthorization bill, H.R. 4297, The Workforce Investment Improvement Act of 2012. This bill more or less pulls together the three separate WIA bills introduced earlier this year by Reps. Virginia Foxx (NC), Rep. Buck McKeon (CA), and Rep. Joe Heck (NV). I learned this morning at a meeting that there is one significant change in this bill from Rep. Foxx’s earlier bill, the Streamlining Workforce Development Programs Act. In the older bill, the provision that allowed states to consolidate different job training programs into one unified plan included Perkins grant funds as one of the programs that could be consolidated. In the new bill, language was added that removes Perkins as a candidate for consolidation. (h/t NASDCTEc)