The (very) little I know about any work going on in the Senate on a Workforce Investment Act (WIA) reauthorization bill this session is mostly on background, but what I do know is pretty consistent with what was reported by Neil Bomberg for the National League of Cities (NLC) a couple of weeks ago.
Unlike the House bill passed earlier this year, we know the Senate bill will be a bipartisan effort, and leads on it are Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Johnny Isakson (R-GA). According to NLC’s sources, Senators Murray and Isakson “are using last year’s Senate draft bill as the starting point for this year’s bill.” (I believe that is supposed to read “last session,” as the only recent Senate draft bill I’m aware of was released in 2011.) Although not perfect, most of my colleagues in adult education seemed to be reasonably happy with that older draft bill, while the recent House bill was universally panned.
There’s no timeline for the introduction and consideration of a Senate bill. NLC notes that it is unlikely that it would be introduced before June.
Literacy & Policy 
So do you think any sort of reauthorization will happen this year (13/14)?
Thanks,
Regina
I think if I were a betting man, I’d bet against *any* major legislation of *any* kind getting to the President’s desk this year. Not to say it won’t happen, but the odds are not great.
See: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/02/its-been-951-days-since-the-senate-passed-a-major-new-law/273197/
The best chance, I think, for major legislation in the near future might be immigration reform, since both the House and Senate have been working on a bipartisan bills from the beginning, and there is a lot of incentive for both parties to try to get a bill passed.
I do think that there’s a decent chance that WIA legislation could be introduced and possibly even be approved by the Senate in the near future. Whether they can come up with something that would get through the House is another question.
Thanks!