(Updated Below)

Democrats on the House Education and the Workforce Committee walked out of the committee vote Wedensday morning on the Republican-backed bill to revamp the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), claiming that the majority refused to work with them on developing a bipartisan bill. The Committee subsequently passed the bill, (H.R. 803), called the “Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills” (SKILLS) Act, by a vote of 23 to 0. (The final bill includes a couple of minor ammendments offered by Republicans, including one that would prohibit the use of WIA funds for lobbying and political activities—as well as “voter registration activities.”) Republican leaders have scheduled the bill for a floor vote next week.

During the hearing, before the walkout, Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) said that the bill “will never see the light of day in the Senate,” and from what I can gather, that is undoubtedly true.

But according to The Hill, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) highlighted the SKILLS Act in a speech last month as part of his “Making Life Work” agenda for the GOP, and really wanted to get this thing to the House floor as soon as possible.

In a joint statement, Tierney, Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX) and Rep. George Miller (D-CA) said that they viewed “boycotting this proceeding as our only alternative after many months of repeatedly requesting bipartisan negotiations and being rebuffed by committee Republicans,” and claimed that “[i]t would have been a dereliction of duty to continue to participate.”

Tierney, Hinojosa, and Miller sent a letter to Chairman John Kline (R-MN) and SKILLS Act author Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) on Monday, requesting that they cancel Wednesday’s markup and instead hold “member-to-member negotiations to reach a compromise.” The three Democrats said in their statement today that they received no response. And thus the boycott.

I was just sent this exclusive video clip of the hearing, including the dramatic walkout:

Actual webcast of the hearing here.

UPDATE 3/7/13: Some good reporting yesterday from Ethan Forman in the Eagle-Tribune on the concerns of people in the in the field in the Merrimack Valley/Southern New Hampshire are about the Republican bill:

Mary Sarris, executive director of the Salem-based North Shore Workforce Investment Board, said she provided input to Tierney to help craft his version of the Workforce Investment Act update.

Tierney’s bill, Sarris said, would provide opportunities for workforce investment boards to work with certain industries to train workers, such as, for example, offering a program for machinists at a community college. She said the current law does not allow the board to use federal money to provide for group training, which could be more cost-effective.

Wayne Burton, president of North Shore Community College, one of the North Shore Workforce Investment Board’s largest providers, said the Republican bill would have “major repercussions for us of the negative kind” by consolidating programs and making it uncertain where the worker training money might go. The legislation calls for business leaders to sit on workforce investment boards, eliminating community college representation.

“The funding goes to the people that need it, and it’s not hung up in the bureaucracy,” he said.

House Education and the Workforce Committee Democrats Walk Out on SKILLS Act Markup Hearing

/ The Old Crank

House Republicans to Democrats on WIA: You Just Got Jammed

/ The Old Crank
Councilman Jamm

Pawnee Councilman Jeremy Jamm

The House Education and the Workforce Committee has announced that it will markup its Workforce Investment Act (WIA) bill, H.R. 803, “Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills Act’’ or the ‘‘SKILLS Act’’ on March 6th. If you missed last week’s hearing on this bill, an archived webcast is available here. If you don’t have time to watch the whole thing, I do recommend—if only for the sheer entertainment value of it—skipping to about the 1:51 mark to hear Rep. Tierney (D-MA) and Chairwoman Foxx  (R-NC) argue over Tierney’s charge that the Chairwoman has not been willing to work with Democrats on the committee on a bipartisan bill. Lots of talk on the Democratic side about the bill being “jammed through.” Pawnee’s infamous Councilman Jeremy Jamm would be proud.

You can read CQ Roll Call‘s account of the debate between Tierney and Foxx here. In addition to the on-the-record comments made by both, CQ Roll Call reports that the two “participated in a heated exchange off-microphone after the hearing officially ended.”

I don’t have much to say about this. The SKILLS Act is essentially the same bill that Rep. Foxx introduced last session. There are several things to dislike about the bill if you are an adult education advocate, but far and away the most critical problem is that it would allow states to consolidate Title II adult education funding together with job training programs into these big block grants to states that the bill would create, and I don’t believe there is enough in the bill to ensure that states will use their Title II funding for adult education and literacy services (or to ensure that money isn’t shifted away from the underserved populations that many of the Title I training programs were designed to help).

The Democrats on the committee have introduced their own WIA reauthorization bill (H.R. 798)—and, like H.R. 803, it’s also essentially the same bill they introduced last session. They may offer it as an amendment on the 6th.

People close to this issue tell me that it’s very important for groups to voice concerns about H.R. 803 now, before markup, or at least before the bill gets to the floor, rather than waiting for the Senate to take this up. Even if it’s likely (and I think it is) that H.R. 803 passes through committee and the full House without any significant changes, the thought is that speaking up now to build a record of strong opposition from around the country will make it easier for the Senate to push for significant changes if/when they take this up.

New Data Shows 3% Growth in the Number of Limited English Proficient (LEP) Individuals in the U.S. Over the Last 20 Years

/ The Old Crank

The Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy just released new, national, state-, and county-level data on the number, share, and linguistic diversity of Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals in the United States.

According to MPI, 25.2 million individuals over the age of 5 in the United States (9% of the total population) have limited proficiency in English, compared with 14 million (6% of the total population) in 1990. Needles to say, this is good supporting data for those trying to make the case that more ESOL resources are needed for children, youth, and adults in the U.S.

TANF Waivers Back in the News

/ The Old Crank

Trying to keep up with the flurry of activity in recent weeks on immigration reform and WIA reauthorization is hard enough, (the House held a hearing on their WIA bill this past Tuesday, which I wasn’t able to catch), but another issue that I think has potential impact on adult education is the continuing controversy over the Obama adminstration’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) waiver proposal, which I wrote about last July when the policy was announced.

The House Ways and Means Committee is hold a hearing this morning on the policy, which Republicans say guts welfare’s work requirement. My view has been that allowing states more flexibility on how they adminster TANF could potentially lead to improved acccess to educational opportunities for TANF recipients.

Here’s the opening statement from today’s hearing from Human Resources Chairman Dave Reichert (R-WA).