politics

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.

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).

Quote of the Day

/ The Old Crank

This post today by Ezra Klein about Alan Simpson contains just about the best one-line description of the way a lot establishment D.C. people seem to think that I’ve ever run across:

There’s a widely acknowledged nobility and morality to proposing painful plans that would require lots of sacrifice — though the worst of that sacrifice rarely falls on the kind of people putting together these plans.

Can’t wait until March 1, which we might as well go ahead and designate as Bowles-Simpson Scold’s Christmas.

Is a House Immigration Reform Bill Imminent?

/ The Old Crank

(Updated Below)

This week I’ve been hearing from some my friends in the field that the House is getting ready to introduce an immigration reform bill in the very near future—even, perhaps, ahead of the Senate. I’ll believe it when I see it. After reading some of the published reports about House action on this issue, I still think that the Senate, where a bipartisan group of influential Senators has actually put out a plan, is going to be first up with a bill.

The Hill did report Monday that a “bipartisan group of House negotiators is even further along in drafting a comprehensive immigration overhaul than its counterpart in the Senate,” and that this group was trying to release a draft bill directly before or after President Obama’s State of the Union address on February 12th.

But The Hill also noted that even though House Speaker John Boehner told a Republican advocacy organization last month that the House immigration group “basically [had] an agreement,” an aide later said that the Speaker’s assessment was “overly optimistic” as they “have not come to agreement on some of the big stuff.”

Moreover, Caitlin Huey-Burns, writing today forRealClearPolitics, suggests that Republican leadership is actually tapping the brakes on this effort:

House Speaker John Boehner… has advised his chamber to approach immigration reform slowly. “This is not about being in a hurry. This is about trying to get it right on behalf of the American people and those who are suffering under an immigration system that doesn’t work very well for anybody,” he told reporters Tuesday.

She also reports (as many others have) that there are still a significant number of Republicans in the House who are opposed to introducing a comprehensive bill, and would rather take on reform in a piecemeal fashion, through a series of separate bills.

Mike Flynn, writing for Breitbart.com about the revelation that a group of House members has been meeting to draft legislation on immigration reform reminiscent of the Senate talks, thinks that “the talks are even more political theater than the Senate effort.”

If I were in a position where I had to choose between focusing my advocacy efforts between the House and the Senate over the next few weeks, I think I’d go with the Senate. In particular, considering Sen. Marco Rubio’s strong interest in this topic—and apparent influence within his party on the pending legislation—the sizable number of adult education advocates in Florida seem to me to be in an interesting position to advocate for adult education resources in the Senate bill.

UPDATE 2/7/13: The National Journal seems to agree:

[[T]he House will likely hold hearings and markups, and maybe even offer the bipartisan bill, but they’re not going first. House Republican leadership thinks immigration will likely fail in the Senate, and they’re not wild about the idea of making their members take a politically tough vote only to have reform die.