On Thursday, April 14, the Senate passed a continuing resolution (CR) (HR 1473) on a vote of 81 to 19, funding the federal government through September.

The Senate vote came shortly after the House passed the CR in a 260-167 vote that same afternoon. The six-month legislation cuts approximately $39.9 billion from the current spending levels. President Obama signed the final Bill last Friday, ending a months-long negotiations battle between Republicans and Democrats that nearly shut-down the government last week.

In terms of job training and related resources, the Department of Labor funding level for the FY11 CR is $12.7 billion, an $800 million reduction, and approximately 6 percent cut, from the FY10 enacted funding level of $13.5 billion. The legislation provides a total of $2.8 billion for job training state grants for Adults, Youth and Dislocated Worker programs, which is $182 million below the FY10 level (this funding was completely eliminated by the House passed H.R. 1). Under the legislation, Adult training is funded at $771 million -- a 10.5 percent cut. Dislocated Workers is funded at $1.06 billion, a roughly 10 percent cut. Finally, Youth training is funded at $827 million, a cut of 10.4 percent from FY10 enacted levels. The bill also provides $125 million for a new Workforce Innovation Fund to encourage states and regional partnerships to engage in systemic reform to improve program outcomes. The $125 million provided for the Workforce Innovation Fund reduces the percentage cut in WIA State Grants from 10.34 percent ($307 million) to a total net reduction of 6.13 percent ($182 million) to the grants.

Under the legislation, the FY10 $1.708 billion funding level for Job Corps programs is maintained, while $75 million in Job Corps construction funds is rescinded. Youthbuild is funded at $80 million, a $22.5 million (22%) reduction below the FY10 level.$125 million in FY 2010 funding for the Career Pathways Innovation Fund is rescinded (FY11 funding already was eliminated in an earlier funding bill from March), and funding reserved in FY 2010 for Transitional Jobs is eliminated.

Given that the starting point passed by the House was “0”, on the national level, workforce, job training and education funding did OK. Unfortunately, changes to the funding formula brought on by the national nature of the economic downturn, means that small states like Oregon will lose considerably more than the agreed upon cut. While we are still waiting for final numbers, when all is said and done, it is likely that we will lose between 25% - 35% of WIA resources available to serve disconnected youth, disadvantaged adults and dislocated workers. When you couple these cuts with those faced by state and local governments, we are indeed facing some challenging times ahead.

Thank you again for your support and I will continue to keep you informed.

Andrew McGough
Executive Director
Worksystems, Inc.