Business leaders urge WIA reauthorization.

A group of more than 80 local Chambers of Commerce and other business associations are urging key lawmakers to continue their efforts to strengthen and modernize the nation’s workforce investment system.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee released a bipartisan discussion draft of legislation to reauthorize the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) this past June, but a hearing to mark up the bill was postponed multiple times, and no date has been announced for a rescheduled hearing. In an August 23rd letter* sent to Democratic and Republican committee leaders, the business organizations expressed support for the committee’s efforts to advance the measure, and urged Congress to move quickly to reauthorize WIA to support the nation’s economic recovery efforts. While the letter has already been sent to the committee, chambers of commerce and other business groups are being encouraged to continue signing on to the letter to underscore the importance of this important legislation. Interested organizations should visit the National Association of Workforce Board’s Workforce Investment Works website to join the letter.

National Skills Coalition and more than forty other national workforce organizations sent a similar letter to the HELP committee this summer, and we welcome the voices of the business community in calling for Congress to renew their focus on WIA reauthorization to support job creation strategies. NSC particularly encourages Congress to ensure that any reauthorization bill supports proven training strategies such as sector partnerships, career pathways initiatives, and credential attainment and measurement strategies, and includes provisions to measure the effectiveness of the workforce system in meeting the skill needs of jobseekers and employers. We also urge Congress to ensure that federal workforce programs such as those currently supported under WIA are adequately funded in Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 and beyond, to ensure that state and local workforce systems are able to meet increased demand for training and related services.

*Links to updated letter with signatures through September 1, 2011.