NSC releases analysis of HR1 WIA cuts.

HR 1, the House-passed Continuing Resolution (CR), would eliminate all funding for the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) in Program Year (PY) 2011. This means that if the House-passed bill were signed by the President, WIA would receive no new funding as of July 1, 2011 (the start of PY 2011) and would receive no additional funding until July 1, 2012 (the start of PY 2012). 

There is considerable confusion about how, exactly, the House bill would make these cuts. Unfortunately, the materials released by the House Appropriations Committee regarding the CR are extremely misleading, as the table they included shows only $1.4 billion in WIA funding cuts, leading some to believe the cuts are less significant than they really are. In fact, the House-passed CR would actually cut $2.97 billion in WIA funds—i.e. 100 percent of funding for the WIA Adult, Dislocated Worker, and Youth programs in PY 2011. If enacted, these cuts would force many states and local areas to reduce or even eliminate critical job training and employment services, likely causing thousands of new job losses and denying access to the more than 8 million workers and youth who received Title I WIA-funded services in the last year alone.

National Skills Coalition has prepared a short analysis that explains how the CR would effectively defund WIA in PY 2011. Workforce development advocates can use this important new tool to help educate policymakers and other stakeholders about the full impact of the proposed cuts, and help ensure that the final FY 2011 appropriations bill continues to support a robust public workforce system that meets the skill needs of U.S. workers and businesses.