Labor and Workforce Development Committee

July 13, 2006

The Honorable Senator Arlen Specter
Chair, Senate Subcommittee on Labor,
Health and Human Services
Education, and Related Agencies
731 Hart Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Senator Tom Harkin
Ranking Member, Senate Subcommittee on
Labor, Health and Human Services
Education, and Related Agencies
711 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510

Dear Senators:

We write to urge your support for the State-Federal partnership on the Workforce Investment Act. The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) firmly supports increasing the federal commitment to fund these important programs and urges you to establish funding for Fiscal Year 2007 for workforce investment programs at the FY 2005 funding levels. We further urge you to reject the House Appropriations Committee’s proposed measure to rescind “excess carryover” funds. The states continue to spend down funds in a manner consistent with the 1998 Act, spending all funds over the allowable three years, with 95% of all funds being spent in the first two years.

HR 5647, the House Appropriations Subcommittee FY 2007 bill, would reduce overall support for WIA and related workforce development programs by over half a billion dollars. If enacted these cuts would result in total reductions to workforce programs of over $850 million dollars since 2002. These cuts are short sighted, reduce overall US competitiveness and shortchange the nation’s businesses and workers who utilize the workforce investment system. They also diminish the strides made by states to provide supplemental funding, roughly $50 million in FY 2005, to support workforce training, worker readiness and retention, business competitiveness and new business development in the states.

HR 5647 would rescind $325 million in “excess carryover” funds that the states are purportedly sitting on. These excess funds however simply do not exist and the assertion by the Department of Labor that these funds are available to rescind, fails to account for the states’ prudent management of funds for obligations that carry forward across program years and contingency funds necessary to respond to mass-layoffs, hurricanes and other unpredictable or unanticipated events. The House proposed rescission would therefore further reduce funding in FY 2007.

If we can provide further assistance to you or your staff as you move forward with the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations measure we would be happy to do so, please have your staff contact Gerri Madrid-Davis (202-624-8670; gerri.madrid@ncsl.org) in NCSL’s Washington, D.C. office for further assistance.

Sincerely,

Representative Tom Anderson
Alaska Legislature
Chair, NCSL Labor and Workforce Development Standing Committee Representative Steve Conway
Washington Legislature
Vice Chair, NCSL Labor and Workforce Development Standing Committee

Representative Brent Yonts
Kentucky Legislature
Vice Chair, NCSL Labor and Workforce Development Standing Committee

Representative Diane Rosenbaum
Oregon Legislature
Vice Chair, NCSL Labor and Workforce Development Standing Committee

Representative Bob Allen
Pennsylvania General Assembly
Vice Chair, NCSL Labor and Workforce Development Standing Committee

Labor and Workforce Development Committee