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Both parties hailed a new workforce bill unveiled Wednesday as a win as they try to build momentum to get it passed in both chambers this year.

Advocates, however, cautioned that — while any bill is better than no bill — Congress’ stab at modernizing workforce policy doesn’t go far enough.

“We’ve got a situation where the House and Senate are coming from such different perspectives,” said Jim Hermes, associate vice president of government relations for the American Association of Community Colleges. “You aren’t going to see some real fundamental rethinking come out of that type of process.”

The 811-page Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act borrows from the structure and many provisions of a bill that was passed by the Senate HELP Committee last year: It includes provisions that target workforce education for people with disabilities and young people who have dropped out of school, which are major priorities for Senate HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin and Sen. Patty Murray respectively.

But at the heart of the bill is the driver of the House Republicans’ SKILLS Act: program consolidation. By combining workforce programs, Republicans aim to get rid of inefficiency in the system and give states more flexibility. The current system has “too much bureaucracy, too many inefficiencies and too little accountability,” House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline said in a statement.

WIOA would combine 15 of the 35 programs the SKILLS Act is proposed to consolidate.

Merging programs will help free up states, former governors on the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Governors’ Council said. They would have liked to see the compromise bill go further.

“I am not a person who will let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who wrote the SKILLS Act.

Still, parts of WIOA that would reduce the number of people on workforce investment boards and set aside funds for states to use as they wish will create much more “flexibility and efficiency at the state level,” former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue said.

Democrats can brag about the bill’s emphasis on training for displaced young people not enrolled in school, as well as its focus on modernizing the workforce system to emphasize popular sector partnerships, which bring together employers with community colleges and other job trainers. The goal of the partnerships is to focus workforce preparation programs so students emerge ready for jobs in demand in their labor market. The Obama administration has recently made sector partnerships the focus of a $450 million grant competition for community colleges.

WIOA stops short, however, of creating a new program or funding stream dedicated solely to sector partnerships, which many Democrats and advocates including the National Skills Coalition had pushed for.

“Without providing funding, or designated capacity, it’s not going to drive the system change that we wanted to see,” said Rachel Gragg, federal policy director at the National Skills Coalition.

The bill includes several measures for people with disabilities that are a priority for Harkin. It aims to help young people with disabilities gain work experience and employment as opposed to working in so-called “sheltered workshops” that are funded by the government.

Harkin said the changes are “groundbreaking” and “will raise prospects and expectations for Americans with disabilities.”

The bill does not include a provision previously championed by Harkin that would have banned sheltered workshops from paying participants below the minimum wage. Another program targeting people with disabilities, Independent Living, would be moved from the Department of Education to the Department of Health and Human services under the bill, which was supported by groups such as the National Council for Independent Living.

The Senate will take up the bill first — and could possibly pass through unanimous consent, aides say.

Foxx said she hopes the bill could pass under suspension of the rules in the House, and if not, then as a rule bill.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor supports the bill, opening a path forward in his chamber. Cantor immediately praised the bill in a statement Wednesday, and said the House anticipates “swift consideration” of the bill once it has made its way through the Senate.

https://www.politicopro.com/education/story/2014/05/both-parties-celebrate-new-workforce-bill-034185