Huffman Votes for House-Senate Agreement on the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act

July 10, 2014

WASHINGTON­—Late last night, Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) voted to pass the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), a bipartisan agreement between the House and Senate that modernizes and improves existing federal workforce development programs, helps workers develop skills, and assists businesses in finding the skilled employees they need to compete. Among the many provisions, the agreement reauthorizes and amends the Rehabilitation Amendments of 1973 to improve disability-related workforce training, employment, independent living, youth services, and research programs. The legislation as approved by a vote of 415 to 6.

“For the United States to continue to compete in the global economy, we need to make critical investments in our workforce: in training, workforce development, and job placement,” Huffman said. “I’m very pleased that the House and Senate were able to work together towards a bipartisan, common goal: helping community colleges, employers, employees, and our economy. This legislation updates education, job training programs and helps to bridge the skills gap separating workers and the jobs of the future. This is exactly the kind of common-sense, bipartisan legislation we should be working to achieve, and I look forward to working with my colleagues across the aisle and in the Senate to continue to grow our economy.”

By 2022 the United States will fall short by 11 million the necessary number of workers with postsecondary education, including 6.8 million workers with bachelor's degrees, and 4.3 million workers with a postsecondary vocational certificate, some college credits or an associate's degree.

This bill represents a compromise between the ill-conceived SKILLS Act (H.R. 803), which passed the House of Representatives in March of 2013 on a partisan 215 to 202 vote, and the Workforce Investment Act of 2013 (S. 1356), which passed the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee with a bipartisan vote of 18-3 in July of 2013.  

A one-page summary of the legislation can be found here. A summary of key improvements WIOA makes to current workforce development programs can be found here. The text of the bipartisan, bicameral agreement can be found here. A full list of WIOA supporters can be found here.