WIOA Reauthorization

On Thursday January 18, the House Education and Workforce Committee’s Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education Subcommittee held a hearing to take testimony on how CTE could help address the nearly 9 million job openings in the U.S. that remain unfilled. A good summary of the hearing that the committee compiled may be found here.

A number of common themes that we have heard over the years in our advocacy for workforce development were raised at the hearing–namely that parents and educators remain stuck in a “college-for-all” mentality and a shortage of resources for CTE and career-oriented learning. A number of witnesses testified that a main obstacle in growing CTE programs and skills learning is a national shortage of CTE teachers.

Late last year, this committee reported on a Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) reauthorization bill (H.R. 6655).

Among other things the bill would:

• Upgrade the skills of the American workforce by dedicating 50 percent of the adult and dislocated worker funding towards upskilling workers.
• Create an emphasis on employer-led initiatives that equip workers with the skill sets to fill jobs in critical industries and help the currently employed workforce upskill to avoid displacement and advance their careers.
• Ensure workers displaced from their jobs through no fault of their own can access robust skill development services, including through “individual training accounts.”         

Although 2024 is an election year and legislating will become increasingly difficult as we progress farther into the year, ABMA remains hopeful that a comprehensive WIOA reauthorization bill with ample funding for CTE will make it to the President’s desk. We will keep you apprised of developments.

Tax Updates

We continue to hear that the House will take up the tax package that contains retroactive extension of our trifecta of important business tax incentives (100 percent bonus depreciation and R&D tax credit among them) next week. The bill will reportedly move on the “suspense calendar” which is typically reserved for non-controversial legislation.

As we noted last week, the bill faces some head winds in the Senate as Republicans are looking to make changes to the Child Tax Credit portion of the bill. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID) expressed concerns about a provision that allows tax filers to use either the current year’s or the previous year’s income to calculate a certain portion of the child tax credit. The Wall Street Journal editorial board also singled out that language in a recent op-ed critical of the bill, claiming it would undermine work incentives.

But we expect a good outcome in the House next week and will turn our focus to the Senate following that vote.