Federal job training programs are seldom evaluated to determine whether they’re meeting their intended purposes. However, when the U.S. is $17.5 trillion in debt, we as representatives of the American taxpayers should do a better job to ensure that the programs we are funding are actually working and working for them. We should pay particularly close attention to programs that receive billions of dollars every year from the federal government, when their operation lapsed over a decade ago.

The Murray-Isakson-Harkin-Alexander substitute amendment takes important steps to ensure Title 1 state and local programs are more accurately evaluated in their meeting of performance measures and held accountable for unmet goals and un-submitted reports. More specifically, the bill would sanction state and local programs should they continually fail to meet their performance measures, or fail to submit required reports. The substitute amendment does not hold the Department of Labor to similar standards. The Department is required to conduct evaluations and to submit such reports to Congress. I was very pleased to work with Senators Alexander and Harkin to include in the manager’s amendment a provision that would require the final evaluation reports to be made public and available to the public. 

My opinion requiring the Department to post these reports to the Department’s web site is a common-sense step toward improving transparency in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act training programs. I worked with the chairmen and ranking member to further discuss a procurement provision within the job corps section of the bill. While I believe there are still some outstanding concerns that we should continue to discuss, I believe everyone’s goal is to ensure that the best job corps operators are able to compete for these sites.

Today I’d like to offer an additional good-governance measure that would subject the Department of Labor to similar sanctions as the states. It would help tackle the problem of Department of Labor delaying congressionally mandated evaluations, which routinely have been abused by both Republican and Democratic administrations.

It is a shame that Congress passing a law requiring the completion of an evaluation by a certain date is not enough to get the job done. My amendment would remedy this problem by reducing the Department of Labor Office of Secretary’s budget by 5% in the year a report is due should the agency fail to conduct and release the independent evaluation as required by the bill. This reduction of funds would continue each year until the report is finalized. WIOA authorizes $9 billion each year for five years and Title 1 represents half of that funding. Therefore, ensuring an independent evaluation of Title 1 programs is conducted and made publicly available for review and scrutiny by Congress and the American public is critically important for any future modification, renewal or elimination of programs. I would appreciate the support of my colleagues for the passage of this amendment.