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White House Calls to Restore Some Funds for Dislocated
Workers; Labor Programs Face Cuts in FY 2003 Budget
| Breaking
News: As Connections was going to print, the Bush
Administration announced that it would be seeking emergency
funding to replenish the National Emergency Grant account
and to restore a $110 million rescission in state formula
funds for dislocated workers. Organized labor has long
argued that the rescission should be reversed and that
current funding for dislocated worker assistance needed
to be increased. These actions, if adopted by Congress,
will help States and localities address the needs of dislocated
workers in the current jobs crisis. |
The Bush
administration’s FY 2003 budget proposal, introduced
in February and now before Congress, called for cuts in U.S.
Department of Labor programs, including programs funded under
the Workforce Investment Act (WIA).
In announcing
the proposed cuts in WIA, the administration noted the availability
of large amounts of carry-over in the states. State and local
program administrators have argued that the carryover is not
as large as the administration believes and that new economic
conditions support maintaining the investment in dislocated
worker resources.
Here
is a brief summary of the administration’s proposed FY
2003 budget for the four major WIA funding streams as compared
to amounts appropriated in FY2002***:
- Adult:
$900 million (down from $950 million); a reduction of $50
million
- Dislocated
Worker: $1.383 billion (down from $1.549 billion); a
reduction of $166 million
- Youth
Activities: $1.001 billion (down from $1.128 billion);
a reduction of $127 million
- Youth
Opportunity Grants:
$44 million (down from $225 million); completing the programs
of existing grantees, but eliminating this program in the
future.
The administration’s
budget also eliminates nationally-funded training and employment
programs including:
- H-1B
Training Programs: The administration is proposing to
eliminate this program, shifting the money from a training
fund for American workers, financed by fees from the H-1B
program, to an administrative effort to clear up the backlog
in processing permanent foreign labor certification requests
from employers.
- Migrant
and Seasonal Farmworker Programs: The
administration proposes to eliminate $83 million in funding
for migrant and seasonal farmworker programs ($81 million
in the DOL budget and $2 million in the Education Department
budget).
- National
Skill Standards Board: The administration’s budget
would eliminate $4 million in funding for the NSSB, a partnership
of employers, labor, education and community groups that
has helped to develop voluntary partnerships in a range
of industries, including manufacturing.
The Bush
administration is also proposing significant changes to the
administration of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program.
The proposal would transfer responsibility for administering
the UI program – and the Employment Service, which is
funded from the same federal tax – to the states by 2005.
Concerns raised by the AFL-CIO, public employee unions, and
worker advocates in the UI stakeholder process in 2000, including
the need to improve access and adequacy of UI benefits for
part-time and low wage workers, are not reflected in this
new proposal.
***
Note: WIA is “forward funded” and operates on a
program year. Funds appropriated in FY 2003 will be available
for the program year, which runs from July 1, 2003 through
June 30, 2004.
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