NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/5764

Text File | 1992-08-12 | 4.0 KB | 77 lines

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Subject: Simon Job Training Reform Bill Headed for White House
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Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 18:49:07 GMT
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 Here is a press release from U.S. Senator Paul Simon.

 Simon Job Training Reform Bill Headed for White House
 To: National Desk
 Contact: David Carle of the Office of Sen. Paul Simon, 202-224-7115

   WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Congress today is expected
to send to the president's desk major legislation authored by Sen.
Paul Simon (D-Ill.), to retarget and reinforce the nation's primary
job training program to reach the out-of-school youths and jobless
adults most needing help.
   The Senate passed the bill in final form late Friday, Aug. 7, and
the House is expected to pass the bill late Tuesday on the suspension
calendar.
   "These changes will improve quality, weed out some structural
problems and refocus our limited resources so they can do the most
good," said Simon.  He said the bill concentrates more help -- like
literacy training and basic education -- on the hard-core unemployed
to improve their chances for long-term success in the job market.
"These are the people who suffer first and suffer most from
joblessness, especially in a recession," he said.
   A conference committee ironed out more than 300 mostly minor
differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill.
Simon, who chairs the Senate panel that oversees the program, the
Subcommittee on Employment and Productivity, launched the effort to
draft and enact the changes five years ago.  He said the president
will sign the bill.  The chief sponsor of the House version is Rep.
Carl Perkins (D-Ky.).
   The reforms, which restructure the Job Training Partnership Act
(JTPA), provide for separate adult and youth programs, with special
targeting for those facing multiple barriers to employment and for
out-of-school youths.  It also strengthens the summer youth jobs
program.  Each participant's needs will be assessed and addressed to
stress long-term employability, not just placement.  The changes will
curb the problem of "creaming" -- over-recruiting of easy-to-place
trainees into the program -- that has emerged since the program's
start nine years ago.  Youths most at risk from chronic unemployment
will be trained in a new "Fair Chance Youth Opportunities Program."
   Simon's bill will direct more training aid to economically
disadvantaged adults and youths; modify the makeup of the private
industry councils (PICS) that run local JTPA projects; and boost
authorized funding of innovative private-public partnerships for
training and jobs for disadvantaged youths and adults.  Under JTPA,
states receive block grants that they use to fund local programs
managed by PICS.
   "We face two trend lines," he said.  "The supply of unskilled
labor is growing, and the demand for unskilled labor is declining.
By the year 2000, the number of professional and managerial jobs will
rise by 5.2 million, while jobs for unskilled workers will rise by
only 1.3 million.  Only 10 percent of the new jobs will be in
manufacturing; the rest will be in the service sector.  So we face a
worsening mismatch between the skill levels of our workforce and the
demands of the marketplace.  Federal employment policy must adjust to
that reality, and that's what we begin to do with this bill."
   JTPA is one of the largest federal grant sources for Illinois.
For the program year beginning this July, Illinois will receive
$81,904,495 for adult job training and $22,245,871 for youth summer
job programs under JTPA.  Illinois has 26 service delivery areas,
each with its own PIC.
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