With the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) due for reauthorization, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) released a draft of the reauthorization bill for public comment in June.
HELP holds jurisdiction over WIA programs, which coordinate and support the nation’s workforce development system.
PHI submitted comments (pdf) on the reauthorization bill that emphasize the challenge our nation faces: building an adequate, stable, and trained direct-care workforce that will meet the increasing demand for long-term services and supports for people living with disabilities and our rapidly aging population.
PHI also identified opportunities where WIA programs can help to meet this challenge.
In a letter to the HELP Committee, PHI Government Affairs Director Carol Regan wrote, “The case for incorporating direct-care workforce strategies for the eldercare and disability services industry into WIA is compelling. Employers such as home care agencies, adult day centers and nursing and assisted living facilities face enormous difficulty in hiring and retaining an adequate supply of direct-care workers.”
The letter states that PHI acknowledges that direct-care jobs typically do not pay “family-sustaining wages and benefits that enable workers to achieve economic self-sufficiency,” a fact that has led some workforce investment boards to shy away from investment in the direct-care workforce.
But the letter goes on to note that “nonetheless, these occupations represent such a large proportion of available employment — in an otherwise job-starved economy — that they cannot simply be ignored.”
PHI’s Recommendations
PHI has recommended that:
- the definition of “in-demand industry sector or occupation” should be modified in such a way as to encompass direct-care occupations, perhaps by modifying the definition to include occupations which, with investment, could lead to economic self-sufficiency.
- states be directed to include specific analysis of the knowledge and skills needed to meet the employment needs of long-term care employers, the current status of the state’s direct-care workforce, and an articulation of a strategic vision and goals for building an adequate direct-care workforce in their four-year strategic plans.
- the state’s rate of disability and percent of population over the age of 65 be incorporated into the statistical model to revise state measures of performance.
- the Secretary of Labor include strengthening the direct-care workforce among the priorities for demonstrations and pilot projects.
- direct-care workforce training programs should be noted as a preferred recipient of retention grants.
- the two-year plan formulated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the workforce and labor market information system include data about the direct-care workforce as a priority.
The complete set of recommendations (pdf) is available in Regan’s letter to the Committee.
Groups Urge HELP to Move Forward
The effectiveness and efficiency of WIA programs has been criticized in several reports (pdf) published by the Government Accountability Office this year.
In a letter to the HELP Committee, which was drafted by the National Skills Coalition and signed by 40 organizations including PHI, the organizations urge the committee to move forward with the reauthorization process despite some Congress members’ concern “about the effectiveness and efficiency of the current workforce development system.”
The Committee is scheduled to mark-up the draft bill on July 20.
Federal funding for WIA was cut by almost $1 billion in the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Resolution, which was finalized last April. WIA programs face the threat of additional funding reductions as Congress works on appropriations for FY 2012.
“In view of these significant cuts, it is all the more reason that direct-care workforce development is prioritized because Workforce Investment Boards will be forced to make tough choices about where to place investments,” said PHI National Policy Director Steve Edelstein.
– by Gail MacInnes and Deane Beebe
