Governor's Challenge

First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden highlighted the work that has been done across the country to change laws that require military spouses to attain new credentials when they move to a new state, and challenged the governors of all 50 states to take legislative or executive action to help our troops get the credentials they need by the end of 2015.

For the full article visit:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/02/25/first-lady-michelle-obama-challenges-governors-all-50-states-ease-service-members-tr

Senate Sequestration Alternative

Senate Democrats are expected to unveil next week a short-term sequestration replacement bill aimed at combining alternative spending cuts and new tax revenue to avert $85 billion in automatic spending cuts scheduled for March 1, 2013. 

Senior Democrats, including the Chairman on the Senate Committee on Finance, Max Baucus (D-MT), said the final configuration and duration of the replacement measure, including the share that would come from spending and tax revenue, was still under discussion. 

 

Although full details of the short-term sequestration replacement measure have yet to be settled, the likely configuration would be a measure cutting the budget deficit between $112 billion and $120 billion, replacing sequestration through the rest of the 2013 fiscal year and to the end of the calendar year. However, it remains unclear whether the Senate Minority and the House Majority would accept a package containing additional revenue increases as a replacement to sequestration. 

 

President Obama urged Congress on Tuesday to pass a short-term package of spending cuts to avert sequestration that will take place March 1.

20th Anniversary of FMLA

On February 5, 1993, President Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)and declared, "I am very proud that the first bill I sign as president truly puts people first. America's families have beaten the gridlock in Washington to pass Family and Medical Leave." FMLA provides for job-protected parental leave for the birth or care of a child, but the Act also helps caretakers of injured or ill relatives, military families and caregivers, workers with personal health problems and so much more.

As an HR manager for the past 18 years, I have seen many employees benefit from the FMLA.  Although it added another layer of complexity to already confusing HR policies, it is truly a wonderful benefit for the worker.  Happy anniversary FMLA!

 

WOTC Extended

On January 3, 2013, President Obama signed into law the American Tax Payer Relief Act of 2012, which, among many other provisions, authorized an extension of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) program. The Act contains the following major provisions regarding WOTC:

• Continues authorization of all veteran target groups (including those implemented under the VOW to Hire Heroes Act) until December 31, 2013;
• Retroactively reauthorizes all WOTC non-veteran target groups, from December 31, 2011 to December 31, 2013;
• Retroactively reauthorizes Empowerment Zones, which determines eligibility for the summer youth target group, from December 31, 2011, to December 31, 2013; and
• Does not reauthorize the Recovery Act disconnected youth and Recovery Act unemployed veteran target groups.

WIA Reauthorization

House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline (R-MN) indicated one of the first legislative priorities of the Committee under the new Congress will be to resume efforts from last year to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 expired in 2003, but programs authorized by the act have continued to receive funds through annual appropriations by Congress.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce passed a bill last summer, H.R. 4297 the Workforce Investment Improvement Act of 2012; however the bill did not come before the House for a vote. The bill will likely be reintroduced in the coming weeks and will move through the Committee quickly.

The bill last year moved through the Committee last year by a vote of 23 to 15, and will likely face the same opposition from the House Minority on the Committee with many objecting to the consolidation of programs and funding, expressing concern the bill could shift resources from underserved populations.

The Workforce Investment Improvement Act of 2012 proposed consolidating funding from twenty-seven national and state-administered workforce programs, including: WIA Adult, WIA Dislocated Workers and WIA Youth, Job Corps, the Senior Community Service Employment Program, and a section of the Wagner-Peyser Act into a new Workforce Investment Fund that would be distributed by formula to states and local areas. 

In addition to consolidation of the 27 national and state-administered workforce programs, H.R. 4297 would have made the changes in the State Set-aside, eliminate the current state Local Veterans Employment Representative (LVER) and Disabled Veterans Outreach Program (DVOP) specialists and replace them with a Veteran Employment Specialist (VES) who would be hired by a local area, and repeal sections 1 through 13 of the Wagner-Peyser Act.