H.R. 4297, Workforce Investment Improvement Act of 2012

As ordered reported by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on June 7, 2012

H.R. 4297 would consolidate job training programs under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) into a single funding stream. It also would amend the Wagner-Peyser Act, reauthorize adult-education programs, and reauthorize programs under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (RA). Those programs, which received discretionary funding of $7 billion and mandatory funding of $3 billion in 2012, provide a framework of job training, adult education, and employment service assistance.

Pay-as-you-go procedures apply because enacting the legislation would affect direct spending. (The bill would not affect revenues.) H.R. 4297 would repeal the authorization for job training programs that are funded by H-1B visa fees. Without that authorization, the Department of Labor (DOL) would be unable to operate job training programs funded by those fees, though the bill would not affect the total amount of the fees collected. As a result, mandatory spending would decline by $115 million in 2013 and by $1.2 billion over the 2013-2022 period, CBO estimates.

The bill also would affect discretionary spending. Assuming appropriation of the authorized amounts, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 4297 would cost $27 billion over the 2013-2017 period.

H.R. 4297 would not impose intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA).