Jeff Flake: “I am pleased to have the opportunity to offer this amendment today, and I appreciate my colleague, the ranking member of…”

“I am pleased to have the opportunity to offer this amendment today, and I appreciate my colleague, the ranking member of the HELP Committee, working with my office to make this possible. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act the Senate will vote on today establishes a performance accountability system for adults and youth core programs provided for within it. This bill also establishes sanctions for both States and localities that fail to meet the established accountability measures. My proposed amendment works to increase accountability in local training programs and one-stop providers. As the bill currently stands, a Governor can only take corrective action if a local area fails to meet performance accountability measures for 3 years in a row. That is a long period of time. My amendment moves the timeframe that a Governor can get involved in failing programs lacking corrective actions from 3 years to 1 year. I think that makes sense, certainly. Simply put, if training providers and one-stop partners are identified as ``poor performers'' after 1 year, the Governor should be required to remove them from the list of eligible providers. This amendment is simply common sense. Why should poorly performing programs continue to miss performance accountability measures for 3 years in a row before a Governor can get involved and take corrective action?…”