Mike Honda: “I rise today to oppose H.R. 1261, the Workforce Reinvestment and Adult Education Act. Let us not be fooled by the title…”

“I rise today to oppose H.R. 1261, the Workforce Reinvestment and Adult Education Act. Let us not be fooled by the title of the bill. A more accurate title would be the Workforce Divestment Act, because the legislation guts the program and removes critical civil rights protections. In a time of skyrocketing unemployment, it is shameful that the House Republicans would prefer to ignore workers who are in need of retraining and unemployment compensation and instead champion tax cuts for the most well-to-do segments of our society. At its core, this legislation is flawed. The bill, for example, would block grant the current dislocated worker programs with adult training programs and the state employment service. As a result, the states would no longer be required to assure that adequate resources are earmarked to assist laid-off workers. Instead, unemployed workers would be pitted against low-income workers and welfare recipients in a competition for limited resources. Equally troubling, H.R. 1261 explicitly authorizes religious organizations receiving federal funds from WIA's job training programs to discriminate against employees and job applicants based on religion. Current law prohibits participants in federal job training programs from discriminating based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or political affiliation or belief. Allowing this kind of discrimination is not only wrong it is unconstitutional.”