Political Quotes

“I support the Vitter amendment, but let me just clarify for Members what we are doing here in the reauthorization of WIA. This is nothing more than a fine-tuning effort, further streamlining the funding stream, further clarifying that we expect the local boards to get most of the money to provide the resources, and to give the local boards the flexibility to provide high quality services to men and women in their communities who have needs. I think the amendment offered by the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter) says we need to consider what the needs are in the local communities and is in fact a valuable contribution. But no one should believe that we are doing a complete overhaul of the Workforce Reinvestment Act. These one-stop shops around the country by and large have begun to work very well. What we are trying to do here in this reauthorization is to make those changes to help the one-stops do a more effective job in their local communities, and to provide the governors and the local boards with the kind of flexibility they need to look at the broad needs of the workforce, whether it is training, retraining, preparing people for better jobs in their communities. We believe that the underlying bill does in fact make this much more likely because services will be offered more efficiently, the use of the resources will be more efficient.”