news for the united states of america and u.s. manufacturing because those are great middle-class manufacturing jobs. but guess what? those jobs are not secure. the brazillians want to build airplanes, the europeans already build airplanes, the chinese want to build airplanes, and they are all competing for that rising middle-class market that is demanding new airplanes. they all want to get on the action of having manufacturing jobs in their state. so we need to make sure that we implement the export-import bank which is about to expire on september 30 of this year. without the export-import bank, we are going to be hobbling businesses across the united states of america and not giving them these tools. the export-import bank has created thousands of jobs in the united states of america, and it has increased exports by

$37 billion and created -- helped small businesses and created jobs. it also helps us pay down the federal deficit. it has generated over $1.057 billion returned to the u.s. treasury, so it has actually helped us pay down the federal debt. so my colleagues all of a sudden are having amnesia why they supported the ex-im bank or not coming forward to support it now need to remember what a vital tool this is to the u.s. economy. madam president? the presiding officer: time has expired. ms. cantwell: madam president, i ask unanimous consent for another 30 seconds. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. cantwell: thank you. i just want to close by -- by saying other countries use these same financial tools, and so a lot of my colleagues can see that other countries for the same reason, when the marketplace doesn't provide a private-sector financial tool to securitize these -- these

products, it's important that the united states stay competitive with everybody chasing global market opportunities. let's not hobble u.s. manufacturers. let's get the export-import bank out of committee and reauthorized. i thank the president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: morning business is closed. under the previous order, the committee on health, education, labor and pensions is discharged from further consideration of h.r. 803 and the senate will proceed to the measure, which the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 803, an act to reform and strengthen the work force investment system of the nation to put americans back to work and make the united states more competitive in the 21st century. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the time until 2:30 shall be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. mr. alexander: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee.

mr. alexander: for the next several hours we'll be moving to a bill that the senator from washington, senator murray, the senator from georgia, senator isakson have had the principal role in -- in fashioning. they'll have a chance to talk about that. in just a few minutes the chairman of the health, education, labor and pensions committee will be here, senator harkin, and he'll proceed with the bill. but before that happens, i want to take just three, four minutes to talk about the importance of what's happening here. in 1998, congress passed a sort of g.i. bill for workers. the idea was to do what we -- what is at the top of every governor, every governor's agenda in every state right now -- how can we -- how can we help more americans have the job skills to fit the jobs? when i was home in granger county last weekend, a concern of tennesseans was it's too hard to find a job, it's too hard to keep a house.

what can i do to get a job? this legislation we're dealing with today for the first time since 2003 reauthorizes about nearly $10 billion of funds that will be spent through local councils, through community colleges, through state governments to help individuals in north dakota, in washington, in tennessee and georgia have the job skills to find a job. it will make it easier for them and it has the great advantage, madam president, of not doing it from washington but creating an environment where people can do this for themselves. our former democratic governor, phil braddison said to me, when he first became governor and went over to find about the $145 million or so from this funding that came to tennessee, he just threw up his hands, said it's too complicated, i can't do anything with it. so he told his cabinet member, do the best you can. well, working together with the house of representatives, senator murray and senator

isakson and a group of us here have taken this law that was passed 16 years ago and made some dramatic changes in it. they will tell you about that. but they'll be talking about how we've taken many of the 47 work -- work training programs that exist in the federal government and simplified them. eliminating 15 programs that were ineffective or duplicative. eliminating 21 federal mandates. streamlining single state plans that will reduce time spent on paperwork. streamlining reporting requirements. giving governors more flexibility. giving work councils more flexibility. giving, most importantly, the individuals who need a job more opportunity to say, this is what i'd like to do and this is what i choose to do. now, this has been no easy task and senator murray and senator isakson deserve a lot of credit for -- from all of us. because congresses have tried before. i'm going to come back after about an hour and deliver a

little more extensive discussion of this. but in 2000, it i the 108th the 109th congress all tried to get this moved forward but could not. finally the house passed a bill, came over here, the senate passed its bill. and led by senator murray and senator isakson, the senate has been working with the house, came up with an agreement, and then working with a number of senators, we've reduced the number of amendments that actually have to be voted on today to two. so we'll have two amendments to be voted on. we'll have final passage to be voted on. we'll send it to the house and hopefully the president will have a chance to sign it. i'd like to say, mr. president, that i hope in the midst of what is too much dysfunction here in the senate that this is an example of what can happen when we put our minds to it. the help committee, on which i'm

the ranking republican, and senator harkin, who will be here shortly, the ranking democrat, we've got some pretty big philosophical differences, ideologically we're not the same. but we've passed 19 bills out of the help committee. ten have become law this year. this year. so that is a record of accomplishment that we're proud of, and it shows that senators with different opinions can -- can come to a consensus and come to a result. so let me step aside now and let those who have really done the most work on the bill, the senator from washington, the senator from georgia speak. senator harkin will be here shortly. i'll be back in about an hour and then we'll be voting a little later this afternoon. but this is good news for the workers of america, for the governors who felt hamstrung by washington, for the work councils who've had an overcomplicated life, and for all those who have, such as senator coburn, who's been a real leader in pointing out how

many duplicative work programs we have. we've gone a long way in the direction he wanted us to go and i congratulate all those senators for their result. mrs. murray: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: as provided under the consent agreement, i now call up the substitute amendment number 3378. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from washington, mrs. murray, for herself and others, proposes an amendment numbered 3378. strike all after the enacting clause and insert the following -- mrs. murray: i ask unanimous consent that the reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: madam president, i ask that all after the first vote at 2:30, be 10 minutes in length and the time until 4:30 p.m. be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: madam president, just last month, i joined seven of my colleagues, republicans and democrats, from the house and the senate to introduce a critical piece of legislation

called "the work force innovation and opportunity act." it is a bill to reauthorize and dramatically improve the work force investment act, or w.i.a., which authorizes a number of critical work force development programs in all 50 states. madam president, this legislation is something i've been working on for several years with a number of our colleagues. it is something that is long overdue for more than a decade. and since we introduced a compromise deal last month, we have been working feverishly with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the capitol to iron out any issues they might have and make a few small technical fixes. we have made sure that every single member of the senate and their staffs have had the time to look through this deal, ask questions, and propose amendments. and now, today, we are one final step away from sending this tremendous bipartisan deal to the house of representatives and then hopefully to the

president's desk. madam president, i'd like to ask unanimous consent to include in the record a list of over a hundred organizations supporting this bill, including business groups, labor, educators, governors, mayors and countless others. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: madam president, improving our federal work force programs is, as i said, something i've been working on for more than a decade, and during that time i have heard from so many workers and businesses in my home state of washington and across the country who tell me how important effective work force programs are for them and their communities. business owners large and small have told me that while existing programs help, it's become harder and harder to find workers with the skills they need to fill new jobs in the 21st century. and workers who want to advance their career or get back on the job after being unemployed have told me that it's more and more difficult to get the education and skills they need to compete

for the new jobs. so, madam president, i am thrilled that we have reached this important step in the process. and the reason this agreement was even possible is the incredible bipartisan process we have had over the last few months to reach a compromise we could all agree on. so i really today want to thank my coauthors of this bill in the senate for all of their hard work through the process and their work to rally support for it today. senator tom harkin, a democrat from iowa, the great chairman of the senate help committee; senator lamar alexander, who you heard from, a republican from tennessee and the esteemed ranking member of the help committee; and finally, my very close partner in this process, senator johnny isakson from georgia. madam president, senator isakson and i are the coauthors of the senate version of this bill to reauthorize w.i.a., and throughout this process it has been an absolute pressure to -- absolute pleasure to work across the aisle to work with him to get this done.

his integrity, his commitment have been key to making this a reality. you know, senator isakson's office is right next door to mine and whether it was on the phone or while the two of us were working over here to -- walking over here to the chamber to cast votes, we must have had hundreds of conversations on how to reach this point. and so it means a lot for me to be here with him today. madam president, i want to also thank a few other senators whose commitment to improving our work force systems has been remarkable. first of all, senator enzi, our colleague from wyoming. senator enzi and i have been working for a very long time to reauthorize w.i.a. more than once we would be at the white house for meetings or regardless of the topic, wherever we were, he would tell president bush and now president obama, this should be a bipartisan effort we can all agree o. and i think today's actions -- agree o. and i think today's actions are -- agree on. and i think today's actions say he was right all along. i want to thank sherrod brown

from ohio for his leadership. senator brown's understanding of the changes in the american economy and places of work is unparalleled and the state of ohio should be very proud to have him represent them in the senate. in particular, senator brown's work on the issues of skills, manufacturing, economic competitiveness and education reform have been critical. in crafting this deal, we were fortunate to be able to draw on his sectors act and weave the concepts of that throughout this bill. in fact, because of senator brown's strong advocacy, we were successful in requiring sector initiatives at both the state and local levels as well as including them in plans and functions and reports. i know that in my state of washington, we use sector strategies in everything from aerospace industry to maritime, health, construction, gaming, finance, renewable energy and venoculture. and they all work to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our work force systems. so i'm very proud that we've

included sectors in this bill and have worked with senator brown closely and have benefited from his knowledge and leadership. i also want to thank senator kay hagan from north carolina for her work on this legislation. her "america works" bill provides us with a great framework to think about skills and certification and credentials and the need to be closely aligned with employers. because of her leadership and her vision, this bill requires that training that leads to recognized post-secondary credential receives a priority, meaning that both workers and employers benefit from the training provided through this act. we also require that all states and locals reports on the number of credentials offered, meaning that the entire work force system will be more closely aligned to the needs of employers and workers and will yield more direct value in and for the marketplace. i also want to mention that senator hagan worked hard to ensure that we focus not just on initial credentials but credentials that are industry

recognized and both portable and stackable. and finally, madam president, i want to thank senator franken from minnesota, who represents the same state as the late senator paul wellstone, who was my democratic predecessor lead on this bill. and true to senator wellstone's legacy, senator franken has shown a deep understanding of the needs of job seekers and workers and employers as well as a passion to help them all advance and succeed. i was very pleased to work closely with him on this legislation and assure a number of his priorities were included. lead among his priorities was building closer ties with our community colleges and we worked hard to make sure that happened. i'm also pleased that we benefited from a truly innovative program in minnesota, twin cities rise, which has been a pioneer in pay for performance models for many years and which helped to inform our inclusion of pay for performance provisions in this bill. so, madam president, it's clear

this bill is the product of many, many authors and while we know that nobody gets everything they want, and we all got i think at the end of the day we can proudly say this bill will help our workers, our businesses, and the economy for years to come. because federal work force programs have proven time and again that the best investment we can make as a country is an investment in our american workers. i've seen first hand in my home state of washington, workers who were laid off, able to get new training and new skills and new jobs and i've seen so many washington state businesses from our aerospace companies to video game design firms that were able to access workers with the new skills they needed to grow and compete. but with millions of new jobs that will require postsecondary access and advanced skills in the coming years we will fall behind if we do not modernize our work force development systems and programs now. we have to make sure that when

high-tech jobs of the 21st century are created, americans are ready to fill them and that is exactly what we have all done in this bill. we've doubled down on the programs that work, we've improved the programs that have become outdated and we've created a work force systems that's more nimble and adaptable, better aliensd with what our businesses need and more accountable so we can continue to make it better. madam president, we started with a house proposal and a senate proposal and we all met in the middle and that's exactly what the american people send us here to do, to help our committee grow. this is an all-too-rare opportunity for all of us to get behind a strong bipartisan, bicameral bill, so i urge all of our colleagues to support the work force innovation and opportunity act and send it to the house for a vote. thank you, madam president. i will yield to my great friend and partner who has spent

innumerable hours getting us to this point and i really want to thank him and his staff and all of our staffs who have really worked to find a compromise and not to find a fight. thank you very much. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. isakson: i have to say first and foremost it has been a real privilege to work with senator murray with the state of washington. we are across the hall from one other, we see each other going and coming down to the floor, our staffs have worked hard and finally lightning has struck. we're about in the congress of the united states to reauthorizing the work force opportunity act. as we sit here in this chamber today and talk about this bill, there are 10.6 million americans who are unemployed. there are also four million jobs waiting to to be filled by people that need specific skills. this bill deals with the skills deficit in america, it's growing to match some of those unemployed with some of those jobs to lower our unemployment rate and raise the rate of

prosperity in american families. this is an important bill. now, a lot of people who have watched the senate over the last few years might have said how in the world did you reach an agreement on anything? you always seem to be fighting. you always seem to be arguing. i want to tell a brief story on the floor if i can. about a month ago senator murray and i joined senator harkin and senator alexander, a couple members of the house, representative fox from north carolina and representative klein, the chairman of the work force committee in the house, and we sat around a table and we didn't say all right, what is it that divides us. we said what is it that unites us? what union iepts us is the fact is that the american people are looking for leadership leadership with us and we've been languishing to try to reauthorize this bill for 1 years. we sat down and decided what we agreed on. away identified what the problems were. we worked with members members of the house no said we've passed the skills act, we'll listen to your side and try to find common ground. after few days, really, not

weeks, we found common ground on 80% of the issues that confront us in work force investment area. there are a few places where we found disagreement, sure, so did those stop us? no. the perfect should never be the enemy of the good. this bill is the good of the united states senate in terms of dealing with the issues. i want to brag a about a few people beside senator murray. scott cheney, her loyal assistant who has sat in my office about a week and a half ago, side by side, staff and senator working out the details a on this bill. tommy newland who has worked countless hours for countless years to make this happen. and david cleary, the aide to the committee, the aide to senator alexander has done a yeoman's job, did probably as much of the hand holding in the last couple weeks over amendments as anybody i know of. i want to thank senator enzi from wyoming whole is is really my mentor in understand the. when i was first elected to congress i was appointed to a

web behaved joint commission between the house and the senate. mike enzi was appointed to that, i was the republican congressman. i didn't know mike enzi but i watched him work and find solutions to that problems, i watched his patient work to find a solution and said that's the guy i would like to be like. he got mrs. murray and i to this point. he foarnld ahead. when senator kennedy was chairman, he worked with senator kennedy to say let's. i'm glad we're doing it today and in large measure because of senator mike enzi. story tim scott, he introduced the skills act that was passed in the house in the senate. he could have folded his arms and say i'm not going to cooperate but he said instead what can i do to help? there are things i want to make sure we do but not not address. tim scott was inimmeasurable help. rob portman was immeasurable

help. so many members whose ideas were incorporated in this bill. i am appreciative of each and every one of them and i think the american people will too. i want to highlight a couple of things that are so important. unlike most things government does, we've scaled down the size of work force investment boards in the states and in the local communities. so they're working numbers, not so big and unwieldy. more money into training and less into bureaucracy. we scaled down a number of programs and consolidated to maximize the federal dollar to geft he benefit at the state level. we gave the state level the authority to determine the curriculum that was lest for washington or georgia. washington is not a one-size-fits-all town and work force development is not a one-size-fits-all crew issue. through the labor developments of the states we're going to empower them to train people for the jobs they need in their state, not the jobs washington might think they might have needed in their state. that's a tremendous advance

forward in this legislation and equally very important. some people will sit on the the floor and say did we get all we wanted? no, nobody did. did you get enough? we got plenty. there are a lot of governors that will be celebrating. i have had two calls this morning from governors' offices or labor department offices saying thank you, you're giving us the power to address what we need to do in our state to address unemployment and address job training. so it's been a privilege for me to work with senator harkin, senator alexander, and senator murray. and i want to close before i turn the floor over to senator harkin who i think will be next on the floor, to commend senator harkin for his leadership as the chairman. he and senator alexander gave us the encouragement to get a bill done. they didn't insist what would be in the bill just exactly as they wanted. senator harkin is a champion for disabilities and the disability section is outstanding to provide training and rehabilitation for those who

operate with departmental, their contribution is as important as the contribution of any other single mesh american. today is a great day for the united states senate. it's also a great day for the work force in america and the training for the skills. we want to fill the four million jobs vacant in american with those unemployed in america to raise prosperity and raise opportunity and hope in america. with that said, madam president, i will yield the floor to the distinguished senator from iowa, senator harkin. mr. harkin: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: first i ask unanimous consent that brianna stayer be granted floor privileges for the remainder of today's floor session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: madam president, i am pleased to join with my

colleagues on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers today in taking up the work force innovation and opportunity act that's the reauthorization of what we always call the wia bill, the work force investment act of 1998. as chairman of the health, education, labor and pensions bill, i can say we've worked on this bail now for 2350eu6 years. this is the first reauthorization since 2003 of the work force investment act. i especially want to express my appreciation to senator isakson, senator murray, senator alexander for their great working relationship in sticking to it for all these years when it was sort -- didn't know if we were ever going to make it or not. and i see our former ranking member, senator enzi, is here who started with that when he was ranking member and i want to thank him also for all of his

work to get to this point. what's that old saying, slow cooking beats fast food any day. this is slow cooking, home cooking. it took a while but some of these things take time. they just take time to work out and get things ironed out, i understand that. but, again, i just can't express my appreciation enough to my colleagues as i mentioned, senator isakson, senator enzi, senator murray, senator alexander for their stick-to-itiveness and never giving up and making sure we got to this point. i'd like to thank my house colleagues who worked closely with us over the last couple months, klein, miller, fox and hinojosa, during those negotiations. we reached a compromise between the reauthorization bill the house had passed last year and the bill that we passed out of committee in july of last year.

and so, again, with the great work of as i said of senator murray and senator isakson, working with our house colleagues, we have a really good bill, a really good bill and it has the broad support, broadly from employers to mayors to governors to organized labor, everybody is now supporting this bill. i suppose like any piece of legislation that comes through here, i assume that each one of those entities probably didn't get everything they wanted but that's the art of compromise. and the art of getting good legislation through. and it couldn't come at a better time and a more needed time for reauthorization. as our committee continues to -- committee economy can continued continues to recover from one of the worst recessions in history, it's more critical than ever we stand with our nation's workers, our businesses, our young people, citizens with disabilities, with a commitment to help them

prosper in the new jobs of the future. our economy has undergone substantial changes since the first work force investment act bill of 1998. in fact, over the last 40 years, america's backbone, the middle class has been finding it harder and harder to make ends meet as wages have stagnated, costs risen and, frankly, a lot of the jobs of the past are gone. a lot of those jobs aren't coming back. we have a new economy that we're now entering. and so people need to be trained and a lot of people needs to be retrained. and skills upgraded for these new jobs of the future. that's what this bill does. it's part of the solution to this challenge face your our middle class in america. access to education, training, employment services, it's critical to helping our workers secure good jobs, gain access to the middle class, become

economically self-sufficient. this new bill includes provisions that support our state work force development systems and providing unemployment and training services for adults, dislocated workers and youth, through state grant programs and the public employment service. it also supports disconnected youth through programs such as an updated youth program focused on out-of-school youth who need a second chance. such as job corps and youth build. it provides for employment and training activities for native americans and migrant and seasonal farm workers. it supports literacy programs including services for english language learners. this bill includes innovative approaches to providing work force development activities including industry and sector partnerships, on the job and income at worker training, transitional job tragedy for

those with poor work histories but would like to have more steady, upgraded jobs, workplace learning advisors who cab can educate colleagues about services available in the work force system. now, one of the most important parts, to me, of this bill is a much-needed update to the rehabilitation act of 1973. i'm particularly pleased that the bill addresses the disproportionate burden of unemployment and underemployment experienced by people with disabilities in our country. despite the enormous progress we've made in ensuring that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as all americans, the sad fact is that the unemployment rate among people with disabilities in america is twice as high, twice as high as people without disabilities, and their work force participation rate is less than half of that of the general population.

so we have, quite frankly, failed to ensure that people with disabilities meaningfully participate in the work force. this bill makes major steps to correct this injustice. it will help to prepare a new generation of young people with disabilities to prepare for, obtain and succeed in competitive, integrated employment, not substandard, sub-minimum wage dead-end jobs, but jobs in which people with disabilities can learn and grow to their maximum potential. that's what this bill will do. it will ensure that young people with disabilities, let's say who are in high school and their -- they have their i.e.p., their individualized education program, they get through high school but they need to be prepared for transition into the workplace. and so this bill includes things that will give them those

experiences like part-time work, summer jobs, internships, workplace skill development, preparation for jobs that are in high demand. basically, we're going to give persons with disabilities the same supports and experiences that everyone else expects and receives, which they haven't had in the past. go through school, part of the idea program, their i.e.p.'s, and as soon as they quit, they are dropped. or they go into sub-minimum wage jobs and that's where they stay and they never get skills upgraded. but we know from experience that people with disabilities, whether it's intellectual disabilities or physical disabilities or combinations of both, their skills can be upgraded and they can be trained just like anybody else so they can perform at their maximum

potential. again, this bill requires state rehabilitation vocational programs to work hand in hand with secondary schools. it ensures that employers will have the information necessary to recruit, hire and retain people with disabilities, and it focuses the efforts of state -- again, rehabilitation on youth, requiring that 15% of their funds be dedicated to transitioning young people into competitive, integrated employment. these efforts, i hope, will directly address the high unemployment rate among people with disabilities, smooth the transition of young people into the competitive integrated workplace, help employers to support their employees with disabilities. i want to thank my colleagues for working to make this bill one that will address the outrageous status quo facing people with disabilities with regard to employment, and more and more employers are finding

that with a small bit of support or maybe a modification of a workplace, people are disabilities can do those jobs and sometimes do them better than people without disabilities. and more and more employers are finding that out. but -- but in our former work force investment act bills and stuff, we didn't really focus on that that much. well, this bill now puts a major focus on that, and that's why i am so -- so proud of this bill and why i think this bill is such a major step forward in all its regards. again, i would just say that this bill represents the best of what congress can accomplish when we work together. we have worked diligently to find areas of agreement in our committee where we could advance legislation on a bipartisan basis. i heard senator alexander earlier mention this.

it is true that on our committee, we probably have the widest divergence of philosophical views of any committee in the senate, but we work together and we work to get things done, both on the senate level and on the staff level. when this bill passes the senate, it will mark the 18th bipartisan help committee bill to successfully move through the senate in this congress, and assuming it will -- the president will sign it, it will be the 14th bill passed out of our committee this congress to be signed into law by the president. house leaders have indicated that if the senate acts swiftly to pass this bipartisan bicameral bill without substantial changes, they will do the same and we will be able to advance this bill to the president's desk in very short order. a major victory for our workers, our businesses, our economy. i urge all my colleagues to join us in supporting this bill and

voting yes on final passage. madam president, i yield the -- i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: i want to thank my colleague from wyoming for allowing me to jump in here for about five minutes. this became an issue as we faced the greatest recession that we have ever had, and at the same time we had g.a.o. looking at how we're spending our money. and for just a little history so everybody will know, when g.a.o. did their first report, we had 47 separate job training programs run by nine different agencies, and that year that they looked at, we spent $18.5 billion. what we found is only two of them had metrics on them, and we weren't even paying attention to the metric to use them. i would applaud the work of the help committee, senator enzi, senator isakson, senator

alexander, senator murray and senator harkin for bringing a bill to the floor. it is an improvement over what we're doing. but i want to offer a couple of points that i think the american people ought to know. we're not going near far enough. not anywhere close to where we need to go. the skills coming out of the house markedly changed job training in this country. now, this is a big modification to the skills act, but the skills act actually paid attention to the government accountability office. what they did is consolidate a lot of programs and put real metrics and real competition into the job training. two critical flaws in this bill that i think are a miss take -- i know this bill is going to pass so it is moving the ball down the road. number one, there is no metric in here to say in a job training program did somebody get a job in the thing that they were trained for. so it doesn't matter how many people we train, if there is no job and they got no job for what

we have trained, we have wasted the money. so that's not anywhere in this bill. the second thing is a vast majority of money in this country that's spent on job training is job corps. when you ask behind the scenes why we didn't have major reform to job corps, it's because all the parochial -- because of all the parochial people they employ. in oklahoma, it's over a thousand. except most of the job corps programs in oklahoma are highly inefficient, failing to do what we want them to do, and they're not going to be held accountable with this bill. so two really disastrous things that had they been added would have made a real difference. and let me tell you why i can speak to that. because when the g.a.o. put out their report on all the job training programs, i had every one of my staffers in oklahoma go to every job training state and federal in oklahoma. let me tell you what we found. what we found was the federal

programs were totally failing. we were very good at employing people in job training programs with federal money, but when you look for the outcome of whether or not we gave somebody a skill that gave them an ability to have a life, we failed. and contrast that to oklahoma's career tech system, their own state-funded, state-funded training programs where they were 90% effective in giving somebody a life skill. and so while i'm disappointed that the skills act didn't come over here and get voted on is because that's what was in the skills act. it is really accomplishing the goal. my colleagues have been great with me in working on this bill to try to attest and to accommodate my desires to see some changes, but there are these two critical flaws, and it speaks of the lack of courage in

our country today that because we have people employed in job corps programs, that we're not going to really shake that system up and make it do what it needs to do. i'll never forget, hi a town hall meeting in guthrie, oklahoma, the largest job corps training in oklahoma, and i wrote a report that was highly critical of it. they all came here, and i faced them down. i said do you really want federal government money spent on your salary that doesn't accomplish the goal of giving somebody a life skill? and they couldn't answer yes. they had to answer no, they really didn't want that, but that's what job corps still is in this bill, and that's by far the biggest job training program we have. so i applaud for the changes that you've made, the movement that you've gone forward, but when there is no metrics on whether or not the skill that was trained got a job, you don't have any idea what you're going to be measuring after this bill goes through and gets eliminated. and number two, if you have not fundamentally gutted the present

job corps system and changed it to where it's responsible to actually accomplish a goal and hold them accountable like we need to be holding the v.a. accountable, if you don't do that, you haven't really fixed anything. this bill, we have no c.b.o. score on it. it's at least $58 billion over the next six years, at least. and we're going to vote a bill again that doesn't have a score. so the intentions are pure on my colleagues, but i think you're missing two critical things if you really want to fix job training. i thank you for your work, i appreciate your accommodation, and i know this bill will pass, and it is an improvement but it's not going to fix the fundamental problems. thank you, and i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: i would ask unanimous consent that following my speech that senator brown from ohio be allowed to speak next. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. enzi: thank you, madam president. i rise today to speak in favor of the reauthorization of the work force investment act.

i'd first like to thank senator johnny isakson of georgia, senator patty murray of washington, senator lamar alexander of tennessee and senator tom harkin of iowa for their hard work on this bill. you can see from that list of senators alone that this has been a truly bipartisan effort to reauthorize this work force investment act. and of course you have heard through the course of this discussion how on the house side, kline and miller and fox and mimosa worked on it. that's from that side of the building. and the two have been working together which is bicameral. that doesn't happen a lot around here. but on bills that make it through to the president's signature, it does happen and it's happened on this one. i want to thank a lot of the senators who have had suggestions for this bill. a lot of those suggestions have wound up in here. some of them had amendments that

we'll have to continue to work on in the future. they were very gracious in revising some of those so that they would fit with what we're doing and we can still get the bill done. i know that tim scott could have taken a lot more credit for what he did in the house when it came over here. he has been extremely cooperative in using his knowledge on the bill to further the bill. senator portman, another critical one in working on it. as you can tell from the passionate speech by senator coburn that there are things that could be done and will need to be done in the future to make it an even better bill. but it's something that all of government ought to be doing, not just the work force. this is a day of elation for me. we have been working to improve this program for over 11 years. for 11 years, this could have made a big difference in our country and jobs. that's right, the work force investment act has been due for

reauthorization for 11 years. who says the senate works fast? who says the senate works slow? hopefully the senate works and gets it right. i am hopeful that now is the time that we are able to get this important piece of legislation renewed and provide some much-needed help to american workers and businesses through the new profile that it provides. the work force innovation and opportunity act will transform the sometimes bureaucratic federal job training system into a streamlined program that can help many more people learn the skills they need to get meaningful jobs. the reauthorization will eliminate 15 programs identified as ineffective or duplicative. we don't do that around here very often. or 21 federal mandates on state and local work force boards. that's what we need to be doing throughout government. this bill would apply common performance measures for all programs with a focus on employment outcomes and employer

satisfaction with the trained workers. this would provide stronger accountability for taxpayer dollars. these are all changes that are long overdue. this piece of legislation also gives authority back to the state governments and equips them with tools to help small businesses. this bill provides governors and state work force director has they told us they needed in hearing after hearing after hearing. they wanted flexibility to use the money where it was most needed. yes, there were stove pipes where we required them to do certain things with the money even if they didn't have customers that needed that part of the stove pipe. which meant some of the money went begging. so we're actually by eliminating some of the stove pipes making the money more effective in this program, and it increases the value of the money that's there. with this reorganization -- reauthorization, states will be better able to meet the regional economic demands and provide

training for jobs in which quality workers are in short supply. we can help people get back to work by offering training for the skills and services needed in their community. state and local officials are in the best position to determine the labor and job-training needs of communities across the nation. the work force innovation and opportunity act will also help improve our current stagnant economy and foster an economic environment for private-sector job creation. if it works as it should, then hundreds of thousands of people will be able to move into available jobs that are vacant because folks don't have the right skills. i remember "the new york times" sent their reporters out to see if there were any jobs available in the new york area and they came back and reported there were thousands of jobs. there just weren't people trained to be able to do those jobs. that's what this bill's designed to do. local businesses will finally be able to find workers in their communities who have the particular skill-set as that need to grow and expand their --

skill-sets that are needed to grow and expand their businesses. the programs included in the act are what will get our economy going. job-training programs are especially important to small population states like wyoming where skilled workers are in high demand and the supply is short. we recently broke ground on the wind river job corps center in riverton, "work first." thriverton, wyoming. it will be the first of its kind in wyoming. when the center opens in the next year or so, my constituents will be able to get the job training they need to succeed in their careers. this project would not have been possible without the determination of the people of wyoming, the cooperation of the communities around there to provide the facilities and the land that was necessary, and legislation like the work force innovation and opportunity act. i particularly want to thank senator harkin for his recognition as part of the appropriations committee that wyoming and new hampshire were the two states that didn't have a job corps center and the help

that he gave us in being sure that there was money set aside to be able to do that job corps center. i also appreciate the emphasis on youth bill that's in there, where young people can work in the summer to actually learn a trade while they improve their community. on a broader scale, america's facing an economic through mat that threatens our ability as a nation to compete in the global marketplace. this bill sends a clear message that we're serious about helping our american workers and employers remain competitive and that we're serious about closing the skills gap that's putting america's long-term competitiveness in jeopardy. i've been on the floor recently discussing articles that declared that our current congress could be the worst ever and that negotiating political agreement is a lost art. more often than not this year, senators have had no opportunity to weigh in and descenting opinions are rarely considered. but the help committee has broken through the logjam and produced a bipartisan bill with

a bicameral effort that's going to get through the senate without cloture, without filling the amendment tree or any of the other procedural tricks. that's a testament to the hard work of senators harkin, alexander, murray, isakson and their staffs and others who have worked on this bill. their effort's an example all of us should keep in mind when thinking about how we can and should operate. almost half of today's sitting senators have been here less than six years so they haven't seen many times when the senate has worked like it should, like it could, like it did. i urge them to keep this work force investment act bill in mind. the help committee had the first opportunity to shape the legislation. members were able to iron out unintended consequences and input there. that's how committees work. and then senators harkin, alexander, murray and isakson gave all 100 members of the senate the opportunity to improve the legislation. and it's important to note that

this isn't the first time the help committee has followed this process. a few months ago, we passed the community development block grant for children education. after it went through committee and after amendments were offered. i'm glad that the full senate is finally considering reauthorization of this important piece of legislation. i urge my fellow senators to pass this bicameral, bipartisan agreement based on commonsense policies that will stimulate growth and the economy. the education and job-training programs provided by this work force innovation and opportunity act are too important to working families, businesses, local communities and our nation's economy to delay it. i yield the floor. i yield the floor to the senator from ohio. mr. brown: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you, madam president. thank you to senator enzi, who's

one of the most cooperative members of the senate on so many levels. he and i cochair the air force caucus together and he has been good to work with when i've sat on the health, education, labor and pension committee, he was known then, as he still is, as a member you could reach out to and would get things done. special thanks, too, to senator isakson, who's on the floor, and to senators harkin and murray, who did so much to work with our office on our sectors act, on a whole litany of work force investment issues. so i'm indebted to them. passing this legislation would reauthorize and improve the work force investment act which first was established some 15-plus years ago. it includes critical work force development programs that have helped thousands of americans get on their feet. it provides streamlined one-stop services that empower adults and students and gives them the tools and the skills and the resources they need to find a new career or improve their current skills. all of this helps to meet the needs of employers looking for

trained, skilled workers. the cuyahoga works cannery center in cleveland is one of those programs. it's run out of the cuyahoga county library, known as one of the best library systems in the county. the center shared a few success stories with me i'd like to share. teacher was laid off from cleveland public schools three years ago, began substitute teaching while they worked as a can i oh ga works career counselor. the counselor -- the counselor showed her how to usual social networking and linkedin more effectively. as a result, she connected with an administrator in a local school district who invited her to discuss her job search. during this meeting, the teacher learned that although she had a strong background, she could benefit from taking a couple computer classes. the can i oh gworks center guido computer courses. shortly afterward, the teacher let her career counselor know she'd accepted a long-term position in one of the local school districts. while visiting the new cleveland

casino, the cuyahoga works career counselor was stopped by an employee who worked with her on her job application. the customer was extremely grateful and went so far to introduce the counselor to her supervisor, explaining, "this person is the reason i got this job." it's clear that legislation like this works. we know that to compete globally we need workers who can quickly adapt to new technologies and business processes. so our work force training programs must be able to keep up with the times. that's what the work force investment and innovation and opportunity act does. it builds on w.i.a.'s existing success and updates it for a 21st century work force. part of this improvement means we take a sector-based approach. since 2007, i've held some 250 roundtables around my state. from the beginning, from the first one at the cincinnati chamber of commerce, to a whole host of these in agriculture and with farmers and veterans and small business people and

workers and -- and others, what's come -- what i hear over and over again is, despite high unemployment, too many employers are having a hard time finding workers with the skills necessary. as a result, job openings in high-growth industries, health care, clean energy, bioscience and seen manufacturing, are going unfilled. the skill gap exists especially for careers in high-tech fields and for jobs that require more than a high school degree but often the skills gap exists for people with less than a college degree. this gap denies workers new opportunities they deserve yet undermines our nation's economic competitiveness and limits our ability to attract new jobs and businesses. to close the gap, we need to create industry or sector partnerships to ensure that workers have the right skills to get hired in high-tech emerging industries with good-paying jobs. it means local communities, local community colleges, local work force investment boards, local labor unions, local small

businesses decide what they need and put these work force training programs together regionally in community after community, whether it's in north dakota, the presiding officer's state, or whether it's in my state of ohio. driven by what kinds of jobs are out there available. that's why i introduced the strengthening employment clusters to organize regional success, our sectors act, back in 2008. i reintroduced this legislation with republican senator collins from maine this year. i'm pleased that provisions in today's bill are based on our bipartisan sectors bill. this modernization bill would promote and require sector-based partnerships to ensure work force training programs are dropped with the industry output -- with industry input, with labor input, with local community investment work force investment boards, with local businesses, whether it's in chillicothe or akron or toledo or anywhere in my state. given the difficulty in negotiations, i'm grateful for chairman murray's dedication to

this bill, for her prioritization of these partnerships because we know from experience how important they are. with too many americans still unable to find work, we should do all that we can to ensure that our workers are fully qualified to fill available jobs. that's what the work force innovation and opportunity act does. that's why i encourage my colleagues to support it. madam president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. mr. brown: madam president, i withdraw that. the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. mr. heller: madam president, i thank my colleagues. i'll get this right. madam president, i thank my colleagues and you on both sides of the aisle, both chambers of congress for their efforts on this important piece of legislation that's before us. i would especially like to thank

senators isakson, murray, alexander and harkin for their leadership on this issue and for working together with our colleagues in the house to craft this compromise. i am pleased that congress has come together in a bipartisan manner to address the most pressing issue we face as a country, which is the need to restore our country's economic health. we have a responsibility here in washington to ensure that the needs of the american workers, businesses and job seekers are all being met. i believe we need a two-pronged approach to this problem. first, a full-fledged effort to grow the economy and create new jobs. and, second, a temporary safety net that helps people unable to secure a job in this current economic environment. the bill now in front of us is a much-needed effort to reauthorize, streamline the work force investment act of 1998, which is the primary federal law concerning job training and work force development programs.

the services offered through the w.i.a. program, job search assistance, career counseling, skills training and on-the-job training are a critical part of the effort to grow our economy and to ensure that workers are prepared for the job market. importantly, these programs are coordinated at the state and local levels to ensure that the unique needs of our communities are appropriately addressed. the work force innovation and opportunity act takes some long overdue steps to modernize our work force investment system. it eliminates 15 programs that have been identified as duplicative or ineffective. it removes 21 burdensome federal mandates on states and local work force boards. it promotes state and local control and improves flexibility so that we can better respond to changes in our work force or the economy. it also improves accountability, transparency measures to guarantee that these programs are operating, in fact,

efficiently and effectively. given that this law has been due for reauthorization for more than 10 years, provides states and local communities with the flexibility they need is vital tone sugar economic stability -- to ensuring economic stability. we clearly can't depend on the federal government to provide workers and businesses with timely solutions to help our work force, so i'm pleased that this legislation puts much of that control back where it belongs. the need to reauthorize these important programs is, perhaps, no more apparent than in my home state of nevada. our state is one of the states hit hardest by the economic downturn and though we're slowly recovering, we still have a long way to go. industries that thrived for many years suddenly stalled, leaving thousands of workers out of jobs. nevada had a double-digit unemployment rate for 4 1/2 years. unfortunately, topping the charts at nearly 14% for several months. over the past few years, i've spoken with employers and job seekers in nevada to look for ways to restore the health of

our economy and get nevadans back to work. surprisingly, i flerd many employers that they have job opportunities available -- heard from many employers they have job opportunities available, they want to hire more employees and grow their businesses but they're having difficulty finding workers with the necessary skill-sets.. the skill-sets problem isn't unique to nevada. in fact, there are millions of unfilled jobs throughout the country. with nearly ten million americans still unemployed looking for works, we must take steps to connect job seekers with employment opportunities in in-demand sectors. i was proud to join senator donnelly from indiana. the workforce innovation and opportunity act is a bipartisan,

bicameral piece of legislation that represents real efforts to get our economy back on track. though no bill is perfect and the nature of compromise means that not everyone gets everything that they want, i am grateful for the work my colleagues have done in writing this bill. and while i would have preferred to include efforts to provide stability for unemployment job seekers by temporarily extending unemployment insurance benefits, i also recognize that these job training and workforce investment programs are essential in getting americans back to work. i still firmly believe that our economic recovery needs a two-pronged approach that grows the economy and provides stability for job seekers, and this bill is an important part of that equation. when the senate is in session, i call constituents back in the state and i asked them to join me for a telephone town hall meeting. during one of these calls last night i asked nevadans if they felt like the economy was improving. of those who participated, 26%

said yes. they do think the economy is improving. 13% said they were unsure. and 60% said no, they do not think the economy is getting any better. on a ratio of two to one, nevadans feel that the economic growth is lagging. we need to fix this, pass policies that will help turn this economy around. in the meantime we cannot forget about the most important safety net available to americans. make no mistake, madam president, i have every intention of continuing to work with my colleague from rhode island to temporarily extend unemployment benefits for those who are seeking to work. i was proud to once again team up with him yesterday to reintroduce a new unemployment extension bill that would provide five months of benefits with retroactive eligibility. we will continue to work with our colleagues here in the senate and in the house as well as this administration -- and this administration to pass this legislation and ensure that we

continue to provide this temporary safety net while still looking for work. again, i thank my friends in both the senate and the house for their work on this much-needed legislation. this compromise effort proves that congress is capable of working together on legislation to help our economy, and i'm hopeful -- hopeful -- that this experience will encourage all of us to continue working together to pass more bills to grow our economy, create new jobs for the people of nevada, and for all of the united states. madam president, i yield back. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.  quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: madam president, i call up the managers' amendment -- the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call.

mr. harkin: i ask further proceedings under the quorum be dispensed w. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: i call up amendment number 3381. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendment. the clerk: the senator from iowa, mr. harkin, for mrs. murray and others, proposes amendment number 3381 to amendment number 3378. mr. harkin: madam president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i ask consent to vitiate the quorum. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: madam president, while the senator from iowa is still on the floor -- senator harkin -- i want to pay him a compliment. the committee which he chairs and of which i'm the ranking member has produced 19 bills this year for this congress, ten of which have become law. no other committee has produced as much, and this will add one to that. and that's not because we agree on everything. the truth is we disagree on a lot of things, but we have found a way where there is a chance to get a result to get one. and senator harkin has helped create an environment in which senator isakson and senator murray and a group of other senators have finally brought this workforce investment act to a conclusion, and a lot of other senators have tried and it's taken a long time to do it.

so our focus today should be on the workers of america and the people who need jobs. but i think it is important to point out when the senate tries to do it this way, we can get a pretty good result. this is $10 billion and our state, i would say to the senator from iowa, is $145 million on the single biggest issue in our state: how do i get a better job? how do i get a better job? it's not a matter of washington telling you how to do that. this is a bill that empowers state to enable tennesseans to get the skills they need to get a better job. i thank the chairman for the way he's worked on this and wanted to say that while he's on the floor. madam president, i urge my colleagues to support this act today. it's a jobs bill. i was home in granger county in

east tennessee this past weekend working with the clinch powell cooperative. it is a great organization which helps people with home foreclosures and helps them find a job. the worry they have is it's too hard to find a job. the worry with the national federation of independent business leaders whom i talked with in knoxville is it's too hard to create a job. we all have our reasons for that. on our side of the aisle, we think there are too many taxes, rules, regulations and mandates from washington that make it harder for a person who needs -- who wants to create a job to do that. i had one tennessee small business man tell me that he was looking at new employees as a liability more than an asset. he said i hate that. i want to think of every one of my employees as an asset, but when i hire them i have to think about what about this health care cost or this tax cost or this regulatory cost or all these extra costs. and they become, in my eyes, a liability, and that discourages

me from hiring. that's one reason why so many americans are having a hard time finding a job. but another reason, and the reason we're working together today on this is because the skills don't fit the job. we have a very good governor in tennessee whose name is bill haslam. his priority is the same, i think, of every other governor i know in the country, which is he's trying to grow jobs, attract jobs. and what he hears from every employer is we've got the jobs but the employees don't have the skills. so our governor is working hard, for example, to create with bridgestone corporation, the big tire maker headquartered in tennessee, a program at the community college and technical institute where the institute would train people with the exact skills that bridgestone needs. so many of the new jobs today

require more skills than they used to. i was governor when the nissan plant came to tennessee. and it was a surprise to a lot of people. because automobile plants used to be plants with 20,000 or 30,000 people there. but the nissan plant only had 3,000, 4,000 or 5,000 people there. now it has a few more but it's the largest automobile plant in north america and the most efficient and i imagine as profitable as any. but the jobs at the nissan plant have a lot higher standards and a lot higher skills for the employees. and 30 years ago and today the biggest challenge they have is finding tennesseans or other people who have the right skills for the right jobs. so what can we in washington do to help with that? well, we could sit here and in our wisdom, we could write a lot of rules and prescriptions about just how to do that.

and in fact, that's what's been happening. that's what's been happening with the workforce investment act. it started out in 1998 as sort of a g.i. bill for workers. the idea was we'd make it easier for people to find jobs. we'd create work councils in the states, give governors flexibility, allow them to make these arrangements with community colleges like the one i just described with bridgestone. but then the old washington disease set in, and you know what it is. it's i've got a good idea. let's make everybody do it. and pretty soon we had 47 workforce programs. and according to a government accountability office report, 45 of them were duplicative. the senator from oklahoma who is retiring this year, i regret very much, senator coburn, has led the charge. he asked for that report. and he's pointed out to us we're wasting money and we're not helping people when we spend $9.5 billion or $10 billion

through the workforce investment act which is just a few of those programs in such a complicated way. i mentioned on the floor of the senate a while ago what our former democratic government bredison said. he was a very good governor, businessman. he likes to get results. he took a look at the workforce investment act programs coming to tennessee from the federal government through a dozen or more work councils and he just threw up his hands. he said, "i told the commissioner of employment security just do what you can with it." because there were too many well-intentioned rules and regulations from washington that caused these programs to be such a maze, the governors and work councils couldn't deal with it. the work councils were massive. i mean 50 or 60 people. someone up here saying this is who you have to have. there were duplicative proposals. instead of allowing people who wanted a job to say i'd like to have this kind of job, these

kind of skills, we were telling what you kind of skills to have. so this was not working. the house of representatives passed something called the skills act, which suited most of us in the senate on the republican side better because it eliminated more programs. it eliminated more mandates, gave more discretion to governors and decentralized the program. the senate passed a bill through our committee that we didn't like nearly as well because it still had too many of the washington rules and mandates in it. but senator isakson who is on the floor and senator murray from washington led a group of senators who worked with the house led by congressman klein and virginia fox and others, and we resolved our differences. and basically what we've done is we've moved a long way towards where the house of representatives was. and let me just be specific about what the bill does that i

think makes a difference. it eliminates 15 programs that were identified as ineffective or duplicative. it eliminates 21 federal mandates on state and local workforce board composition. in other words, we're saying to tennessee, which i think has 13 workforce boards, okay, we don't think we got a lot smarter flying to washington this morning. you can decide more about who's on your workforce board because we assume you know more about what's going on. it replaces multiple-state plans or multiple federal programs that have to be submitted to washington with a streamlined single-state plan that will reduce time spent on paperwork. we're going to spend $10 billion of the taxpayers' money, nearly 10, we ought to have some accountability, we ought to know what's happening. but we don't need everybody

spending more time filling out forms than they are helping people find jobs. this bill also streamlines reporting requirements and focuses on real outcomes such as job placement, retention, earnings credentials, employer satisfaction. the second broad thing the bill does, it supports local and state decision making and flexibility n. that sense it's like a block grant. it reinstates the authority of governors to reserve up to 15% of formula funds for innovative state and local programs. i like that. i used to be a governor. i used to think that the governor of our state -- and i still do -- knows more about how to make job training work in tennessee than anybody up here, because he's there, not here. so let him or her be in charge of a large part of that. it gives local workforce boards the freedom to transfer up to 100% of funds between the two largest formula programs serving adults and dislocated workers.

in other words, if the money we've allocated doesn't really fit holingwall, tennessee as well as new york city, then the local workforce board can transfer money from this program to that program. that just makes common sense. it gives states and local boards the ability to incentivize and reward performance. it allows individuals, people who want better jobs, people who want job training, people who are out of a job, it gives them a chance to choose the career and training service that best meets their needs and it empowers governors to recognize or consolidate local areas that are low-performing in order to better meet regional needs. finally, it tackles the accountability issue, which we all care about. it authorizes consistent

measures of quality. 5% reduction in funding for poor-performing. it requires the department of labor to conduct independent evaluations of programs at least once every four years. so, madam president, this is a good piece of work on the number-one subject in this country, whether you are a democrat or whether you are a republican. jobs is the issue. i.t. too harit's too hard to fi. it is too hard to create a job. i think we agree that matching the job skills to the job is a solution for millions of americans. and i believe -- and i suspect most of us believe -- that in the internet age especially that what we should be doing rather than mandating so many answers from here is that we should be

empowering governors and empowering local leaders on work councils to enable people who want a better job or a job at all to choose what they want to do and to do it. so in tennessee, goafn hasem will now have much more freedom and $145 million a year to spend on helping tennesseans get a better job at bridgestone or at the nissan plant or start their own -- start their own work. because we're enabling. we're empowering. we're not mandating. we're doing less telling. and from the taxpayers' point of view, we're waste ago lot -- we're avoiding the waste of a lot of money by avoiding duplications. i want to thank senators on both sides of the aisle for working together so well on this, particularly on our side of the aisle. i know senator harkin and

senator murray worked well with members. we appreciated their patience. but we had a number of republican senators whom senator eyisakson and i worked with. senator isakson was the majority leader of the georgia -- well, i guessest the minority leader of the republican senate. they scwhrus a few senators. but he's learned the skills of negotiation and compromise in order to get a result and still sticking to his conservative principles. liengdz to see that skill. and so he on our side of the aisle gets most of the credit for the result we're getting. right up with him is senator mike enzi of wyoming who worked on this -- senator enzi says -- for nearly 10 years. now that may seem hard to do, but this 3weu bill was supposede reauthorized after 2003 and this is 2014. so senator enzi brought it a long way and we're grateful to

him. in addition tin addition to thar scott from south carolina played a great role by picking up the skills act from the house and bringing it over to the united states senate and reminding us that we needed to get rid of this maze of regulatory problems and go as far in that direction as we could possibly go. senator scott has played major role in the passage of a very important piece of legislation. senator coburn i mentioned before, but we -- we all acknowledge that there's no one on either side of the aisle who is more relentless in looking for waste, fraud, duplication than senator coburn, and he put the spotlight through his work and the staff's work on the fact that 45 of our 47 workforce programs were duplicative and wasteful. that's not him saying that. that's the general accounting office saying that.

senators lee and flake worked with us and they'll be offering amendments today. senator portman made significant contributions to the legislation, and we thank him for that. senator hatch and senator mcconnell made important contributions. senator toomey and senator coats also did. and then there were a number of other senators who did something we'd like to see more of around here, and that is they didn't insist on every right they had. you know, we're a body that operates by unanimous consent and so we all insist an ow on ar rights, we don't have anything, which is where we find soirves sometimes. but there were a number of senators that had good ideas, that had proposals they'd to see adopted. many of those we were able to incorporate in the managers' amendment but then some we just couldn't and they stepped aside and they thought it was more important that we go ahead and come to a consensus an get a result. in conclusion, let me say that:

the other night the senator from georgia and i were at the home of the ambassador of australia to the united states. and he was talking about this body. you know, the australians love the united states and especially kim beasley you the ambassador. he is a labor party member. in our country, that would be called a democrat. he is a big pro--american, former minister in australia. and he was saying, you know, we envy the united states senate. it's the greatest tribunal in the world. we all wish we had it. it made us all stop and think, are we really living up to the respect for this body that people around the world have for the united states senate when it's operating the way it should? well today it's operating the way it should. a lot of the time i.t it's not,. not. how should it operate? the united states national is different because it is the

single body in the world -- legislative body -- that's designed for extended discussion of an important issue until it comes to a consensus, and then you cut off debate, and then you get a result, if it's possible. that's how you get a civil rights bill. that's how you get social security. that's how you get workforce investment act. extended discussion and debate and amendment and vote on an important issue, until you come to a consensus. why is it a consensus, which means 60 votes instead 561, most of the time? because you govern a complex country by consensus. you don't do it by order or edict or any part son way. so this is a very complicated bill. it will pass today probably by unanimous consent. but that's only because we've debated it for an extended period of time here and in the house, and we've come to a consensus about it. we've given up on a lot of ideas

that we had. if we had our way, we'd pass the skills act in a main. almost every single republican would. but that's not what the democrats would do. so we've come to an agreement, and we've come to an agreement with the house. that's the consensus. and, as a result of that, governors -- like the bipartisan policy council, former governors' council -- have praised this result. and i believe our governor in tennessee will be delight you had with t an it. and i think our former governor, who threw up his hands a few years ago, will welcome what we've done. my hope is that this is a disease that's infectious and that we see little bit more of this kind of legislationing in the united states senate. i thank the president. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. flake: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. knack flake i call up my amendment number -- mr. flake: i call up my amendment number 3379. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendment. the clerk: mr. flake proposes an amendment numbered 3379 to amendment number 3378. mr. flake: i ask consent that the reading of the amendment be

dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. flake: thank you, madam president. i'm pleased to have this opportunity to offer this amendment today. i appreciate my colleague, the ranking member of the help committee, for working with my office to make this possible. the workforce innovation and opportunity act that 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 on 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, the governor -- a governor can only take corrective action if a local area fails to meet performance accountability measures for three years in a row. that's a long period of time.

my amendment moves the time frame that a governor can get involved in failing programs lacking corrective actions from three years to one year. i think that makes sense certainly. simply put if training providers and one-stop providers are described as poor performers, the government will remove them from the list as eligible providers. this list is common sense. why should poor-performing programs continue to miss accountability measures for three years in a row before a governor can get involved and take creskt action? under this amendment, the governor can replace a local board if necessary after just one year, but that wouldn't be required. my hope is that if we're going to do these kind of things, if we're going to provide these funds, states and localities should work together to make these programs as successful and beneficial as possible.

i believe this amendment will provide an additional layer of oversight over these programs and i ask my colleagues to support this amendment. but shifting now from this specific amendment, i'd like to talk a little about the amendment process in general and the position we find ourselves in today in this body. at their core, amendments afforded on the floor serve as an opportunity to not only thoroughly debate an issue; we all know that legislation is often brought to the floor having only the benefit of input from just a few members. so amendments, what amendments do is provide individual senators a chance to change and often improve legislation. they are right in this body, not a privilege. i believe this fundamental process -- in this fundamental process so strongly that i've supported controversial cloture motions and other motions to proceed to underlying bills even if i didn't support that

legislation. but simply on good-ing faith assurances -- simply on good-faith assurances that amendments would be offered and that amendment debate would be allowed. even though i didn't support the bill as it stood, i would at least have the opportunity to make it better through an open legislative process. that's how i felt on a number of pieces of legislation that have moved through this body. unfortunately, many of these assurances were not met, and my fear is that this body will continue to pass legislation with little to no amendment consideration. now since last july, republicans have only had 11 roll call votes on amendments, including the two we'll see today. by comparison, in the other body house democrats have had over 160 votes on amendments during that same period. 160 for the minority party in

the house of representatives. that's more than 14 times the votes that senate republicans have had. as my good friend from kentucky pointed out earlier, representative sheila jackson-lee has single-handedly received more amendment votes than all senate republicans. given that she's had 15 votes on her amendments since last july in the house of representatives. now some who lionize this chamber -- and i'm one of those -- as the world's most deliberative body often take a dim view to the practice of the house. i'm not one of those, but this is supposed to be the more deliberative body with open amendments and open debate. they will cite with trepidation the restrictive and structured approach to debate in the house and with a shutter, the very fact that the house has the dreaded rules committee that picks and chooses which amendments will be offered. i can tell you from experience

when it comes to the ability to offer amendments, i now long for those days in the house. during my service in the senate -- i'm sorry, during my service in the house between the 107th and 112th congress, i personally offered -- this is offered. not filed but offered on the floor of the house of representatives. 239 amendments. in fact, in the last four congresses, i offered between 30 and 70 amendments per congress. now outside of the sheer volume, one could reasonably chuckle at my amendment batting average since very few of my amendments passed. but i actually had more amendments adopted in the past two congresses each than we've had roll call votes on republican amendments in the senate since july. under both republican and democratic leadership in the house, my right to offer amendments, particularly during

the appropriations process, were respected. they were respected by both parties even when i was offering dozens of earmark limitation amendments that most of my colleagues preferred not see the light of day. many of my colleagues here in the senate served with me in the house. they'll remember those times. nobody wanted to vote on these amendments. these earmark limitation amendments were not popular. they often did not get many votes. but, in fact, in all but one of the 140 earmark limitation amendments i offered, they failed. all but one. but i think we can all agree that joining with a small handful of my colleagues to spotlight precisely what was going on in these appropriations bills, ultimately aided in the current earmark moratorium that is enforced by both houses. that's a good thing.

while i prefer to have my amendments prevail, it certainly shouldn't be the test for whether i'm afforded the ability to offer them. unfortunately, in my short time in the senate, i filed 85 amendments to improve underlying legislation and to address issues faced by my constituents. it's worth noting that this will be my first amendment that will be voted on by my colleagues. during last year's ndaa consideration, i filed an amendment that would simply ask the d.o.d. to report on o.c.o. spending. it would require an accountability of o.c.o. funds, this is appropriated during fy 2013 and requested in 2014, and would have withheld 10% from the budget for the office of the secretary of defense until the report was received. this amendment isn't a fundamental policy change. it's simply a reporting requirement that all of us would benefit from. last week i filed 30 amendments to the minibus appropriations

bill, but not one is likely to see the light of day. with no disrespect to my colleagues and having served on the appropriations committee in the house myself, i think we can all agree that spending bills benefit from a good scrubbing by this entire body before they move through the legislative process. for example, one of those amendments would reduce the usda's single-family housing direct loan program from $560 million to $360 million, the same amount in the president's budget. i think most of us would be surprised to learn that the department of agriculture has a single-family housing direct loan program and that we're funding it to the tune of $560 million. the president wants to move that down to $360 million. i agree with the president. we ought to. at least we ought to be allowed to debate it and vote on it. this isn't an yowpt landish amendment -- an outlandish

amendment. it would reduce levels to the president's request and give this body the opportunity to discuss the merits of the program, more importantly. i know that some of my colleagues will disagree and will ultimately oppose many of these amendments and others if they come to a vote, and that's fine. what is not fine is the fact that the united states senate -- that we in the united states senate can't even have that debate. and to be clear, this is not just a republican concern. a recent article in "the hill" mentioned how my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are seemingly just as frustrated with the current amendment process. the article included a quote from a democratic senator who said -- quote -- "i've never been in a less productive time in my life than i'm in right now, in the united states senate." so apparently i should count myself lucky to get a roll call today on this amendment, because there are many on the other side of the aisle who haven't been afforded the same luxury.

both democrats and republicans are getting shut out of this process, and it's a very dangerous precedent. i urge my colleagues to encourage thoughtful, open debate from here on out, and i also encourage support for my commonsense reform to the accountability provisions of this legislation we are debating today. now, madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. isakson: madam president, i want to thank the senator from arizona for his input, and i want to acknowledge his remarks with regard to the amendment process. one of the reasons that we have a bill on the floor today, the workforce investment and opportunity act, is here is because it's one of the few bills where we've had a process in working towards the final passage where we've had a lot of amendments. this bill has a lot of input from a lot of people and we did that. the fact that he is having his first vote after offering 85 amendments is the testimony to

the fact that we ought to have more amendments, more debate on the floor. i want to thank the gentleman for his leadership, thank you as he brought this to us and continue to encourage him to offer amendments to work on legislation coming before the united states senate. and i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. isakson: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. isakson: i'd like to ask unanimous consent the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. isakson: could the chair inform us of the time remaining on both sides. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia controls 2 minutes. and the senator from connecticut controls 45 minutes. mr. isakson: madam president, i'd like to ask unanimous consent that the majority side yield an additional 10 minutes of their time to the minority side in order for senator portman to make his speech. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. isakson: i yield to senator portman. mr. portman: madam president, thank you. and i thank my colleague from georgia and appreciate his work on this legislation. i know that he and the senator from tennessee have been talking about the legislation earlier today, and i understand that senator alexander talked about some of the work we've done together to try to make sure that this legislation doesn't

just reauthorize an existing program but improves that program to give more focus on how to take our federal worker retraining program and make it work for america's workers at a critical time. we just learned that the economy in the first quarter grew even less than we had thought. i think it now has been readjusted to minus almost 3%, 2.9% growth. we've got big problems in terms of our economy and getting moving. one of the problems we have is we don't have the trained workers for the 21st century jobs that are out there. i rise today as the senate is on the verge of passing this first comprehensive reform of our nation's primary workforce development program in about 16 years to say i appreciate again the fact that members on both sides of the aisle have worked with me and others to put some reforms into this program to ensure that it works better for our workers and for our competitiveness rand our ability to -- and our ability to get this economy moving again. we do have this weak economy and sometimes we're sort of numb to it. we forget that this is not just

a typical recovery, it is a very slow recovery. in fact, by measures of growth in economy or unemployment or other measures, it's the weakest economic recovery we've had really since the great depression. we've become nurnlings i -- numr to the disappointing news. almost 20 million americans out of work, 317,000 of our friends and neighbors in ohio are unemployed and millions more have given up looking for work. the number of people who have given up looking for work is growing. it's a high percentage. those who have given up looking for work, you'd have to go back 34 years ago to the 1970's to find similar numbers of people, percentage of the workforce who are just not looking at all. for mendoza-martinez, it may go back to the 19 -- for men it may go back to the 1940's. we've got problems that can be solved in part by closing what's called the skills gap. there are a whole bunch of jobs

that are open but they can't be filled because people don't have the skills to take the jobs. you don't have to take my word for it. will i-am is someone i don't often quote on the floor, he's known for work with kids back in his hometown in ohio. a lot of that is focused unked skills training. during an event at the white house, he said, there are so many jobs in america we can't fill because people aren't brought up to speed with the skills needed. will i am is correct. yet we have these high levels of unemployment and all these people who have left the workforce toact. what's going on? part of it is we just don't have the skills to be able to fill the jobs. in owe he if you go on the jobs-ready web site, you will see 140,000 jobs being advertised.

yet we've got about 400,000 people out of work. a understand if you look at these -- and if you look at these jobs, a lot of them require advanced manufacturing skills, information technology skills, medical/bioscience skills for health workers. we've got do better in terms of filling the gap so american workers are able to meet the demands of the 21st century. there is a skills gap report by the manufacturing institute that kim out recently. it said based on a poll that 74% of manufacturers, 74% are experiencing workforce shortages or skill deficiencies that keep them from expanding their operations and improving productivity. 74% say we're looking for better skills to be able to fill these jobs. we can do so much better than we are . for too many americans the only jobs available are those they don't have the skills and qualifications to be able to fill. so the federal government spends a lot of money on this. this is not for lack of sphundz funds.

the federal government spends billions a year on programs. there are 47 different programs spread over nine different departments and agencies. we need to do more. but in the meanwhile, let's do what we can. that's what this legislation z the government accounting of course, the g.a.o., which looks at all the federal agencies, decides how they're do they spent a lot of time looking at this. they have said that some of that money, the $18 billion i talked about, to r. ouc up to $18 battt does provide the funding for these 47 different programs, are not working well. they say 45 of the programs, 45 of the 47 overlap. only five -- they conducted an impact study of their efforts since 2004, meaning the outcome or performance measures you would expect are not being done. only five conducted an impact study since 2004.

g.a.o. said, "little is known about the effectiveness of most of these programs." but i think we do know something about the effectiveness because these millions of unfilled jobs are an indictment of the programs. we should be doing a better job getting the skills to fill these jobs if we're spending $18 billion of taxpayers' money on it. i hear the stories across ohio. i hear it from workers, businesses, educators. people are frustrated and there's good reason for it. i think the way that washington has handled workforce development is inefficient, not working well. i think it is unfair to employers who have open positions because they can't find qualified candidates to fill them. it is certainly unfair to taxpayers who send their money to washington believing their government will be good steward of those funds and we're going to use it effectively for worker retraining, getting it in the hands of people. i think it is unfair for the millions of americans who would like to build a better life for their families and yet find that

federal resourcesources allocato them aren't getting the job dofnlt because we believe we can do better, this congress is is going to act today -- the senate and the house are working on this issue. it is bicamera, bipartisan. i joined with senator michael bennet of colorado on what's called the career act and the career act is included in most part in this legislation. the career act first calls for a reduction in the wasteful and inefficient overlap we talked about in the system. i am pleased to seat legislation before us today trims 15 programs from our nation's workforce development program. i think i this is a good stamplt start. i also think we can do more. we need to consolidate further. we called for an increased focus on helping employees attain a leg up. i'm pleased this bill requires our provisions that require workforce investment boards give consideration to programs that lead to recredentials that are in demand in their local areas.

we worked hard to include a provision to require specific strategies for helping folks attain high-quality credentials, industry-recognized credentials in demand, portabl portable, meg they can move from state to state and hem them move up the ladder. these credentials are critical. we call for an innovative system called pay for success. the workforce development programs provide funding regardless of performance, so long as certain rules are required, where input requirements are met, not output but input. this has resulted in the accountability that the g.a.o. talked about. pay for success is an approach that turns this model on its head by linking payments to outcomes, to actual performance measures. job training service providers who do well will be rewarded. those who fail to deliver results will be held

accountable. i am pleased that this underlying legislation, workforce innovation and opportunity act before us today includes these pay-for success provisions that allow investment boards to use their formula funds to engage in pay-for-success contracts. again, a step in the right direction. i would like to go even tburt, but further,but this is histori. we call for access to better data to make it less difficult and expensive for state and local officials to assess the effectiveness of that's training. this legislation includes the provision for a study how to access better data that can help the system deliver better results for taxpayers and the unemployed. that's part of the career afnlgt these four reforms can help change lives and turn around our economy. they're the kind of reforms that can empower millions of americans to get the kind of jobs that do fund retirements, that do buy homes, pay for college educations and these reforms in my sue are long overdue. we live in a dynamic, ever-changing economy. no question about it. we have got to be sure that our

workforce is also dynamic and ever-changing. we shouldn't be held back by workforce development system that hasn't been reauthorized since 1998. that's the year that google was first incorporated as a k i strongly support the underlying legislation. i commend my colleagues on both sides of the ievment i see some of them here on the floor for their work. i thank them for working with senator michael bennet and myself to incorporate some of the bipartisan career act provisions at a time when the two parties in washington have been at odds on how to get our commit moving again. that is jocks bill that's a win-win. it is a win for everyone especially those americans who are still looking for a job and those businesses who are des rat to fill the skills gap that they -- the skills gap that they see. thank you, madam president. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. reed: thank you, madam president. i rise in strong support of the workforce innovation and opportunity act. this legislation represents a

long overdue upgride our workforce investment system and i want to commend the department work of chairman harkin, senator murray, senator alex aen h alex. that will move our job training and adult education system fired. the snead to improve our investment system has crystallized during this recovery from the great recession. my home state of rhode island continues to struggle with high unemployment. the highest rate in the nation. many of our unemployed workers have been out of work for an sterchedded period of time. yelt employers tell knee they have open positions that they cannot fill because they cannot find the workers with the skills that they need today. the workforce innovation and opportunity act takes important steps to help address the skills mismatch that keeps jobs open and potential workers unemployed. the workforce innovation and opportunity act streamlines the

current workforce development system by requiring a single comprehensive plan that incorporates all of the core programs and is aligned with the economic development plan for the state. a-it also establishes shared performance metrics that apply it all of the programs in the system. in other words, it makes sure that employers, educators, and the workforce system are all on the same paifnlgt the legislation before us today makes some tough choices, eliminating 15 programs. however, it also maintains and strengthens vital national programmers such as job core and youth which have made a difnlings for so many young people in rhode island and across the nation. i'm particularly 34r50e6d that the workforce innovation and opportunity act strengthens the partnership between the workforce investment system and our public libraries. libraries are where people go when they need help or information. they are a critical part of the delivery system for adult

education and job training. in skill year 2011, the astronaut of museum and library services reported that there are 1.52 billion visits to public libraries across the nation. senator cochran and i introduced the workforce investment through local libraries act to harness the potential of public libraries to expand the reach of the workforce investment system and ensure that job seekers and adult learners had the opportunity to develop the critical digital skills necessary for today's economy. the workforce innovation and opportunity act includes many of the provisions of this legislation. and i was very pleased to work with senator cochran and great gratitude towards senator alexander, isakson, snare harkin and senator murray for incorporating some of our ideas. the workforce innovation and opportunity act also strengthens

adult education. it includes many of the provisions of the adult education and economic growth act that i introduced with senator brown. for 2012, data from the program for the international assessment of adult competencies show that an estimated 52% of adults aged 16-65 in the united states lacked the literacy skills necessary to identify, interpret, or evaluate one or more pieces of information. these are critical skills for postsecondary education and the workplace. the workforce innovation and opportunity act will help address this crit icle need for adult education and literacy by ensuring that adult education programs are aligned with job training and postsecondary education, supporting the professional development of adult educators, offering technical assistance for adult education providers, and strengthening the research and evaluation of best practices in adult education. the workforce innovation and

opportunity act is an example of what is possible when we work together to solve problems and strengthen the tools available to our communities to improve the quality of life. we have libraries, we have adult education programs throughout this country, and what i think the response to this -- the sponsors of this legislation have done so creatively is pull them together. the sum of the parts is much greater and have a greater impact one the employment opportunity for americans and our productivity as nation. in that regard, madam president, i'd like to discuss for a moment a new bipartisan bill that i've introduced with senator heller to restore emergency benefits for jobless for five amongsts. what we've done here is address the issue of training. but we still have an issue of people who are desperately lookinlooking for work, need the assistance of the unemployment benefits to do that. this legislation, i think, will help us make the case because

one of the legitimate rngs that were raised with respect to extension of benefits as well, we don't have the job training programs, so we're not preparing people for jobs. that's what we should be doing. well, this bill goes a long way to do that. and i think it helps us in trying to make the case. as you know, in april we voted on a bipartisan basis to send the bill to the house. unfortunately, it languished there and then ultimately the time expired. our new bipartisan plan would provide perspective -- prospective emergency benefits, just going forward for those eligible job seekers who lost their benefits on december 28. they would essential politic up where they were on december 28. this is something that hand in hand with this new job training bill will give people both additional advantages of training but resources to make it through the training period,

pay the rent, have a cell phone so you can ask and call for a job, do those things necessary to get by. it again is fiscally responsible. it was offset and we're waiting for an official score from c.b.o. but our intention is to make it a bill that's scali responsible. 3.1 million americans have lost these benefits, 72,000 a week. we can do better, we must do better. now, we're doing a lot to try to get people back to work and i again commend the authors of this legislation. it is an important step forward. because as so many of my colleagues have noticed, one of the things that's amazing in this recession and i've mentioned it previously, is to go into rhode island to companies where you have unemployment rate of 8% and have the owners say they're desperately looking for four or five workers, can't find them. why is that? well, the skills that 20 years ag g