Accelerating Individuals into the Workforce Act

Summary: Accelerating Individuals into the Workforce Act  (Sec. 2) This bill amends part A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF) of title IV of the Social Security Act to direct the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to make grants to states to conduct demonstration projects designed to implement and evaluate strategies that provide wage subsidies to enable low-income individuals to enter into and retain employment. A state may use a grant to subsidize a recipient's wages for only 12 months and for no more than 50% of the wages received. An eligible recipient of such a subsidy may be either a TANF recipient or a noncustodial parent of a minor child receiving TANF assistance, but must also be unemployed and have an income less than 200% of the poverty line. A state must ensure that a subsidy recipient does not displace an individual on layoff or an employee whose employment has been terminated to make a vacancy for the subsidy recipient. A state must also establish a grievance procedure for resolving complaints of alleged violations of this nondisplacement requirement. HHS shall reserve specified funds for FY2017 to carry out this program, 15% of which must fund programs offering career pathway training services under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. (Career pathways programs combine education, training, and other services aligned with the skill needs of industries in the economy of the state or regional economy involved in order to help an individual enter or advance within a specific occupation or occupational cluster.)

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Accelerating Individuals into the 
Workforce Act''.

SEC. 2. DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS TO SUPPORT SUBSIDIZED EMPLOYMENT FOR 
              TANF RECIPIENTS.

    Section 403 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 603) is amended 
by adding at the end the following:
    ``(c) Subsidized Employment Demonstration Projects.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Secretary shall make grants to 
        States to conduct demonstration projects designed to implement 
        and evaluate strategies that provide wage subsidies to enable 
        low-income individuals to enter into and retain employment.
            ``(2) Application requirements.--The Secretary shall 
        require each State that applies for a grant under this 
        subsection to do the following:
                    ``(A) Describe how wage subsidies will be provided 
                (such as whether paid directly to the employer or the 
                individual), the duration of the subsidies, the amount 
                of the subsidies, the structure of the subsidies, and 
                how employers will be recruited to participate in the 
                subsidized employment program.
                    ``(B) Describe how the State expects those 
                participating in subsidized employment to be able to 
                retain employment after the subsidy ends.
                    ``(C) Describe how the State will coordinate 
                subsidized employment funded under this subsection with 
                other efforts to help low-income individuals enter work 
                as conducted by the State.
            ``(3) Use of funds.--
                    ``(A) In general.--A State to which a grant is made 
                under this subsection may use the grant to subsidize 
                the wages of an eligible recipient for a period not 
                exceeding 12 months, and only to the extent that the 
                total of the funds paid under this project and any 
                other Federal funds so used with respect to the 
                recipient does not exceed 50 percent of the amount of 
                the wages received by the recipient during the period.
                    ``(B) Eligible recipient.--For purposes of 
                subparagraph (A), an eligible recipient is--
                            ``(i)(I) a recipient of assistance under 
                        the State program funded under this part or any 
                        other State program funded with qualified State 
                        expenditures (as defined in section 
                        409(a)(7)(B)(i)); or
                            ``(II) a noncustodial parent of a minor 
                        child who is receiving assistance referred to 
                        in subclause (I);
                            ``(ii) who, at the time the subsidy begins, 
                        is unemployed; and
                            ``(iii) whose income, at that time, is less 
                        than 200 percent of the poverty line (as 
                        defined by the Office of Management and Budget, 
                        and revised annually in accordance with section 
                        673(2) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 
                        of 1981 (42 U.S.C. 9902(2))).
            ``(4) Limitations.--
                    ``(A) Nondisplacement.--A State to which a grant is 
                made under this subsection shall ensure that no 
                participant in a subsidized job program funded in whole 
                or in part under this subsection is employed or 
                assigned to a job under the program--
                            ``(i) when any other individual is on 
                        layoff from the same or any substantially 
                        equivalent job; or
                            ``(ii) if the employer has terminated the 
                        employment of any regular employee or otherwise 
                        caused an involuntary reduction of its 
                        workforce in order to fill the vacancy so 
                        created with an adult described in paragraph 
                        (1).
                    ``(B) Grievance procedure.--A State with a program 
                funded under this subsection shall establish and 
                maintain a grievance procedure for resolving complaints 
                of alleged violations of subparagraph (A).
                    ``(C) No preemption.--Nothing in this paragraph 
                shall preempt or supersede any provision of State or 
                local law that provides greater protection for 
                employees from displacement.
            ``(5) Reports.--As a condition of receiving funds under 
        this subsection for a fiscal year, a State shall submit to the 
        Secretary, within 6 months after the end of the fiscal year, a 
        report that--
                    ``(A) specifies, for each month of the fiscal year, 
                the number of individuals whose employment is 
                subsidized with these funds;
                    ``(B) describes the structure of the State 
                activities to use the funds to subsidize employment, 
                including the amount and duration of the subsidies 
                provided;
                    ``(C) specifies the percentage of eligible 
                recipients who received a subsidy who are in 
                unsubsidized employment during the 2nd quarter after 
                the subsidy ended;
                    ``(D) specifies the percentage of eligible 
                recipients who received a subsidy who are in 
                unsubsidized employment during the 4th quarter after 
                the subsidy ended; and
                    ``(E) specifies the median earnings of eligible 
                recipients who received a subsidy who are in 
                unsubsidized employment during the 2nd quarter after 
                the subsidy ended.
            ``(6) Evaluation.--The Secretary, in consultation with each 
        State conducting a demonstration project, shall conduct a high-
        quality evaluation of the demonstration project, and may 
        reserve funds made available under this subsection to conduct 
        the evaluation in accordance with the following:
                    ``(A) Evaluator qualifications.--The Secretary may 
                not enter into a contract with an evaluator unless the 
                evaluator has demonstrated experience in conducting 
                rigorous evaluations of program effectiveness 
                including, where available and appropriate, well-
                implemented randomized controlled trials.
                    ``(B) Methodologies to be used.--The evaluation of 
                a demonstration project shall use experimental designs 
                using random assignment or other reliable, evidence-
                based research methodologies that allow for the 
                strongest possible causal inferences when random 
                assignment is not feasible.
                    ``(C) Public disclosure.--The Secretary shall 
                publish the results of the evaluation on the website of 
                the Department of Health and Human Services in a 
                location easily accessible by the public.
            ``(7) Recommendations to congress.--The Secretary shall 
        submit recommendations to the Congress on how to increase the 
        employment, retention, and advancement of individuals currently 
        or formerly receiving assistance under a State program funded 
        under this part or any other State program funded with 
        qualified State expenditures (as defined in section 
        409(a)(7)(B)(i)).
            ``(8) Funding.--Of the amounts made available to carry out 
        subsection (b) for fiscal year 2017, the Secretary shall 
        reserve $100,000,000 to carry out this subsection.
            ``(9) Use of certain funds for career pathways programs.--
        The Secretary shall use 15 percent of the amounts reserved to 
        carry out this subsection, to fund programs that offer career 
        pathway (as defined in section 3(7) of the Workforce Innovation 
        and Opportunity Act) services.
            ``(10) Availability of funds.--Funds provided to a State 
        under this subsection in a fiscal year shall be expended by the 
        State in the fiscal year or in the succeeding fiscal year.''.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendment made by this Act shall take effect on October 1, 
2016.