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HELPING AMERICANS GET BACK TO WORK: 

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WORKFORCE 

INNOVATION AND OPPORTUNITY ACT 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND 

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT 

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION 

AND THE WORKFORCE 

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, JUNE 15, 2017 

Serial No. 115–19 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and the Workforce 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: 

www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/committee.action?chamber=house&committee=education 

or 

Committee address: http://edworkforce.house.gov 

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(II) 

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE 

VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina, Chairwoman 

Joe Wilson, South Carolina 

Duncan Hunter, California 

David P. Roe, Tennessee 

Glenn ‘‘GT’’ Thompson, Pennsylvania 

Tim Walberg, Michigan 

Brett Guthrie, Kentucky 

Todd Rokita, Indiana 

Lou Barletta, Pennsylvania 

Luke Messer, Indiana 

Bradley Byrne, Alabama 

David Brat, Virginia 

Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin 

Elise Stefanik, New York 

Rick W. Allen, Georgia 

Jason Lewis, Minnesota 

Francis Rooney, Florida 

Paul Mitchell, Michigan 

Tom Garrett, Jr., Virginia 

Lloyd K. Smucker, Pennsylvania 

A. Drew Ferguson, IV, Georgia 

Ron Estes, Kansas 

Robert C. ‘‘Bobby’’ Scott, Virginia 

Ranking Member 

Susan A. Davis, California 

Rau ́l M. Grijalva, Arizona 

Joe Courtney, Connecticut 

Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio 

Jared Polis, Colorado 

Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, 

Northern Mariana Islands 

Frederica S. Wilson, Florida 

Suzanne Bonamici, Oregon 

Mark Takano, California 

Alma S. Adams, North Carolina 

Mark DeSaulnier, California 

Donald Norcross, New Jersey 

Lisa Blunt Rochester, Delaware 

Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois 

Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire 

Adriano Espaillat, New York 

Brandon Renz, Staff Director 

Denise Forte, Minority Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE 

DEVELOPMENT 

BRETT GUTHRIE, Kentucky, Chairman 

Glenn ‘‘GT’’ Thompson, Pennsylvania 

Lou Barletta, Pennsylvania 

Luke Messer, Indiana 

Bradley Byrne, Alabama 

Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin 

Elise Stefanik, New York 

Rick W. Allen, Georgia 

Jason Lewis, Minnesota 

Paul Mitchell, Michigan 

Tom Garrett, Jr., Virginia 

Lloyd K. Smucker, Pennsylvania 

Ron Estes, Kansas 

Susan A. Davis, California 

Ranking Member 

Joe Courtney, Connecticut 

Alma S. Adams, North Carolina 

Mark DeSaulnier, California 

Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois 

Jared Polis, Colorado 

Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, 

Northern Mariana Islands 

Mark Takano, California 

Lisa Blunt Rochester, Delaware 

Adriano Espaillat, New York 

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(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Hearing held on June 15, 2017 ............................................................................... 1 

Statement of Members: 

Davis, Hon. Susan A., Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development ............................................................. 4 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 6 

Guthrie, Hon. Brett, Chairman, Subcommittee on Higher Education and 

Workforce Development ................................................................................ 1 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 4 

Wilson, Hon. Joe, a Representative in Congress from the State of South 

Carolina ......................................................................................................... 8 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 9 

Statement of Witnesses: 

Berlin, Mr. Heath, Information Insurance Manager, Naval Healthcare 

Clinic .............................................................................................................. 17 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 19 

Dubin, Mr. Louis, Chairman, Governor’s Workforce Development Board, 

State of Maryland ......................................................................................... 29 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 31 

Paczynski, Ms. Michelle, Deputy Assistant Director for Workforce and 

Economic Development, South Carolina Department of Employment 

and Workforce ............................................................................................... 10 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 11 

Painter, Mr. Ron, President and CEO of the National Association of 

Workforce Boards .......................................................................................... 22 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 24 

Additional Submissions: 

Blunt Rochester, Hon. Lisa, a Representative in Congress from the State 

of Delaware: 

Letter dated June 12, 2017 from the Council of State Administrators 

of Vocational Rehabilitation .................................................................. 62 

Bonamici, Hon. Suzanne, a Representative in Congress from the State 

of Oregon: 

Letter to House and Senate Appropriations Committees on FY 2018 .. 65 

Courtney, Hon. Joe, a Representative in Congress from the State of 

Connecticut: 

Slide: WIOA in Eastern Connecticut ....................................................... 7 

Espaillat, Hon. Adriano, a Representative in Congress from the State 

of New York: 

Letter from Campaign for Youth ............................................................. 74 

Ms. Paczynski: 

Article: With Dropping Unemployment, SC Workforce Agency Elevates Focus on People with Barriers to Work ..................................... 77 

Smucker, Hon. Lloyd K., a Representative in Congress from the State 

of Pennsylvania: 

Letter dated June 29, 2017 from Opportunity Village ........................... 108 

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(1) 

HELPING AMERICANS GET BACK TO WORK: 

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WORKFORCE 

INNOVATION AND OPPORTUNITY ACT 

Thursday, June 15, 2017 

House of Representatives 

Committee on Education and the Workforce, 

Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development 

Washington, D.C. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:07 a.m., in Room 

2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Brett Guthrie [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Guthrie, Thompson, Barletta, Messer, 

Byrne, Grothman, Stefanik, Allen, Mitchell, Smucker, Davis, 

Courtney, DeSaulnier, Krishnamoorthi, Polis, Sablan, Takano, 

Blunt Rochester, and Espaillat. 

Also Present: Representatives Foxx, Scott, Wilson of South Carolina, and Bonamici. 

Staff Present: Caitlin Burke, Legislative Assistant; Courtney 

Butcher, Director of Member Services and Coalitions; Amy Raaf 

Jones, Director of Education and Human Resources Policy; Nancy 

Locke, Chief Clerk; Kelley McNabb, Communications Director; 

James Mullen, Director of Information Technology; Krisann Pearce, 

General Counsel; Lauren Reddington, Deputy Press Secretary; 

James Redstone, Professional Staff Member; Mandy Schaumburg, 

Education Deputy Director and Senior Counsel; Emily Slack, Professional Staff Member; Michael Woeste, Press Secretary; Tylease 

Alli, Minority Clerk/Intern and Fellow Coordinator; Austin 

Barbera, Minority Press Assistant; Denise Forte, Minority Staff Director; Mishawn Freeman, Minority Staff Assistant; Eunice Ikene, 

Minority Labor Policy Advisor; Kimberly Knackstedt, Minority Disability Policy Advisor; Kevin McDermott, Minority Senior Labor 

Policy Advisor; Udochi Onwubiko, Minority Labor Policy Counsel; 

and Veronique Pluviose, Minority General Counsel. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. A quorum being present, he Subcommittee 

on Higher Education and Workforce Development will come to 

order. I will first yield to Chairman Foxx for 1 minute for an opening statement. 

Ms. FOXX. Thank you very much, Mr. Guthrie. I thank all of you 

for being here. This hearing is incredibly important for all of us as 

we look to see if the improvements to our workforce development 

system that we intended with WIOA are actually coming to pass. 

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2 

We are all here because we want to help Americans access all the 

resources they need to get back to work. 

This morning President Trump will sign an executive order 

aimed at promoting apprenticeships and skill-focused education. I 

love that term and I think it is a great way to refer to what we 

are doing. And it is a kind of focus that students and workers have 

needed from the White House for a long time. 

In just a few minutes I am going to excuse myself so I can go 

tell President Trump on behalf of this entire committee that we 

welcome his interest and his efforts to build a better workforce. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for yielding. I very much look forward 

to reviewing the findings of the hearings. 

And I yield back. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you, Chairman Foxx. I appreciate 

that. Now I yield to Ranking Member Scott for 1 minute. 

Mr. SCOTT. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want 

to thank you and Ranking Member Davis for convening today’s 

hearing. I think the conversation around changes that WIOA have 

made in our Nation’s workforce development system in preparing 

Americans for high-skill jobs is a critical one. Today Chairwoman 

Foxx and I will be witnessing the President; We expect him to sign 

the executive order on apprenticeships. We know that registered 

apprenticeship programs are proven on-the-job training models. 

They allow workers to earn while they learn, but when we send 

Federal dollars to promote and expand new apprenticeships we 

need to have accountability. And that is why I am hoping that we 

will not change the registration process. Federal dollars for apprenticeship programs now go to registered apprenticeship programs. 

You know what you get when you graduate, they are transferrable; 

other employers know what you can do and what you cannot do. 

If it is unregistered it is going to be difficult to get some kind of 

accountability. 

The Department of Labor and 25 State apprenticeship agencies 

establish a baseline for labor standards in the registered programs. 

So I hope today’s announcement will not undercut the proven 

model. And while I cannot stay to hear the witnesses’ testimony, 

I hope that part of this conversation they can tell about registered 

apprenticeship programs and how important they are and how they 

are aligned with WIOA. And I hope we can also discuss the dangers of allowing Federal funding to go to unregistered programs. 

But I think hopefully we can work this out because there is a 

strong consensus that apprenticeship programs are extremely invaluable to young people trying to get good high-skill jobs. 

So, Mr. Chair, thank you very much and I look forward to working with you. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. 

I now recognize myself for opening comments and welcome everyone to today’s subcommittee hearing. I would like to thank our 

panel of witnesses and my colleagues for joining today’s important 

discussion on the implementation of Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, WIOA. 

It has been almost 3 years since the bipartisan Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act was signed into law and now it is time 

for Congress to explore whether or not the included reforms are 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

3 

being turned into action. Prior to the passage of WIOA, the Federal 

Government had over 47 separate but overlapping employment 

education programs across 9 different Federal agencies. To make 

matters worse, most of the programs targeted similar populations 

and provided similar services. Additionally, the report also found 

that only five of the programs had been evaluated for effectiveness 

and their success rate in helping unemployed and underemployed 

workers find employment. These programs were textbook cases of 

how the Federal Government can create a web of well-intentioned 

programs that are not serving the needs of the very Americans for 

whom the services are designed. As a result, congressional action 

was needed to fix these programs so American workers could succeed in a recovering economy. 

The bipartisan passage of WIOA streamlined the confusing maze 

of workforce development programs, decreased administrative overhead, required better coordination for adult unemployed and youth 

programs, and increased accountability for the use of taxpayer 

funds. 

I am proud to say that so many members of this committee, including Chairwoman Foxx, played an instrumental role in creating 

the final version of WIOA that was signed into law. Congress answered the call for workforce education and development reforms, 

but has faced an uphill climb in getting those reforms implemented 

on the State and local level. Despite the overwhelming support for 

the passage of WIOA it faced significant implementation delays 

during the previous administration. For example, the Department 

of Labor missed key deadlines when issuing guidance to State and 

local leaders. According to the Government Accountability Office 

these delays made it difficult to carry out many of WIOA’s strategic 

priorities. While we have a new administration the need for congressional oversight is still essential to ensure a timely and proper 

implementation of WIOA. 

Our conversation today could not be timelier as President Trump 

announces new measures to strengthen our Nation’s workforce, 

education, and development programs. While the President’s executive actions are encouraging, the implementation of WIOA and congressional action to reauthorize Federal support for career and 

technical education can provide a lasting improvement to how our 

citizens found success through workforce development education. 

Our witnesses before us are some of the best stores of WIOA’s 

success and I look forward to hearing their stories throughout today’s hearing. Their testimony will only further emphasize the 

need for Federal entities to implement the reforms put forth in 

WIOA as Congress intended. Congress has provided the necessary 

statutory reforms to our workforce education and development programs and now, more than ever, it is important we deliver on implementation ensuring that American workers are being given the 

skills they need to thrive in the 21st century economy. 

I will now yield to my distinguished colleague and this subcommittee’s ranking member, Susan Davis, for her opening remarks. 

[The statement of Chairman Guthrie follows:] 

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4 

Prepared Statement of Hon. Brett Guthrie, Chairman, Subcommittee on 

Higher Education and Workforce Development 

Good morning, and welcome to today’s subcommittee hearing. I’d like to thank our 

panel of witnesses and my colleagues for joining today’s important discussion on the 

implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). 

It has been almost three years since the bipartisan Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act was signed into law, and now it is time for Congress to explore whether or not the included reforms are being turned into action. 

Prior to the passage of WIOA, the federal government had over 47 separate but 

overlapping employment education programs across nine different federal agencies. 

To make matters worse, most of the programs targeted similar populations and provided similar services. Additionally, the report also found that only five of the programs had been evaluated for effectiveness and their success rate in helping unemployed and underemployed workers find employment. 

These programs were textbook cases of how the federal government can create a 

web of well-intentioned programs that are not serving the needs of the very Americans for whom the services are designed. As a result, Congressional action was 

needed to fix these programs so American workers could succeed in a recovery economy. 

The bipartisan passage of WIOA streamlined the confusing maze of workforce development programs; decreased administrative overhead; required better coordination for adult, unemployed, and youth programs; and increased accountability for 

the use of taxpayer funds. 

I am proud to say that so many members of this committee, including Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, played an instrumental role in creating the final version of 

WIOA that was signed into law. 

Congress answered the call for workforce education and development reforms, but 

has faced an uphill climb in getting these reforms implemented on the state and 

local level. 

Despite the overwhelming support for the passage of WIOA, it faced significant 

implementation delays during the Obama Administration. 

For example, the Department of Labor missed key deadlines when issuing guidance to state and local leaders. According to the Government Accountability Office, 

these delays made it difficult to carry out many of WIOA’s strategic priorities. 

While we have a new administration, the need for congressional oversight is still 

essential to ensure a timely and proper implementation of WIOA. 

Our conversation today could not be timelier as President Trump announces new 

measures to strengthen our nation’s workforce education and development programs. 

While the president’s executive actions are encouraging, the implementation of 

WIOA and congressional action to reauthorize federal support for career and technical education can provide a lasting improvement to how our citizens find success 

through workforce development and education programs. 

Our witnesses before us are some of the best stories of WIOA’s success, and I look 

forward to hearing their stories throughout today’s hearing. 

Their testimony will only further emphasize the need for federal entities to implement the reforms put forth in WIOA as Congress intended. 

Congress has provided the necessary statutory reforms to our workforce education 

and development programs, and now more than ever, it is important we deliver on 

implementation, ensuring that American workers are being given the skills they 

need to thrive in the Twenty-First Century economy. 

Ms. DAVIS. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Guthrie. I appreciate your convening this important hearing and want to thank all 

of our witnesses for being here. I also just want at the outset to 

express my prayers and my concerns for the victims and their families and we wish them a full recovery in the events of yesterday. 

Today’s hearing is focused on the implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, what we know as WIOA. 

This landmark bipartisan bill that chairman just spoke of, whose 

primary author is the distinguished chairwoman of our committee, 

Dr. Foxx, was signed by President Obama nearly 3 years ago. I was 

certainly proud to be among the 400 House members who supCEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

5 

ported WIOA, and I know for those members of this committee who 

were here, I know that they are proud of that as well, and proud 

because it sought to help workers, to benefit businesses, revitalize 

our economy, and strengthen the middle class. 

Specifically, WIOA sought to ensure working people of all ages 

and all abilities could get the training and the skills they need to 

obtain well-paying jobs. It also sought to ensure employers, that 

they could hire a skilled workforce so our country can compete in 

the global economy. 

In my district the workforce system has become an incubator for 

developing innovative training programs for young people. Tech 

sector industry leaders, the workforce system, and educators are 

coming together to develop programs where young people emerge 

with life-enhancing productive skills sought in the marketplace. 

WIOA encourages and even demands that these groups come together to meet the needs of an ever-changing economy. 

The reality is that as budgets are cut, the first programs to go 

are the newest and the most forward-thinking. The innovation that 

WIOA is fostering could be halted, preventing the expansion of 

these partnerships. 

So, Mr. Chairman, fulfilling an innovative vision of our workforce 

becomes even more challenging, challenging when you consider the 

cuts put forth in the President’s proposed budget. These cuts would 

undermine the progress and advancements our workforce system 

has made in the past few years. As you will see on the screen, and 

we are going to put up some numbers [laughter]—well, we always 

worry about the tech at the time that you need it, right? 

Well, hopefully that will get up there. The President proposed 

funding cuts for the youth, for the adult training, dislocated workers and adult education formula funds for each of our home States 

by about 40 percent, cuts by about 40 percent from current funding 

levels for all of those programs. In all, the President’s budget proposed a staggering $1 billion in cuts to these programs. And now 

that is on the screen, what it indicates for many of the members 

their home State, not their home district, but for their home State, 

the cuts in the four different programs. 

More importantly, we have not yet had a full year of WIOA implementation data to analyze. It is unthinkable to consider cutting 

critical programs without giving them a chance to become established and successful in our communities. Modernizing our Nation’s 

workforce system is critical. Researchers estimate that at our Nation’s current rates of training and educating, the United States 

will face a shortage of 5 million skilled, educated workers by 2020. 

And by 2020, 65 percent of all jobs will require some form of postsecondary degree or credential. 

So in this hearing I hope we can take a close look at how our 

workforce systems have improved since WIOA. But also, I hope to 

hear how we can build upon these successes and surmount any 

challenges, because together we must ensure that WIOA fulfills its 

goals of improving the quality of job training programs and aligning training to real-world labor market needs. In particular, we 

must be sure to empower people with disabilities, disconnected 

youth, and dislocated workers who have faced barriers to entering 

our workforce systems for far too long. 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

6 

In the weeks and months ahead, I am hopeful that Congress will 

reject the President’s proposed cuts to job training programs and 

make the right investments in our Nation’s workforce development 

system. But we should not stop there. We should be working together on a bipartisan basis, just like we did with WIOA, to help 

workers get ahead, to make college more affordable and accessible, 

and restore balance to the economy so all Americans can provide 

a better future for their families. 

Thank you very much, Chairman Guthrie, for convening today’s 

hearing and all the witnesses, again, for taking time out to be with 

us today. Thank you. 

[The statement of Mrs. Davis follows:] 

Prepared Statement of Hon. Susan A. Davis, Ranking Member, 

Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development 

Thank you, Chairman Guthrie. I appreciate you convening this important hearing, 

and I want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today. 

Today’s hearing is focused on the implementation of the Workforce Innovation and 

Opportunity Act – or WIOA. This landmark bipartisan law, whose primary author 

is the distinguished Chairwoman of our Committee, Dr. Foxx, was signed by President Obama nearly three years ago. 

I was proud to be among the 400 House Members who supported WIOA when it 

passed because it sought to help workers, benefit businesses, revitalize our economy, 

and strengthen the middle class. Specifically, WIOA sought to ensure working people of all ages and all abilities could get the training and skills they need to obtain 

well-paying jobs. It also sought to ensure employers could hire a skilled workforce 

so our country can compete in the global economy. 

In my district the workforce system has become an incubator for developing innovative training programs for young people. Tech sector industry leaders, the workforce system and educators are coming together to develop programs where young 

people emerge with amazing skills. 

WIOA encourages and even demands that these groups come together to meet the 

needs of an ever changing economy. The reality is that as budgets are cut, the first 

programs to go are the newest and most forward-thinking. The innovation that 

WIOA is fostering will be halted, preventing the expansion of these partnerships. 

Mr. Chairman, fulfilling an innovative vision of our workforce becomes even more 

challenging when you consider the cuts put forth in the President’s proposed budget. 

These cuts would undermine the progress and advancements our workforce system 

has made in the past few years. 

[INTERNAL NOTE: Please pause to allow for power point slide to be projected 

on to the Committee hearing room’s screen.] 

[Additional submission by Mr. Courtney follows:] 

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Insert offset folio 66 here 25713.066
8 

As you’ll see on the screen, the President proposed funding cuts for the youth, 

adult training, dislocated workers, and adult education formula funds for each of 

our home states by about 40 percent from current funding levels. In all, the President’s budget proposed a staggering $1 billion in cuts to these programs. 

More importantly, we have not yet had a full year of WIOA implementation data 

to analyze. It is unthinkable to consider cutting critical programs without giving 

them a chance to become established and successful in our communities. 

Modernizing our nation’s workforce system is critical. Researchers estimate that 

at our nation’s current rates of training and educating, the United States will face 

a shortage of 5 million skilled, educated workers by 2020. And by 2020, 65 percent 

of all jobs will require some form of post-secondary degree or credential. 

In this hearing, I hope we can take a close look at how our workforce systems 

have improved since WIOA. But also, I hope to hear 

how we can build upon these successes and surmount any challenges. Together, 

we must ensure that WIOA fulfills its goals of improving the quality of job training 

programs and aligning training to real-world labor market needs. In particular, we 

must be sure to empower people with disabilities, disconnected youth, and dislocated workers who have faced barriers to entering our workforce systems for far 

too long. 

In the weeks and months ahead, I’m hopeful that Congress will reject the President’s proposed cuts to job training programs and make the right investments in 

our nation’s workforce development system. But we shouldn’t stop there. We should 

be working together on a bipartisan basis – just like we did with WIOA –to help 

workers get ahead, make college more affordable and accessible, and restore balance 

to the economy so all Americans can provide a better future for their families. 

Thank you, Chairman Guthrie, for convening today’s hearing and all the witnesses for taking time out of their schedules to be with us. I yield back my time. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you. I thank the ranking member for 

yielding back and her comments. Pursuant to committee rule 7C, 

all members will be permitted to submit written statements to be 

included in the permanent record, and without objection, the hearing record will remain open for 14 days to allow such statements 

and other extraneous material referenced during the hearing to be 

submitted for the official hearing record. 

Today I welcome Mr. Wilson to the subcommittee and recognize 

him to introduce our first witness. 

Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Thank you, Chairman Guthrie, 

for inviting me to be here today. Chairman Brett Guthrie, Ranking 

Member Susan Davis, members of the subcommittee, I am grateful 

for the opportunity to introduce fellow South Carolinian Michelle 

Paczynski. I appreciate also being here with Chairman Virginia 

Foxx, who is working so closely with President Donald Trump to 

help American families with fulfilling lives. Ms. Paczynski serves 

as a deputy assistant director for workforce and economic development at the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce. In her role she advances a business inspired workforce system, one that develops strategic partnerships that enhances the 

workforce system’s ability to produce a workforce pipeline for jobs. 

I am grateful that she is before the subcommittee to testify 

today. Through the efforts of Ms. Paczynski and other members of 

the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce, 

South Carolina has seen a remarkable success in implementing the 

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. Of special note is their 

use of innovative strategies, like career and technical education 

program partnerships, apprenticeships, technical colleges to develop talent pipelines, and addressing infrastructure challenges to 

ensure that people find meaningful jobs as we have achieved, and 

she has at Boeing, at MTU, at BMW. We were just discussing all 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

9 

these; Michelin Tire Corporation, Bridgestone Tire Corporation, 

and now soon Volvo, to be located in South Carolina. Their success 

is clear and tangible. South Carolina’s unemployment rate is at a 

16-year low, and more and more businesses from around the country are realizing that our talented workforce and pro business climate make our State a great place to create or locate a business 

with meaningful jobs. 

I look forward to hearing Ms. Paczynski outline how South Carolina’s Department of Employment and Workforce has implemented 

the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and hope her perspective can provide examples and best practices other States can 

use when looking to maximize their implementation of the act and 

to help more of their citizens find jobs. 

Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to introduce Ms. 

Paczynski. I yield back. 

[The statement of Mr. Wilson follows:] 

Prepared Statement of Hon. Joe Wilson, a Representative in Congress from 

the State of South Carolina 

Chairman Brett Guthrie, Ranking Member Susan Davis, members of the Subcommittee, I am grateful for the opportunity to introduce a fellow South Carolinian, 

Michelle Paczynski. I appreciate being present with Chairwoman Virginia Foxx who 

is working so closely with President Donald Trump to help American families with 

jobs, fulfilling lives. 

Ms. Paczynski serves as the Deputy Assistant Director for Workforce and Economic Development at the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce. In her role, she advances a business-inspired workforce system—one that develops strategic partnerships that enhances the workforce system’s ability to 

produce a workforce pipeline for jobs. I am grateful that she is participating to testify to testify before this subcommittee. 

Through the efforts of Ms. Paczynski, and other members South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce, South Carolina has seen remarkable success 

in implementing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. Of special note, is 

their use of innovative strategies, like career and technical education program partnerships, apprenticeships, technical colleges, developing talent pipelines, and addressing infrastructure challenges, to ensure that people can find meaningful jobs, 

as we have achieved with Boeing, MTU, BMW, Michelin, Bridgestone, and now 

Volvo. With the vision of former Governors Jim Edwards and Carroll Campbell, 

South Carolina has grown to be the nation’s largest manufacturer and exporter of 

tires as well as America’s largest exporter of cars. 

Their success is clear, and tangible—South Carolina’s unemployment rate is at a 

16 year low, and more and more businesses from around the country are realizing 

that our talented workforce and pro-business climate make our state a great place 

to create or locate a business with meaningful jobs. 

I look forward to hearing Ms. Paczynski outline how South Carolina’s Department 

of Employment and Workforce has implemented the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, and hope her perspective can provide examples and ‘‘best practices’’ 

other states can use when looking to maximize their implementation of the Act and 

to help more of their citizens find jobs. 

Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to introduce Ms. Paczynski. 

I yield back. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you, Mr. Wilson. And I will continue 

this morning’s introductions. Mr. Heath Berlin is an information 

insurance manager at the Naval Healthcare Clinic, Annapolis. Beat 

Navy. I have to say that. When I say Annapolis it is just in me. 

Mr. Ron Painter is the president and CEO of the National Association of Workforce Boards. And Mr. Louis Dubin is the chairman of 

the Governor’s Workforce Development Board for the State of 

Maryland. 

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10 

I will now ask the witnesses to raise their right hand. 

[Witnesses sworn] 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Let the record reflect the witnesses answered in the affirmative. 

Before I recognize you to provide your testimony, let me briefly 

explain our lighting system. You will each have 5 minutes to 

present your testimony. When you begin, the light in front of you 

will turn green. When 1 minute is left, the light will turn yellow. 

When your time is expired, the light will turn red. When the light 

turns red I will ask you that you wrap up your remarks as best 

as you are able. Members will have 5 minutes each after your testimony to ask questions. 

First, I will recognize for 5 minutes for opening testimony Ms. 

Paczynski. 

TESTIMONY OF MICHELLE PACZYNSKI, DEPUTY ASSISTANT 

DIRECTOR FOR WORKFORCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT 

AND WORKFORCE 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. Thank you, Representative Foxx, Representative 

Scott, Representative Wilson, Chairman Guthrie, Ranking Member 

Representative Davis, and the members of the subcommittee. It’s 

an honor and privilege to be here today to talk about the progress 

we have made because of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. We are putting South Carolinians to work. 

South Carolina’s economy is strong and growing as businesses 

continue to relocate and expand in our State. We have a record 

number of people working and an unemployment rate at a 16 year 

low. Congress’ efforts to pass the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act has provided South Carolina the ability to tackle workforce development through innovative ways, to better engage businesses, and educate and empower our workforce. 

Our transformational journey began with collaboration. Under 

WIOA, the State Workforce Development Board is considered to be 

the State’s architect and ambassador for workforce development. 

With majority representation by business leaders from the State’s 

high-growth industries South Carolina’s Board convened the Workforce Partners and executed a memorandum of understanding. This 

contract was the platform for stakeholders to move forward in unison towards retooling the workforce system and educating our existing and emerging workforce. WIOA fueled South Carolina’s ability to deploy initiatives that address business and industry’s concerns of a fractured workforce system. 

The South Carolina Talent Pipeline Initiative, also known as 

Sector Strategies, was the incubator for regional industry-focused 

methods to build a skilled workforce that identify and address skill 

needs across key industries rather than focusing on transactional 

workforce needs of individual businesses. 

A critical component that was identified in analysis of our workforce system was a lack of public transit for employment and education. In an effort to empower regions’ strategies to build their 

workforce, the State Workforce Development Board is investing 

State-level WIOA funds into communities that have designed innovative public transit models. WIOA champions the prioritization of 

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services for those who face significant barriers to employment. 

South Carolina has experienced great success educating and employing ex-offenders into high-growth industries. Historically, ex-offenders were released into the same environment from which they 

came, lacking the education and skills needed to succeed outside a 

prison. Using Title III money South Carolina piloted a job center 

behind the wire, deploying a case manager and laptops onsite to 

provide the same services and information provided to job seekers 

in a one-stop center. Of the 516 people who have completed the 

program and have since been released, 75 percent are earning 

wages. Seeing the outcomes from this pilot, the State Workforce 

Development Board invested State-level WIOA funds to expand 

employment services into additional correctional facilities. 

WIOA has also reinforced our emphasis on apprenticeships as 

the premier tool for businesses to recruit and retain workers. South 

Carolina provides businesses with a $1,000 tax credit per apprentice for up to 4 years. With 893 active apprentice programs in 

South Carolina, the State boards sought to braid apprenticeships 

with services provided to priority populations and awarded Statelevel WIOA funds into competitive grants. 

WIOA emphasizes that relationships between the public and private sectors is crucial in the workforce system’s ability to provide 

businesses with workforce solutions. Several members of our State 

Workforce Development Board also serve as representatives on the 

State Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and as a result 

many of our workforce initiatives align with the State Chamber’s 

2025 education goals. 

In conclusion, WIOA has significantly expanded South Carolina’s 

ability to strategically align resources, programs, and policies to 

build a skilled workforce and more effectively serve businesses. 

Thank you. 

[The statement of Ms. Paczynski follows:] 

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Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you for your testimony. I will now 

recognize Mr. Berlin for 5 minutes for his testimony. 

TESTIMONY OF HEATH BERLIN, INFORMATION INSURANCE 

MANAGER, NAVAL HEALTHCARE CLINIC 

Mr. BERLIN. Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and 

members of the subcommittee. 

So I’m here as a successful candidate of the WIOA. And the program in Maryland is called the Maryland Tech Connection. So I’ll 

just give you a little bit of how I came to be in contact with workforce development and —— 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Would you pull your mic up a little closer 

to you? It would be easier to hear everything. 

Mr. BERLIN. Sorry. On December 31, 2015, New Year’s Eve, the 

company I worked for, Resilience Technology Corporation, was acquired by another company, Integrata Security. After about a 

month, Integrata laid all the employees off. Some of us were called 

back a few weeks later, but by May of 2016, everybody was laid 

off. So I started looking for jobs, lots of interviews, lots of job fairs, 

things like that, without getting any traction. In July, I went to the 

Anne Arundel Workforce Development Center in Arnold, Maryland, 

and registered for one of the WIOA workshops. The next available 

one was in August as they were filling up. So after the workshop 

I met with a woman named Carla Win, who accepted me into the 

program. I qualified because of receiving unemployment benefits. 

And together with her, we sort of mapped out a strategy of what 

I needed to get reemployed and what the obstacles I was finding 

to employment. And some of those were certifications, the Network 

Plus, Security Plus, and Certified Ethical Hacker certification, 

which I had trained for previously, but never had taken the exams 

because, you know, previous employers had said they would pay for 

it and, you know, by the time I really needed them, there was nobody there to pay for it, particularly me. So they were able to provide funding for the Certified Ethical Hacker education course and 

exam and also vouchers for the CompTIA Security Plus and Network Plus exams. 

So I completed those and continued searching for a job; however, 

I wasn’t successful. I had lots of support from the program. There 

was career coach Carl Cushinksi, who was very helpful in helping 

me focus my resume, practicing interviews before going to the actual interviews. And even though, you know, every day I would 

spend all day on the computer applying for jobs, phone interviews, 

video conference interviews, face-to-face interviews, I just wasn’t 

getting anywhere. 

So by November, I hit the 6-month mark, unemployment ran out, 

and I was still unemployed, at which time Carl introduced me to 

Alfredo Quieroga, we call him Q, who delivered—I guess he was 

the instructor and the guy that enrolls people in Maryland Tech 

Connection, which the program itself focuses on people who have 

been long-term unemployed, which they defined as greater than 6 

months. So I met with Q in an informational seminar that he held 

at the Glen Burnie Workforce Development Center and made an 

appointment for testing. You report to the Laurel Anne Arundel 

Workforce Development Center for aptitude testing, sort of to see 

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what maybe your passion is. You know, the program itself sort of 

has two tracks it seems to focus on with industry partners, one 

being IT and IT security, the other being biomedical science and 

technology. So the aptitude tests sort of help you define what you 

know and what you’re good at and what your passion is, as well 

as maybe what soft skills you have or need. And after taking these 

tests you’re assigned to the program. Luck of the draw. 

Anyhow, long story short, while in the program I discovered the 

Earn and Learn Program. While I had been looking for a job, I 

interviewed with this company called Phalanx, who wanted to hire 

me, but they were a startup so they didn’t have money. So when 

I reached back out to them after being in the program for 2 days 

and explained the Earn and Learn Program, they immediately got 

on board and asked for more information and said if we could work 

it out, if there would be the funding to bring me on board with 

some sort of subsidy while I was getting up to speed, they would 

be glad to hire me right away. 

So within a month of entering into the program I was employed 

full-time with Phalanx Security. 

[The statement of Mr. Berlin follows:] 

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Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you for your testimony. I appreciate 

it. I enjoyed hearing your testimony. 

Mr. Painter, you are recognized for 5 minutes for your testimony. 

TESTIMONY OF RON PAINTER, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE 

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WORKFORCE BOARDS 

Mr. PAINTER. Chairman Guthrie, Ranking Member Davis, and 

subcommittee members, I thank you for the opportunity to testify 

before the subcommittee today regarding WIOA, which this committee crafted and Congress overwhelmingly approved in 2014. 

My name is Ron Painter and I’m the president and CEO of the 

National Association of Workforce Boards, which represents the 

Nation’s 550 workforce boards and the over 15,000 volunteers who 

serve on those boards, a majority of whom are from the private sector. Boards coordinate, help launch, and oversee workforce development strategies for their cities, regions, and States, partnering 

with local elected officials, education, economic development, our 

entities in WIOA, adult literacy, Wagner-Peyser, voc rehab, and a 

large network of stakeholders in their region. There is an astonishing amount of churn in America’s labor market. The most recent 

year saw over 60 million separation from jobs and over 62 million 

hires. State and local workforce boards strive to understand the 

changes in labor markets that are evidence in this churn and to 

align the workforce development system accordingly so that people 

get to work quickly with the skills that are in demand. 

Workforce development boards leverage State and local general 

revenue funds, private philanthropic funding, and fee for service 

revenue. But the Federal funds are key to making all of this happen. We urge the 115th Congress to renew its commitment to a 

world-class skilled workforce through adequate funding of education at all levels in the workforce development system by maintaining the funding levels for WIOA in fiscal year 2018. 

WIOA brought numerous changes to the workforce development 

system, including requiring the Departments of Labor and Education to implement a common performance accountability system 

across the six core programs, which will provide a more consistent 

outcome data on which to base evaluations. While the most extensive full evaluation of workforce is still underway there are initial 

results from this gold standard evaluation. In the preliminary findings we conceded the availability of intensive services, people-topeople work that Heath experienced, increased earnings and employment for program participants. Evidence is also demonstrating 

that the most effective type of skill development is one linked directly to specific work and skills and demands within a region. 

Work-based training models, which are the core of WIOA, including 

registered apprenticeships and industry-specific training, are very 

impactful and alone call for increased funding to WIOA. 

Let me mention quickly three examples. IT coding program in 

Eastern Kentucky, an initiative of the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, called Teleworks USA, identifies 

and developed legitimate remote work opportunities and helps people prepare for and land these jobs in numerous counties across the 

State. This effort, though, has thus far been estimated to have an 

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ern Kentuckians by network employees inside and outside the 

State. 

In Connecticut, Electric Boat, which builds nuclear submarines 

for the U.S. Navy and its supply network in the region, have benefited from an initiative led by the Eastern Connecticut Workforce 

Board called the Eastern Connecticut Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative. Electric Boat’s work is expected to yield over 500 additional 

skilled workers and employers find that the initiative’s trainees are 

better prepared for success. Likewise the boards in Newport News, 

Virginia, working with Huntington Ingalls on the shipyard. In 

Pittsburgh, a large urban healthcare provider struggled to hire and 

retain environmental service workers. These workers have a direct 

correlation to infection control, readmission, and customer satisfaction. Partners for Work, the workforce board in Pittsburgh, 

partnered with the Energy Innovation Center, itself a consortium 

of education and business, to build a mock hospital unit and design 

curriculum with a clear pathway to work. Thus far 100 percent of 

the participants have been placed with starting wages of $12.50. 

These examples demonstrate that workforce boards are core to 

their communities by convening industry sectors to ascertain skill 

needs, designing solutions with community college and others, 

funding some of those solutions, and successfully recruiting and 

placing participants. We assure you that advances in better data 

gathering and analytics, guided by the private sector’s twin focus 

of effectiveness and continuous improvement further offer promise 

for an even more effective delivery system. 

And, again, we urge Congress to reject the proposed cuts. 

I thank you for the opportunity to testify and I look forward to 

answering questions. 

[The statement of Mr. Painter follows:] 

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Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you for your testimony. Mr. Dubin, 

you are now recognized for 5 minutes for your testimony. 

TESTIMONY OF LOUIS DUBIN, CHAIRMAN, GOVERNOR’S 

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BOARD, STATE OF MARYLAND 

Mr. DUBIN. Thank you very much. Good morning. Thank you, 

Chairman Guthrie, and members of the committee, for inviting me 

to testify today. It’s actually quite thrilling to be here today. 

I’m Louis Dubin, chairman of the Maryland Governor’s Workforce Development Board, our State board, and managing partner 

of Redbrick LMD, a diversified real estate investment and management and development firm. 

The State board is made up of 53 members representing business, workforce, education, union, and partner State agencies. As 

required by Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, WIOA, our 

State board has a business majority and all members of the board 

are appointed by the governor. The goal of the State board is to 

build partnerships and relationships that align the needs of business and job seekers through a purposeful approach with key 

stakeholders to support workforce and economic growth in the 

State of Maryland. Maryland is open for business, and this is part 

of that theme. Inclusion, diversity, and determination are really 

the cornerstones of our success. 

We’ve created five business-led task force groups based on industry sectors. This is one of our real keys to I think our secret sauce. 

Those sectors include cybersecurity, IT, healthcare, life sciences, 

manufacturing, skilled trades, changing demographics, and marketing branding. We created an ambassador program where each 

of the board members had a responsibility to reach out to colleagues in their respective areas of expertise and invite them to 

join the conversation as part of the task force. We currently have 

over 100 workforce stakeholders—these are all volunteers—that 

meet to advise the governor and make recommendations on workforce development programs and strategies targeted to these specific in-demand industries and populations in the State. It’s narrow, it’s focused. 

State board built a framework to allow for collaboration and conversation among all workforce stakeholders centered around an anchor organization that has displayed best practices in a specific industry sector. For example, we had our cybersecurity task force 

hosted by the National Security Agency, which was attended by 

over 20 stakeholders on our cybersecurity task force. NSA described their recruitment process and communication with educational institutions, assessment procedures, and career training 

programs. This type of purposeful engagement allows both government and private sector to collaborate with the State and local 

workforce system, community college, and university leaders to develop relevant curriculums and transfer best practices so they can 

become part of the workforce ecosystem. Inclusion, diversity, determination, these task force connections have led to employers building relationships with individual school district leaders. Together 

they provide K–12 school professionals professional development to 

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ticipate in robotics competitions, cyber competitions, and exercises 

that can lead to a career in cybersecurity and IT. 

One of our State’s leading nonprofits, Living Classrooms, runs 

two charter school and afterschool programs, recently won the divisional robotics championship with a team of inner-city, at-risk 

youth and competed and placed in an international robotics competition recently. Out of 1,300 teams internationally we got 51, 

51st. Big successes. Living Classrooms is an example of how we can 

look at all of our State’s resources, public and private, community 

and faith-based, to provide our students with the skills they need 

to succeed in the workforce. Living Classrooms is doing wonders in 

Baltimore and D.C., but there are also terrific examples in rural 

communities. Congressman Barletta, the SHINE afterschool program in your district is an example of a rural afterschool partnership that is preparing our students for the future. Partnering with 

Carbon Career & Technical Institute, Lehigh Carbon Community 

College, SHINE provides an innovative educational model by 

teaming technical experts with academic teachers, and through 

hands-on career projects connects students to math, science, with 

a real-world application. Inclusion, diversity, determination. 

In April, Governor Hogan announced an apprenticeship awards 

to local community partners through the Apprenticeship Innovation 

Fund, which was developed with the U.S. Department of Labor 

with a $2 million grant to advance apprenticeships in Maryland. 

There are many possibilities for creating opportunities to assist 

the development of apprenticeship programs, not only in traditional 

industries such as construction and other skilled trades, but also 

by expanding into the nontraditional industries, such as information technology, healthcare, and cybersecurity. We have Apprenticeship Services, TranZed. They’ve received over 2 awards to provide pre-apprenticeship services to over 200 apprentices in the 

cyber and IT space. They’ll provide outreach services to new employers, recruit and attract new apprentices through engagement 

with local schools, and assist job seekers with interview and technical skills. Inclusion, diversity, determination. 

We also have a benchmarking program, which is a little too long 

for my 5 minutes today that we’ve outlined in our written testimony that I appreciate you all reading as well. 

But thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to give 

our comments. 

[The statement of Mr. Dubin follows:] 

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Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you. I thank all the witnesses for 

their testimony. We will now move to member questions and I will 

recognize myself for 5 minutes for the purpose of asking questions. 

So, Mr. Dubin, in your experience, you just finished your testimony, what is the most important element to making the success 

of your State Workforce Board? What is the secret to your secret 

sauce I guess is there? 

Mr. DUBIN. I mean, I think a lot of it is inclusion and people that 

are being included in the conversation in process having a stake, 

whether it’s an educator, whether it’s a job seeker. We have representation of really all different kinds of people that are in that 

workforce ecosystem on the task forces and there’s a lot of energy 

behind it. And we require you in person, you know, attending a certain number of meetings if you’re going to be on the board it somewhat disciplines. I think that’s part of it, is just the citizens of our 

State that have a stake in the workforce system, which most people 

do, getting involved and really making this ambassadorship program an important cornerstone to build upon. And telling our 

board members, we have over 50 board members that this is one 

of the expectations we have of you of recruiting people. You know, 

it’s that web, it’s those connections that end up ultimately getting 

people trained and ultimately purposeful and meaningful employment. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you. I appreciate the answer to that. 

Mr. Berlin, I was interested to learn that your employment program focused on job seekers of similar age. After receiving the services did this focus seem to make sense? And of the services you 

were providing, that uniquely benefit job seekers your age, are 

there any you would recommend that other workforce development 

agencies should consider? 

Mr. BERLIN. Other age groups or? 

Chairman GUTHRIE. So you were an age-particular workforce 

program, similar age workforce program? You thought that was 

beneficial to be of your age? 

Mr. BERLIN. Well, of the participants in the class that I was in 

were of a similar age. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Right. You thought that was helpful or you 

thought it should have been just diverse or all ages or you are 

sharing similar experiences I would guess? 

Mr. BERLIN. Well, I think it was helpful because we all had sort 

of common life experiences, common purposes, common experience 

in looking for jobs. I mean, it was a diverse group, you know, ethnically. You know, I think probably the youngest people were in the 

mid, maybe early 30s. But in general everyone was pretty close in 

age to me. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. I guess my question, and you are answering 

it, is that having people in the similar situation—I mean, diverse 

in other—I am talking just age, it is helpful because you are having the same experience instead of having somebody looking for 

their first job or somebody looking for a change in career. So I appreciate your answer in that. Thank you. 

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tion, and competition. What steps has South Carolina taken to increase competition and provide expanded program options to State 

businesses? 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. We’ve worked very closely with our State Chamber of Commerce, who is the voice of business and industry, as well 

as other trade associations. And they’ve informed us that it’s the 

accelerated training, the credentials, and the certificates that are 

essential to fill the jobs today, to address that skill mismatch, and 

soft skills. And the soft skill area in our State, developing a curriculum designed by the soft skill needs of our business and industry, and deploying that Statewide. Those are areas in which we’ve 

highlighted on, coupled with apprenticeships, making sure that not 

only that we can put in place apprenticeships for adults and youth, 

but incentivizing it for businesses. That $1,000 tax credit is essential. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Well, thank you. And it is all important 

what you are doing. Every business person that I know is saying 

we need access to a better skilled workforce. So we appreciate what 

efforts you are doing. 

That concludes my questions and I will yield back and recognize 

Ranking Member Davis; 5 minutes for questions. 

Ms. DAVIS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And I wanted 

to say that I was really impressed by everything that you had to 

say. And I think in many ways, with your very eloquent way of 

providing that experience that you have had, that you make the 

case that WIOA is progressing, is making a difference. And at the 

same time, we know that there is not a lot of reporting that we 

have been able to benefit from yet because the full program has 

really only been there for a year. But I wonder if, you know, given 

that do any of you believe that a 40 percent cut in WIOA programs, 

kind of across the board for all the different—particularly the four 

different programs, would further our country’s need for high 

standard training and good jobs? 

Anybody feel that would make a difference? Would it make us 

focus differently, consolidate any of those programs? No? Okay, just 

for the record I wanted to be sure I was hearing you correctly because I do think you were very enthusiastic. 

I also wanted to perhaps very quickly, and if you could just give 

one example, what do you believe would be the impact of changes 

if we did try to, whether it is consolidation, whether it is cutting 

of programs, what effect would that have? Is there one particular 

program that you think would really be effective? 

Mr. Painter, do you want to start, as you are a representative of 

the workforce boards? 

Mr. PAINTER. Thank you, Congressman Davis. We’ve been asking 

our members, like what impact do the cuts have? And certainly you 

can begin to see it quickly and rapidly when you start looking at 

a reduction in the number of adults like Heath that are supported 

in training. You’re going to look at an retrenchment in the amount 

of training resources that are given to any one individual to try. 

And it’s always a dilemma, do you serve more with a little bit or 

do you serve people deeply with the resources that they may need. 

But I think clearly as we look at the boards we see cuts across the 

board in the number of individuals who would be trained. I think 

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it also starts to put deep pressure on the system because the kinds 

of things that we see in the early evaluation that are important are 

these intensive services. And that’s where one individual talks to 

another individual, works with them on what kind of assessment, 

what kind of aptitudes they have, what kind of options and opportunities are available. So when you start impacting the training 

and then you start impacting the infrastructure of how people who 

are currently get there. 

Ms. DAVIS. Thank you. I wanted to just go down and see if others 

have just a different thought about where you think those cuts 

would go. Again, because we are talking about newer programs, innovative programs that could be actually first on the chopping list. 

Ms. Paczynski, do you want to respond? I think your microphone 

is not on. 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. Thank you, Representative Davis. In South Carolina, we would likely serve fewer individuals and fewer businesses. 

However, the state of our economy will ultimately determine how 

we will move forward with workforce development. 

Ms. DAVIS. Thank you. Mr. Berlin, where would you have been 

if perhaps those relationships were not available to you to build on 

for your? 

Mr. BERLIN. Right. Yeah, commenting on the funding cuts and 

stuff like that is a bit beyond me, but I can tell you that I do not 

know that I would be here today talking about having been successfully employed again if those programs were not available to 

me. And I think it would be a shame if other people that were in 

my similar circumstances did not have that available. 

Ms. DAVIS. Thank you. Mr. Dubin? In fact, you spoke very enthusiastically about apprenticeships, and one of the things if I could 

ask you this question, is that we know that the President is announcing a new direction supposedly today and I am wondering 

whether you think that there is a risk in not having programs that 

are going to have a high level of accountability as we look at apprenticeship programs or other certified programs. What risks do 

you see? 

Mr. DUBIN. Well, I hoped there would be some corresponding additional programs that I think are going to be announced, or some 

of that, today. So I’m not privy to what those are, but I would hope 

there would some corresponding programs. I am very enthusiastic 

on apprenticeships and CTE. I know it’s a whole other discussion, 

but I would hope that the dialogue includes not only apprenticeships, but CTE in our schools, that are pathways into very meaningful employment. In many cases these young people—we have a 

lot of CTE success stories come to our State board. They’re making 

a lot more than their colleagues a few years before graduating from 

high school and they just started to save and some of them have 

bought their first house. 

Ms. DAVIS. Thank you. I know my time is up and we have to be 

reminded that these are Federal dollars that are going into those 

programs so that there is an important element. Thank you. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you. Ranking member yields back. I 

now recognize Mr. Mitchell for 5 minutes for questions. 

Mr. MITCHELL. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have an interesting experience in that I began in workforce development in 1978. I am datCEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

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ing myself. Those have been around for a while; remember SDA. 

And I experienced SDA, JTPA, WIA, and WIOA. Different place on 

WIOA. We operated those programs. When I started out I worked 

for the State of Michigan in the Bureau of Employment Training. 

What is amazing to me is it has taken this long to get an evolution 

that we, in fact, recognize that you have two customers: you have 

the employer community and you have individuals needing assistance to go to work, because it has taken that long to make this evolution. If you think about it, quite an interesting world where it is 

largely government-driven back at SDA and JTPA days to finally 

recognizing that we really have to serve the business community 

and the individuals seeking employment 

The ROI is currently improving for both taxpayers and individuals seeking assistance, and that is a wonderful thing to see finally 

we can get a better handle on measuring that. I am concerned, 

however. A couple of things I want to address with questions. One 

is about the idea that two things have been said. Well, we have 

gotten improvements and with more money we can get more improvements. I spent 30 years in private business and we did not 

just throw money at it to get improvements, it was improving how 

we deliver the system. Help me out. Maybe Miss Paczynski can 

help me. What was the unemployment rate in South Carolina in 

2010 to 2012? What was the unemployment rate then, roughly? 

Pick a number. 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. I would say I don’t have that number in front of 

me, but significantly higher than the current 4.3. Perhaps right 

around 8 percent, but I don’t know for certain. 

Mr. MITCHELL. Yeah. And in my State it was double digits. It 

was truly brutal in Michigan. And yet at this point in time, some 

members of the committee and others argue that we need to fund 

to WIOA at the exact same level that we funded it historically, 

with, of course, various cost of living increases or, you know, adjustments. But the unemployment rate is down dramatically. Your 

service population is reduced, especially among the dislocated 

workers. And I think we need to be honest about that as you talk 

about it in the appropriations process in Congress that what do we 

need to meet the needs of individuals and businesses and not just, 

well, we spent that last year, so we need to spend it this year. That 

is a government mentality, that is not realistic private sector mentality. And so as we talk forward we need to do that here in Congress and I would encourage all of you to do that. Yeah, we require 

adjustments. 

The other fallacy, and all of you here know that, is that if this 

reduction—and I am not here rallying for a 40 percent reduction 

in workforce development funds, trust me on that—that all of it is 

reduced from training grants, from what trains people. 

Mr. Painter, how much is allocated for the workforce board, State 

administration? 

Mr. PAINTER. Administrative expenses under WIOA are limited 

to 10 percent. 

Mr. MITCHELL. At the Agency? 

Mr. PAINTER. At the workforce board level, yes. 

Mr. MITCHELL. And then at the State it is how much? Do you 

know? 

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Mr. PAINTER. It would be the same 10 percent. 

Mr. MITCHELL. That is 20. And then when I worked at the State, 

and it is still the case now, there is also something called the indirect cost rate, which is another 5 or 7 percent. So pretty quickly, 

my point is, is that we peel off money out of the system with a 

whole series of levels of administrative costs, and we are assuming 

any reduction in grants is going to simply result in this chart. It 

is not true, it is not accurate. And one of the things we need to do 

as a system, both here in Congress and I encourage you to do, is 

look at how much we are putting in admin and what do we need 

to do to in fact focus the money as much as we can and reduce 

those administrative costs. That is what we did as a business. 

One quick question, also, if I could, and maybe, Mr. Dubin, you 

could help me. One of the things we have experienced in Michigan 

is challenges with linking the workforce development programs, 

private sector programs with the K–12 education system. We still 

have not gotten that where it is working well so we can begin the 

current technical ed for children, young people, when they are still 

in school so they transition out to an apprenticeship or something 

like that. What recommendations do you have that would help with 

that? 

Mr. DUBIN. Well, our superintendent of schools sits on the board. 

Actually, most of our cabinet in the State sits on the Workforce Development Board, and many of them come to the meetings. And the 

time before last we had our superintendent of schools and most of 

the meeting was around CTE and education and the awareness of 

that. And we had many employers there, we have the union and 

other representatives there and on the board, and the board is 

somewhat of an educational opportunity and we use it as that. We 

usually have two or three presentations each board meeting about 

subject matter or some of these programs people may not really 

know about. And just having the superintendent of schools, that’s 

a good first step I think. 

Mr. MITCHELL. I think you are right. And one final comment, Mr. 

Chair, is that my robotics same says they can take your robotics 

team. [Laughter] Thank you. Thank you. I yield back. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. I thank you, gentleman, for yielding back. I 

now recognize Mr. Courtney for 5 minutes for questions. 

Mr. COURTNEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I really appreciate 

you and the ranking member putting the spotlight on WIOA. I was 

at the Executive Office Building the day the law was signed into 

law on July 22, 2014. It was a beautiful sight. President Obama, 

Vice President Biden, Chairwoman Foxx, bipartisan group responding to an issue that I think every single member has heard loud 

and clear from their district. And the other thing I remember from 

it, there was not a single TV camera in the room and when you 

tried to sort of find the press coverage it was just buried. And, you 

know, I guess you can sort of draw a lot of conclusions from that. 

But again, I appreciate Mr. Painter bringing up the EWIB Board 

in Eastern Connecticut, which is my district. Again, the ramping 

up of ship production, submarine production, has been a phenomenon that has been going on over the last 3 or 4 years. The 

demand for welders, electricians, machinists, is off the charts, 

along with engineers and designers. 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

40 

And the statistics that you shared in terms of what the Eastern 

Connecticut Manufacturing Pipeline Program has produced, frankly, is only just a part of the story. I mean, about the 4-, 500 that 

have come through these programs and have been snapped up immediately. The employment rate is 100 percent for people that are 

going through there with great jobs, with good benefits. The fact 

of the matter is, is that the registrants into the program is about 

10 times as large, over 3,000 people have gone into the portal to 

sign up. And again, we are moving forward in terms of getting people enrolled in future classes. 

But two things: number one, it shows that this sort of narrative 

that Americans don’t want to get involved with dirty manufacturing is a false narrative. I mean, the fact of the matter is that 

there really are takers out there who if they are given the opportunity to close the skills gap, they will do it. 

And the second, obviously, is that the capacity in the system is 

still not enough in terms of, you know, satisfying both the demands 

signal, because EB will probably hire well over 1,000 people this 

year, and that is going to continue into the next probably 10 years 

at a steady clip. And so it is demand on both sides in terms of 

workers and employer to meet the needs. 

The American Ship Building Association actually talked about, 

you know, the 350-ship Navy, which came out of the Obama Secretary of Navy, Secretary Mavis, but embraced by President Trump 

as well. We are looking at about 18-, 25,000 new workers, and 

these are really skilled positions, if we are going to meet the Nation’s demand for this. And there really is no other sort of strategy 

other than WIOA in terms of really trying to take on something 

that large. 

The other point I would just simply make in terms of the followup of the prior—and I am going to ask a question, but if you look 

at the funding levels for 2017’s Omnibus that we just passed in 

April, it is still below what was in the authorized levels in WIOA. 

Again, the bipartisan WIOA, which authorized, you know, higher 

levels of funding than what was in the 2017 budget, and then that 

is the budget that Ms. Davis, you know, used as her baseline in 

terms of the cuts that were proposed in President Trump’s budget, 

40 percent. So we are talking about a level that is lower than what 

was authorized by a bipartisan bill and we are cutting from that 

another $40,000. 

So the capacity in the system in my district in terms of dealing 

with those 3,000-plus people who have entered the portal and registered is going to be reduced under this budget. And, you know, 

if there are efficiencies that we need to look at, you know, in terms 

of overhead, let us do it. But the fact is that we are going to lose 

all the momentum that is happening all over the country with 

these types of drastic cuts. 

And, again, what you are seeing is, again, not just in Eastern 

Connecticut, Mr. Painter, right? I mean, this is something that is 

aerospace, you know, other sectors that skills gap exists, is that 

correct? 

Mr. PAINTER. Yes. You know, I don’t visit a board, I don’t hear 

from a board that says we have no issue around a skilled workforce. It’s all over the place. A lot of conversation now around 

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where the unemployment level is and what about the folks who are 

still out there, outside of the labor market, what is the situation 

with the workforce. But you’re right, Congressman. And I think it’s 

where we fought hard for business-led boards at the State and local 

level because we firmly believe, as Mr. Dubin pointed out, that 

when business gets involved we do look at things like effectiveness 

and we do look at efficiencies. 

When I first got into this business, 1988, job training began to 

have performance standards or an accountability system. We have 

to perform in order to maintain local designation, we have to perform as States. So I think what I hear universally from directors 

is that if WIOA did nothing else, it focused the workforce system 

on, to borrow a phrase, job 1, and that is getting talent to business. 

And that’s what we’re about. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you. Thank you to the gentleman for 

yielding. I now recognize Mr. Smucker for 5 minutes for questions. 

Mr. SMUCKER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, Mr. Berlin, 

thank you for being here. We appreciate you sharing your story. 

Question for Ms. Paczynski and Mr. Dubin. My district is home 

to numerous groups that serve individuals with disabilities, including groups like VisionCorps, UniqueSource, and SourceAmerica. 

And through recent conversations that I have had with some of 

these groups regarding the interpretation of WIOA, I am concerned 

that jobs for people with disabilities are being threatened by inconsistent implementation of portions of WIOA. I understand that in 

recent weeks 19 State vocational rehabilitation agencies have 

stopped making placements to nonprofit agencies for AbilityOne 

program jobs. And the guidance that they are referencing is a Department of Education FAC entitled ‘‘Integrated Location Criteria, 

the Definition of Competitive Integrated Employment.’’ 

Now, in my district these jobs are located in integrated settings, 

pay well above minimum wage. In many communities AbilityOne 

jobs are among the best jobs available, especially important given 

the fact that 80 percent of people with disabilities don’t have jobs 

at all. These jobs take place on military installations, at GSA buildings, and at many Federal agencies where daily interaction with 

the general public and other government employees is a daily occurrence. And in fact, in addition, these jobs pay an average hourly 

rate of $13.27. 

State VR agencies have been making placements to AbilityOne 

jobs through nonprofits for many years. So not only have thousands 

of individuals with disabilities found meaningful employment, but 

they have also reduced their reliance on public assistance programs 

while becoming proud taxpayers. 

So my question is, are your States still making VR referrals? If 

not, why? What are you doing in South Carolina and Maryland to 

protect access to jobs for your constituents with disabilities? 

Ms. Paczynski? 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. Yes, thank you, Representative Smucker. In 

South Carolina, we are partnering very closely with our vocational 

rehabilitation partner. They are involved with us from creating 

strategies to allying priority populations with the job openings. 

They are with us hand and foot, elbow to elbow, as we talk about 

better business engagement. They are with as we move forward 

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and we’re putting forth apprenticeships for priority populations. 

They are there with us, helping with some of those referrals so that 

the individuals are getting the same access to those apprenticeship 

opportunities that we know are so successful for work-based learning opportunities. 

Mr. SMUCKER. Thank you. Mr. Dubin, what is your experience in 

this area? 

Mr. DUBIN. Good example, last month we actually had a neuro 

diversity, I guess, seminar at Towson State University on the autism spectrum and the unique challenges. I was graced with being 

able to attend that and I learned an awful lot. And I also learned 

that some of these barriers really are not disabilities, they are 

unique abilities in other things. And the autism spectrum is one of 

those where there’s a lot of Maryland companies, especially on the 

IT side and cyber side that with that spectrum there are some 

unique skill sets. So it was really interesting, and I would encourage other states to have some of these types of meetings to educate 

people on the unique needs and abilities of what you’re describing. 

Mr. SMUCKER. Thank you. And I am going to change the subject. 

I don’t have much time, but really interested in hearing what your 

States are doing on apprenticeship programs. I come from a construction contracting background, so we made use of apprenticeships, but also, I mean, look at what other countries are doing and 

other States. I think bringing business to the table is such a fundamental part of making that successful. So I would be just interested hearing ways that you have worked to—you both have talked 

about effective apprenticeship programs in your States, how have 

you gotten the businesses engaged? 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. For us the construction industry is one of our top 

sectors and it was the construction industry that came to us and 

said we would be willing and would like to have apprentices. And 

from the returning citizen population we can really make this 

work. If it were not for construction leading that way, business representatives informing us of that opportunity, I don’t know that we 

would have made the progress that we have seen today. 

Mr. SMUCKER. Thank you. Mr. Dubin, 10 seconds. 

Mr. DUBIN. ABC in Maryland, Associated Builders and Contractors, and the NSA, those are two big partners of our on apprenticeships. And, yes, the NSA does have apprenticeships for high school 

students. 

Mr. SMUCKER. Thank you. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you. Good timing, Mr. Smucker. I 

now recognize Mr. Takano for 5 minutes for questions. 

Mr. TAKANO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Painter, we have 

touched on these 40 percent cuts by the administration, proposed 

cuts. The administration has also discussed how having States take 

a larger role in Federal programming, including WIOA, could 

maybe compensate for this. And we all know that State budgets 

are incredibly strained. Would the States even be able to make this 

sort of financial adjustment in your opinion? 

Mr. PAINTER. Thank you, Representative Takano. I’m not a scholar of the State budgets, but there are not that many States—in 

fact, it would be a minority of States—that are putting funding into 

workforce development. A number of States have customized job 

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training programs which blend with WIOA funding on economic development projects. 

Mr. TAKANO. Great. Thanks. I want to follow up on the apprenticeship theme. The media has reported that the administration 

will unveil a new apprenticeship program that will allow Federal 

dollars to flow essentially to unregistered apprenticeship programs. 

This concerns me. The registration process provides a national 

standard for apprenticeship programs and it has, for instance, established labor standards, like wage scale and antidiscrimination 

provisions. And I am concerned that this administration will undercut a tried and proven model. 

Now, Ms. Paczynski, South Carolina has become a model for expanding apprenticeships, going from 90 programs in 2007 to nearly 

900 programs—congratulations on that—in industries that range 

from advanced manufacturing to healthcare to information technology. And what is impressive is that these are all registered programs. 

Can you comment on why South Carolina has used the registration process to support program quality and why participating employers are willing to register their programs in your State? 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. For our business community registered apprenticeships offers a solution to the skill gap. And certainly in our 

State we’ve incentivized apprenticeships to further foster the use of 

that as a tool. We believe firmly that the willingness of business 

and industry to bring in the emerging workforce when coupled with 

an apprenticeship makes it an ideal learning situation for both the 

business and the youth. So we’ve seen great success because of our 

willingness to engage businesses and it is a matter, though, of removing some of the red tape that does come with the process. 

Mr. TAKANO. I want to know more about that at some, maybe offline, but businesses have not found registering their apprenticeships to be overly burdensome it doesn’t seem like. From what I 

have here, all of the apprenticeships are registered in South Carolina. So it doesn’t seem like it is necessarily for the administration 

to say that this money that he is proposing should flow to unregistered programs. 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. Well, in South Carolina, registered apprenticeships is actually coupled with our State technical college system. 

So it becomes an educational tool that’s used for businesses predominantly, especially with our new business and our growing 

business. 

Mr. TAKANO. This is very interesting to me. So South Carolina 

runs their Apprenticeship Carolina model through State community colleges and all of your 16 community colleges are engaged in 

the development and implementation of these programs. Now, can 

you tell us why that partnership with community colleges and 

other stakeholders is so important to the success of your approach? 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. Certainly, it has to do with the educational piece 

and the skills that come from understanding what the business 

needs are and creating that apprenticeship to meet those needs. 

Mr. TAKANO. Could you have achieved the results you are getting 

without the support and services from these public sector partners, 

such as the community colleges? 

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Ms. PACZYNSKI. I think they have been absolutely instrumental 

in the success, yes. 

Mr. TAKANO. Well, thank you for that. Mr. Painter, do you have 

anything to add to this? 

Mr. PAINTER. With regard to the registration, what we’re finding 

is I point to the West Michigan Workforce Board, which working 

in medical technicians actually, working with employers, help develop and file, and they are the sponsor of the registered apprenticeship. So it is a process that, you know, requires some skill. The 

registered apprenticeship also helps us in terms of the individual, 

having the credentials that are recognized more broadly across the 

industry. 

Mr. TAKANO. So it is about recognizable credentials. So what may 

seem like red tape to some folks—I mean, it looks like South Carolina has been able to overcome some of that burden and all of their 

900 apprenticeships are registered apprenticeships. I am impressed 

with that. I just question what the administration is doing in terms 

of allowing—I applaud that he wants to have money going to apprenticeships, but I question about whether he should allow that 

to flow to unregistered apprenticeships. 

Thank you. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you. I thank the gentleman for yielding and I recognize Mr. Allen for 5 minutes for questions. 

Mr. ALLEN. Thank you, Chairman, and thank you all for participating today in this important hearing. A couple of things that I 

have observed talking to the business community in my district in 

Georgia. Well, first is workforce participation. You know, I understand the employment numbers in, of course, Georgia competes 

with South Carolina regularly for these businesses, but both States 

are enjoying a low employment number, but I was interested in 

South Carolina, as far as workforce participation numbers. These 

are people that maybe have dropped out of high school, that are either folks who have dropped out of the workforce who are not seeking employment and are able-bodied. Do you have any idea what 

that number is in South Carolina as far as the workforce participation rate? 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. I do not have that figure with me, but we can 

get that to you afterwards. 

Mr. ALLEN. Okay. I would be interested to know is there a way 

to target those folks to get them interested in not only completing 

their high school diploma, but also getting into career education 

and some type of CTE program? 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. In South Carolina, certainly, you know, we recognize very much our partnership with adult education. And, of 

course, they are in the communities and that essentially is our outreach to those that may have disappeared for a bit, is going into 

the communities and engaging them there, and then bringing them 

further into the services that are available. 

Mr. ALLEN. Well, we know that over in Ag, the other committee 

I serve on, that we have about 45 million people, say, participating 

in SNAP program. And certainly a percentage of these folks, you 

know, if given the opportunity for proper training, and we have 

had folks like that testify there, that if given the opportunity for 

proper skill training and then the opportunity for a job, they move 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

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off of most of these programs. And we got about 25 million people 

we need to get that done, so that is why I am interested in that. 

As far as the graduation rates, I called all of our county superintendents right at the end of the school year—I have 18 counties 

in the district—and just checked in, talking about graduation rates. 

I have one rural county that has a 94 percent graduation rate. And 

I said how do you do this? And he said career track at a very young 

age. We take young people into the businesses, they see that, hey, 

I can do this, and they get on a track. And it has been very successful. 

Mr. Dubin, from your standpoint in Maryland, are you looking at 

your high school dropout rate and where it is and how you can take 

these young people that we lose and get them involved in the workforce and get them involved in a career that they would be very 

happy to participate in? 

Mr. DUBIN. I can’t give you the exact numbers and statistics, but 

I can give you something empirical quickly. A young lady from 

Frederick, Maryland, recently came in and told her story to our 

board. She was going to drop out of high school. She really wasn’t 

going to go on the college track, but she loved working in the lab. 

And long story short, we had a CTE program that really took advantage of her skill sets in the lab. She ended up going through 

CTE, which was part of a community college, I think it was Frederick Community College program as well. When she graduated 

she was making around $15 an hour. When she got her certifications and the rest of her credentialing, she was making over $20 

an hour at 20 or 21 years old and on her way to buying a house. 

So those are good stories. This was a young lady that came in, very 

tearfully, sort of not testifying, but we do these presentations at 

each of our board meetings, and told that story. So I don’t have the 

exact statistics, but those are the kinds of impacts we’re having. 

Mr. ALLEN. How did she know about this program? 

Mr. DUBIN. It was a very in-demand program. We have limited 

resources in CTE in Maryland. That’s a whole other issue. But it 

was very in-demand and she was thinking of dropping out and I 

think her guidance counselor told her about it. 

Mr. ALLEN. Okay. Okay. So your high school counselors know 

about the programs you offer there? 

Mr. DUBIN. Oh, yes, sir. 

Mr. ALLEN. Okay. All right. So that is a good source. That is 

great. As far as, Mr. Berlin, the new law is emphasizing the importance of providing a wraparound service —— 

Chairman GUTHRIE. I believe the gentleman’s time has expired. 

Mr. ALLEN. Oh, excuse me. I yield back. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. No problem. I now recognize Miss Blunt 

Rochester for 5 minutes for questions. 

Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to 

thank the panel and also congratulate Mr. Berlin on your success. 

I, like my colleague, Mr. Mitchell, have been around for a while 

through JTPA, SDA, WIN, Manpower. I was Secretary of Labor 

when the Workforce Investment Act was initially signed and then 

worked for University of Massachusetts, Boston, at the Institute for 

Community Inclusion when WIOA was signed. And I can say, like 

many of you, there has been I would say a tremendous progression. 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

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When I think of the concepts of dual customer and the fact that 

we have to focus on both the employer and the job seeker; when 

I think about demand driven, that we are really focused on what 

does the business community need, using labor market information, and also looking at evidence based practices; there is a lot 

going on across the country. 

And I would say instead of less money, I am not going to say we 

need more in this environment, but I would say when the unemployment rate is low it is when you get to people who are maybe 

harder to employ, whether it is prison to work or whether it is welfare to work, it requires intensity. And so I would really like to 

focus on people with disabilities and get some feedback from you. 

Currently there are 56 million people with disabilities across our 

country and yet only about 29.2 percent are employed. And historically, our systems have not done a good job of employing people 

with disabilities. And what WIOA was so successful at was saying 

that there was a presumption of ability that people could work and 

should work and have the right to work. And so I was hoping you 

could share a little bit more about your stories and their experiences of employing people with disabilities and improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities. 

And I will start with Mr. Painter. 

Mr. PAINTER. Thank you, Congresswoman. I have to admit that 

it’s not an area I’m steeped in, so I reached out to the Consortium 

for Citizens with Disabilities. We work a lot with respectability and 

ask Philip and his crew like what was going on. And I was really 

pleasantly surprised to hear his statement that they wanted to 

draw my attention and yours to the success of youth with disabilities under WIOA. 

Fully 15.6 percent of WIOA youth program participants were 

youth with disabilities. That means that over 13,000 youth with 

disabilities had unprecedented access to skill training and job 

placement. Fully 65 percent of them with disabilities entered into 

employment, ultimately a savings of over $300,000 per beneficiary. 

So we are making, I think, substantial progress. 

Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER. Any of the other panelists have experiences and outcomes with people with disabilities? 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. Representative Rochester, in South Carolina, I 

don’t have outcomes, but we certainly have a lot of effort. And we 

have a coalition in our State that brings all the partners together 

that work with individuals with disabilities. And they engage the 

business community to find out what was the gap between individuals who had the skills and the hiring process, and from that really 

started to come to the table with some strategies on how we could 

move forward. 

We have a marketing campaign that has moved forward and we 

are expecting to see results from this. Certainly our State Workforce Development Board has identified that individuals with disabilities is a focus. And we’ve brought it to the attention of the 

business community and it’s been well received. 

Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? 

Okay. 

And, Mr. Chairman, if I could enter a letter into the record from 

the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation. 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

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Chairman GUTHRIE. Without objection, so ordered. 

Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER. Thank you. The other question that I 

had was, also, we talked a little bit about some minimum wage 

jobs, and so, Mr. Painter, can you provide examples of steps that 

States have taken to reduce some minimum wage jobs? 

Mr. PAINTER. I can get that information to you. We’ll certainly 

look at it and talk to our members. 

Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER. I would just close by sharing that I will 

be getting information from the Institute for Community Inclusion 

on projects that have been happening across the country in different places, very creative and innovative ways to help people who 

are on Social Security Disability move into jobs. And I think as we 

talk about the future we need to be looking at how we can continue 

the positive progression that WIOA has begun. 

Thank you. I yield back. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you for yielding. I will now recognize 

Mr. Byrne for 5 minutes for questions. 

Mr. BYRNE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, everybody. 

I am the former chancellor of postsecondary education for the State 

of Alabama Community College System, former chair of a State 

Workforce Planning Council, member of the State Workforce Board, 

and we staff the State Workforce Board. So I am really pleased to 

hear all the progress we are hearing around the country. 

We passed WIOA my first year in Congress. So most of the hard 

work was already done before I got here, but I was really pleased 

to support it because it was in line with a lot of the things that 

I had learned, the lessons I had learned from my positions. And 

what we were really focused on to try to get more private sector 

leadership and try to respond to the needs of employers. So that 

was our intent. Sometimes we don’t always hit the mark. 

And so what I would like to know, particularly from you, Mr. 

Painter, and you, Mr. Dubin, how we do or can we do better with 

the law than we did with WIOA? 

Mr. PAINTER. Congressman, thanks for the question. I think if 

there is anything that makes me more happier, I don’t know what 

it is, as I travel the country, but to see the kind of business engagement that we have. For example, in Benton Harbor, Michigan, 

Whirlpool has trained three of the staff for our workforce board 

there, Kinexus in Six Sigma. They were the highest in their class. 

They are now working to look at how we do these things of increasing the effectiveness and the efficiency inside the system. 

When you look at the training programs, when you look at—we 

just recently honored Lockheed Martin in the aviation consortium 

around the Tarrant County in the Dallas area because of the involvement. Businesses work hand-in-glove with the workforce 

boards not only to help identify what impact the aviation industry 

has in the Dallas region, but to develop a very unique video or a 

game that you can play on your smartphone called ‘‘FLYBY DFW,’’ 

which was designed by young people, built by young people with 

the workforce board and with business, and now engages lots of 

young people in learning more about the aviation industry. I think 

there are examples across the country like that. Congressman 

Thompson is very involved with career in technical education. We 

honored Wyoming Machines, which is in Minnesota. Two sisters 

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started a company. They are very involved with not only the community college system, but the workforce boards in events like 

women in technology and reaching back. So it is happening. 

Mr. BYRNE. The question is can we do better? 

Mr. PAINTER. Without question I think that’s—you designed and 

I take very seriously continuous improvement as part of one of the 

core tenants of WIOA. And as the National Association of Workforce Boards we constantly talk to the workforce boards about we 

can do better. And I think that’s where business engagement likewise helps us understand how. 

Mr. BYRNE. Thank you. Mr. Dubin? 

Mr. DUBIN. You know, my observations are really I guess twofold. One, we’ve made it on our State board, you know, it’s important to do service. So in the business community or in the ecosystem of workforce we’ve made it to be, you know, something 

that’s very, very important in terms of public service. A lot of us 

serve on the boards of our churches and community groups and 

nonprofits. This is very, very, very important. So we’ve made that 

a focus and we put the arm on businesses in our communities. So 

we’ve been selecting well, we’ve been trying to get that big web, 

you know, out there. 

I think it comes down to people being willing to give of their time 

and energy as a volunteer. I’m a volunteer. You know, I have a day 

job and this is something that’s become a passion because it’s a 

great way to serve. And that’s part of the message I think we need 

to get out. This is a great way to serve and it’s productive, because 

if you’re smart about it you’re also finding populations and groups 

of people that you can employ. And I think it’s a really good thing. 

So I think service is getting that message across. 

Mr. BYRNE. Well, I just wanted to close my time by saying this, 

I hear a lot of talk about money, and money is important. Golly, 

I know that having run these programs. But sometimes the most 

impact we have comes from when we bring in people from the private sector and the people from the private sector do things that 

government simply can’t do. I wasn’t very good at persuading a 15- 

year-old to be interested in career technical education, but if I 

brought in the local employer that would actually employ that 15- 

year-old when he or she finished that program, we got their attention and we got their mother and dad’s attention as well. 

So I really want to commend your work and the work that we 

hope that we have begun under WIOA to get more private sector 

people involved because that’s where the rubber is really going to 

hit the road. 

And I yield back. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. The gentleman yields back. Mr. Polis is recognized for 5 minutes for questions. 

Mr. POLIS. Thank you so much, Chairman Guthrie and Ranking 

Member Davis. This is a very important topic. When WIOA passed 

in 2014, it really made important changes to better align our workforce development system with the skills that people need to succeed in the 21st century. I am proud that our Colorado State plan 

really seeks to do just that. The plan focuses on engaging the business community and industry to align the workforce training proCEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

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grams, as well as leveraging data to support strong accountability 

and innovation. 

We recently launched CareerWise, a program that aligns our 

educational workforce systems through a new public-private partnership I am very excited about with the State and industry leaders. CareerWise has a goal of placing 20,000 high school students 

in apprenticeship by 2027, which would give students real-world, 

on-the-job experience, put them on a path towards a good-paying 

career. 

Mr. Painter, in your testimony you mentioned support from 

WIOA grants for coding programs in Eastern Kentucky. In our 

State there are several coding boot camps, like Galvanize and the 

Turing School, which graduate students and help place them into 

good-paying jobs just waiting to be filled. But because these programs don’t have higher education accreditation, they are not eligible for Federal education aid, they are largely self-paid. But some 

are exploring potentials for receiving State workforce grants, another potential avenue to help lower income families be able to 

avail themselves of those opportunities. 

Can you speak more about short-term accelerated programs like 

coding boot camps and what States can do to ensure quality, accountability, but also accessibility for the programs to receive funding? 

Mr. PAINTER. Thank you, Congressman. And Colorado is one of 

my favorite workforce systems to visit. You have a collaborative 

DNA, I think, or a gene in your DNA in Colorado. What we are 

seeing are these kind of short-term boot camps, and they’re across 

industries. You can look at examples in Minnesota where the workforce board put together with the healthcare sector a boot camp 

that has been able to reduce turnover. So that’s real money to business. When individuals know that they’re —— 

Mr. POLIS. Did the workforce center originate that or were they 

just kind of a partner in the conversations? 

Mr. PAINTER. They were a partner with business. Business came 

to them and said how do we reduce turnover in some of our entry 

level positions? So they designed a boot camp so the individual 

really does understand what the work is. There are examples in 

manufacturing, where workforce boards have designed boot camps 

around manufacturing. The robotics competition was mentioned 

earlier. It’s an incredible program —— 

Mr. POLIS. Are there any barriers to WIOA participation that we 

should be aware of or act to remove? 

Mr. PAINTER. I think when the funding is solely based on WIOA, 

you know, we talked earlier about cuts, when we’re picking up the 

bill for these boot camps and we can’t find the funds to braid, then 

they are certainly at risk. 

Mr. POLIS. Another question, Mr. Painter, and we will go to anybody else who wants to address it. As you know, entrepreneurship 

is absolutely critical for our future success. Today’s garage company could be tomorrow’s employer of thousands of people. And recent research from the Coffin Foundation found that about 20 percent of gross job creation comes from brand new businesses. 

Can you talk about how WIOA supports entrepreneurship and is 

there more that Congress can do to support opportunities and enCEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

50 

trepreneurship from self-employment to creating tomorrow’s great 

company? 

Mr. PAINTER. We’ve come a long way in workforce boards supporting entrepreneurial training. One of the most gratifying 

projects is if you look at Gainesville, Florida, the Innovation Center 

at the University of Florida, the workforce board works hand-inglove with them so that companies that need the next employee 

can find on-the-job training contracts through the board. Incumbent worker training is provided to entrepreneurs and startups to 

move those companies. So when you look at the wall of companies 

that have graduated, if you will, from the Innovation Center, it is 

replete with companies that have received WIOA support. 

Mr. POLIS. Would somebody else like to address the entrepreneurship within WIOA and how we can further encourage that? 

No? 

Finally, Mr. Painter, a critical component of supporting Colorado’s WIOA implementation is funding, of course. And as you 

mentioned, President Trump’s proposed budget makes drastic cuts. 

Can you share more about what the effect of those budget cuts 

would be if they were to occur? And what would be the trickledown effect to local workforce boards where the rubber meets the 

road? 

Mr. PAINTER. Local workforce boards are going to experience— 

you know, there is a certain amount of infrastructure, there is a 

certain amount of fixed cost that’s in the system because we must 

maintain one-stops in every local area across the country. It’s going 

to have an impact on—we look at 5,000 youth, you know, an average cost of $5,000 per youth served. I talked to a board recently 

that has 34,000 young people 16 to 24 not in the labor force. They 

have money to serve 1,000. Budget cuts are going to impact even 

that. We can’t even serve the number of individuals now who are 

eligible. 

Mr. POLIS. Thank you. And I yield back. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. The gentleman yields back. Recognized is 

Mr. Grothman for 5 minutes for questions. 

Mr. GROTHMAN. Thank you very much. I think I will aim these 

at Ms. Paczynski, but if anybody else wants to talk you can feel 

free to chime in. 

I have always been very interested in people with different abilities. Yesterday stopping by my office, a gal who I have known before, she is 35 years old working at Walmart, you know, taking 

care of herself, and just a tremendous story and a story I wish I 

could repeat it again and again and again. It seems to me that this 

program doesn’t necessarily always offer the flexibility we would 

want for people in her position. It is my understanding that rehabilitation services administration has advised State vocational 

rehab offices not to refer people with disabilities to jobs falling 

under AbilityOne contracts or State set-aside programs. Is that 

possibly true? 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. In South Carolina, vocational rehabilitation is 

braided within the workforce system. We are true partners in finding people employment. 

Mr. GROTHMAN. Okay. If a person learns of any available job, are 

the States being prohibited from providing any necessary supports? 

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And I would like any of the rest of you to answer, too, if that applies to your State. 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. We are, again, we are moving forward in a partnership for individuals going through the vocational rehabilitation 

system. 

Mr. GROTHMAN. Okay. I will ask this one more specific. Under 

section 511 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which is amended 

through this law, it bars anyone with a disability under the age of 

25 to work under a section 14(c) certificate for less than minimum 

wage unless they have failed one or more jobs. Do you believe that 

is true? 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. I do not have information on that. 

Mr. GROTHMAN. Okay. Okay. I will emphasize to you, and I want 

you to get back to the committee, I sometimes feel we are not doing 

enough to provide flexibility for people with different types of disabilities as they transition into being self-supporting in life and 

would like your input to the committee in that regard. 

Now, I will give you a general broader question. It is true that 

under President Trump’s proposed budget there are some cutbacks 

in these programs. I would like each of you in your States to tell 

me percentage-wise how much of these programs right now are 

State funded as opposed to funded by your local businesses or State 

and local governments. 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. I would have to get back to the committee with 

that information. 

Mr. GROTHMAN. Do you have an approximation? 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. I do not have an approximation. 

Mr. GROTHMAN. Sixty percent, 15 percent? 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. I would like to get back to the committee with 

that information. 

Mr. GROTHMAN. Okay. Any of the rest of you? Yes, Mr. Dubin? 

Mr. DUBIN. About 90 percent federally funded. 

Mr. GROTHMAN. Okay. Mr. Painter? Mr. Berlin? In your areas? 

Mr. PAINTER. It has to be the vast majority of the money is Federal money. I mean, I know when we were looking at who’s paying 

the cost for the American job centers, that was Wagner-Peyser and 

then WIA, the adult dislocated worker and youth projects, that 

were paying well over 90 percent. 

Mr. GROTHMAN. Okay. Mr. Berlin? 

Mr. BERLIN. So I was a candidate —— 

Mr. GROTHMAN. You really wouldn’t be able to —— 

Mr. BERLIN. So I wouldn’t have that information. 

Mr. GROTHMAN. Let us know. Okay. Do you feel that there are 

any Federal requirements here, and I will ask any of you that we 

could lift that would give you more flexibility, that would make 

things better? In other words, are there ever, as you administer 

these programs or deal with these programs, situations you say, oh 

geez, why do we have to fill out this form, or why can’t we do that? 

Mr. DUBIN. I believe that there is really a lot of prohibitions 

around marketing. I mean, one of the basic things I asked is why 

aren’t we, you know, getting the message out a little bit more commercially, like we’re used to? And I’d have to get back to you on 

the specifics, but I face some real barriers in tapping dollars to do 

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52 

something any of us in business would, that’s market ourselves in 

a commercial way. 

So I’ll get back to you with recommendations there that are more 

specific. 

Mr. GROTHMAN. Okay. Ms. Paczynski, do you have any—as you 

deal with these programs you kind of feel like either why do I have 

to fill out this form or why can’t I do this? 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. I would say that when it comes to reporting effectiveness in serving businesses each State would have its own 

performance measure indicators based upon what their businesses 

are indicating what success looks like. 

Mr. GROTHMAN. Okay. So you don’t feel in any way your hands 

are tied by Federal rules or regulations? 

Ms. PACZYNSKI. We continue to move forward with the implementation. And so at this time I do not have anything to offer. 

Mr. GROTHMAN. Okay. I will yield the remainder of my time. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. The gentleman’s time has expired. I now 

recognize Mr. DeSaulnier for 5 minutes for questions. 

Mr. DESAULNIER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I really appreciate the work that all of you do and, Mr. Berlin, the experience 

you have had. 

So my question is going to come from a viewpoint that having 

been involved in a workforce investment board as a small business 

owner and then been involved at the State of California as an elected official, I carried a bill that both had the Chamber of Commerce 

and the Labor Federation as their sponsors. And I thought I had 

found nirvana. And the bill just required that—and this was during 

the recession, so there was a real sense of urgency around the 

country, and it was true for California as well—about getting people to work in an environment that no one had seen before in terms 

of how do we get people to work? So the bill just said that 25 percent of all your funds has to go to training. Some of our boards 

thought I was the anti-Christ for presenting this. And I don’t want 

to sound like—well, Ms. Foxx has accused me when I bring this up 

of sounding like a Republican, so Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, accept this—I have seen really high-performing workforce investment boards and I have seen some that aren’t so high-performing. So we are loathe to prescribe too much, but Mr. Dubin 

and then Mr. Painter, how do we get the level of I think urgency 

that our clients need, both the employers and the employees that 

you seem to have struck, Mr. Dubin, in Maryland, to get those 

high-performing boards to bring the lower-performing boards up to 

the same level? And I see too many boards in California that are 

checking boxes, that don’t have that level of urgency, and want to 

do what you seem to have done in Maryland. So maybe you could 

address that? 

Mr. DUBIN. Well, first, in Maryland, I feel like I have a real mandate from our governor. So if it starts there, if it starts at the top, 

you feel, you know, pretty broad-shouldered in going and putting 

arms on people and asking them to come and participate. So it 

comes with leadership. 

We’re also self-imposing our own benchmarking right now. We’re 

going to be benchmarking and setting the bar higher than the Federal standards. So on some of the concerns about the Federal 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

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standards, I’m not an expert on all the paperwork and all the rest, 

but I will tell you that the standards and the ways that we will 

be judging ourselves, the efficacy of service and delivery, is around 

human beings being employed and the stickiness of that employment. And we literally have a task force now that I’m participating 

on as well, with our Department of Labor in the State of Maryland, 

on that benchmarking and I think we have an opportunity to sort 

of be one of the national leaders in that benchmarking. And perhaps that’s a way in teaching those benchmarks that are being 

thought through in 2017 to bring the standard and raise the bar 

for some of the less-performing boards. 

Mr. DESAULNIER. So you have found that to be effective, just by 

having those performance standards? You know, I am sure there 

are boards that perform better than others in your State and you 

are seeing all of the levels come up by doing this. 

Mr. DUBIN. We anticipate that will happen. That’s why we’re 

doing sort of our State higher bar than WIOA benchmarking and 

standards. 

Mr. DESAULNIER. Mr. Painter? 

Mr. PAINTER. Thanks for the question, Congressman. It certainly 

concerns us as well that we want high-performing workforce boards 

across the U.S. I think one of the victims when budgets get tight 

is that you start letting go of internal training. And I think when 

we look at a labor market that has as many transactions in the 

course of year as the U.S. labor market, I think to a degree, collectively, we have been remiss in not investing more money in the 

thousands of people who offer assistance to people like Heath 

across the country. I would really like to see us spend more money 

on internal capacity-building for workforce development professionals. 

Mr. DESAULNIER. On a separate issue, but one of my colleagues 

from Michigan brought this up, and I have a lot of respect for him, 

having unemployment rates be sort of the performance mark in 

whether we should lower budgets. But that, I think, is just one 

thing we should consider. 

Mr. Painter, maybe you can sort of respond to that, that we have 

people who are out of the workforce right now, we have people on 

disability, we have got people who need to be retrained. So unemployment is not the only measurement we should be looking at in 

terms of reinvesting in these issues. 

Mr. PAINTER. No, I would agree. I think the situation we’re in— 

I had the opportunity the other day to talk to an economist who 

was talking about the situation we’re in, that this is really a skill 

development pathway that we have to pursue in order to get ourselves out of what we are hearing from employers in terms of not 

being able to find qualified workers. To find those individuals who 

are on the periphery of the labor market today takes marketing, 

takes more effort, takes the innovation that we’re seeing out of 

some of the workforce boards with better websites, reliance on 

smartphone messaging to individuals. But, you know, again, I hate 

to sound like a broken record, but again, that takes resources to 

do that kind of change. 

Mr. DESAULNIER. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

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Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. Mr. 

Barletta is recognized for 5 minutes for questions. 

Mr. BARLETTA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Dubin, thank you 

for being here and I appreciate you recognizing the SHINE program. I have long been a champion of SHINE from the very first 

day that I toured the program. 

And for those who don’t know, it is an afterschool program operating in my district that is geared toward students from kindergarten through 8th grade. The SHINE program has been proven to 

help kids improve attendance, behavior, test scores. Teachers have 

come forward and saw a remarkable difference in these students 

that were not showing up to school as much, their attendance may 

not have been as good and they were not participating, and all of 

that has changed because of that program. And SHINE has showed 

me that when you awaken the minds of young children with hope 

and possibility of what their futures can be that there is no stopping them. 

That is why I am happy that you chose to highlight one of 

SHINE’s many strengths, connecting students with career and 

technical experts so that they are exposed to job opportunities that 

they otherwise might not even know exist. We all know that we 

must bridge the skills gap to help more of our constituents realize 

good-paying jobs and to help our local businesses thrive. This is 

good for our communities and it is good for America. 

But I believe we must also work to remove the stigma that is associated with nontraditional technical careers. Studies show that 

educating students about their options at a younger age is central 

to achieving this goal. After all, even if we have job training programs in place they are nothing without dedicated and enthusiastic 

students to take advantage of them. 

So, Mr. Dubin, through your experiences on the Maryland Workforce Board, do you have any suggestions on how we can better 

incentivize workforce development organizations to engage with 

afterschool programs like SHINE and how can communities work 

within the existing framework of WIOA to establish and identify 

these partnerships? 

Mr. DUBIN. I think the first is with the educators. You know, 

sometimes you get some of the resistance from the educators because they are teaching, you know, different sorts of skills. You 

know, educators have their own idea about pedagogy, their own 

idea about the experiences in school. And I think that’s where some 

of the block may be, to be candid, is having that dialogue and having the, you know, will at the State level to have those discussions 

with your State school superintendants or what have you. So I 

think it’s a big one. 

In Maryland, we have very successful CTE programs, we just 

need to find avenues for more funding. I’ll be very clear about it. 

I’m a big proponent of, you know, funding. And where you get those 

dollars there’s usually big waiting lists. And so, you know, funding 

to CTE, the educators. A lot of employers that are looking for 

skilled people, people that need to be trained, in our State they are 

very much our partners with CTE. I think that we’re under capacity in what we’re producing on the CTE side actually. 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

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Mr. BARLETTA. I had a local employer approach me just a couple 

of weeks ago and said he had 100 good-paying jobs, but literally 

cannot find people to fill them. In fact, his biggest hurdle he said 

was getting people to pass the drug test. And I hear this more and 

more often and it is discouraging when there are so many people 

unemployed, there are so many jobs that are available, and we 

know what we have got to do, teach the skills, but I think somewhere we have got to get back to teach basic skills, like showing 

up to work on time and, you know, don’t call in sick 5 minutes before you are supposed to show up. 

Mr. DUBIN. And if I may, that’s one of the reasons the State of 

Maryland also spends some considerable resources on soft skills. 

Soft skills are important. Soft skills are very important. Not everyone, you know, had the advantage of growing up with people 

around them that taught them the things you need to be successful. And so I’m also a big proponent of soft skills training. And we 

see it at the board all the time, those big success stories because 

that little extra element of soft skills gave someone the ability to 

go and do an interview and get a job. 

Mr. BARLETTA. And I am going to close with another commercial. 

If anyone has not heard about the SHINE program, go online because it can be a model around the country. We have taken kids 

who may have lost interest and totally redirected their lives. When 

I went in these kids were building robots and remote-controlled 

cars and it was just amazing, and I think we have really got to 

refocus who we are helping. 

Thank you. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. I 

recognize Mr. Espaillat, 5 minutes for questions. 

Mr. ESPAILLAT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter from the Campaign for Youth, 

which underscores the importance of WIOA’s Federal investment in 

youth. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Without objection, so ordered. 

Mr. ESPAILLAT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Painter, as others 

have mentioned here today, WIOA prioritizes a service for those 

with the greatest barriers to employment, including low-income 

and out-of-school youth. I know this firsthand because I benefitted 

from a summer youth job program in New York—in fact, it was my 

first job opportunity as a young teenager—and can attest to how 

critical funding for these programs are. While WIOA focuses funding on out-of-school youth, the law still encourages services to lowincome and in-school youth. This means that local workforce systems must engage and partner with school districts to serve these 

young people. 

What does that mean for big urban areas like New York City 

that have a large school system and, unfortunately, a very high 

dropout rate? 

Mr. PAINTER. I think as Congressman Barletta mentioned, workforce boards across the country, I’m very happy to say, are funded 

by—NAWB is funded by the Kellogg Foundation to pursue a twogeneration strategy. When we got the award we put out a notice 

to local boards. We gave them 10 days to respond back to us. Thirteen of them came back and asked us to help fund local efforts who 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

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are working in Montgomery County, Maryland; Maricopa, Arizona; 

and El Paso, Texas. What we discovered is that workforce boards, 

through their business partnerships, are involved with the pre-K 

through 12 system in all aspects, working at career days, working 

with career and tech centers on what kind of occupations are in demand, what are the certifications that industries in the region are 

looking at. 

I think, again, with regard to out-of-school youth there are places 

like Cincinnati, Ohio, Hamilton County, where virtually 100 percent of the youth money is spent on out-of-school youth. It is one 

of the major changes in WIOA and I am happy to say that we are 

making substantial progress in trying to figure out how to reach 

out-of-school youth and reengage them, many times through 

projects like robotics and hands-on kind of work-based learning. 

Mr. ESPAILLAT. In fiscal year 2016, New York City alone received 

more than $65 million in total from WIOA funding for employment 

programs serving two groups of New Yorkers: the youth and 

adults. New York City has utilized its funding to reconnect our disconnected youth to educational and workforce opportunities and 

has played an integral role in providing adults with the necessary 

skill sets to enter the workforce. For example, the Workforce1 Centers, one of which is located in Harlem, in my district, received 

WIOA funding and connected 25,000 New Yorkers to jobs. Earlier 

this year, the Workforce1 Healthcare Career Centers, a specialized 

center with industry expertise in healthcare, worked closely with 

the center Plans for Healthy Living and the second-largest managed long-term care provider in New York State. This employer 

was facing severe challenges to find the appropriately qualified registered nurses, which seems to be a great need, not just in New 

York State, but across the country. But the healthcare center successfully sourced, screened, and referred a number of qualified registered nurses to the employer. The result was a phenomenal increase: 21 individuals got hired over the course of the 1 month as 

registered nurses, earning between 74- to $86,000 per year, and the 

employer was thrilled to fill so many positions so quickly. 

Can you explain what are the real and lasting impacts of essentially cutting in half our investment in these critical programs, specifically in New York? 

Mr. PAINTER. Well, I think as you mentioned, Congressman, I 

mean, in many places WIOA is the foundation of these connections 

between out-of-school youth, and in some cases in-school youth, 

through the work of the boards. There is nothing else. WIOA is the 

foundation of making these connections. 

In New York, as you mentioned, again, it is one of the key partners in the projects that are going on in New York City, as it is 

elsewhere. When you think about summer youth employment it is 

a braiding of funding at the local level between, as Mr. Dubin 

pointed out, business kicking in, local philanthropic, CDBG, CSBG, 

and WIOA funds, all braided to try and provide the work experience that we know is essential for young people to get to experience. And I’m happy to say, like you, I am a former summer youth 

employment participant. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Gentlemen, time has expired. 

Mr. ESPAILLAT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

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Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you. And I now recognize Mr. Thompson for 5 minutes for questions. 

Mr. THOMPSON. Thank you, Chairman. Thanks to the members 

of the panel for being here today. I am very proud of the work that 

we have done over the past number of years here on this Education 

and Workforce Committee, starting with a strong bipartisan piece 

of legislation that we are doing oversight on today, WIOA. And, 

Chairman, thank you for doing the oversight. 

I have found it is not good enough to pass effective and righteous 

pieces of legislation, but, unfortunately, we are at the mercies of 

unelected bureaucrats on how it gets implemented. And in providing that oversight, make sure that things stay true to the intent 

of Congress. 

This WIOA was written with, you know, I am sure there are a 

number of principles you could reflect on, but the whole Learn to 

Earn and skills-based education principles, and those are principles 

we brought forward with the Every Student Succeeds Act, which is 

being implemented now. And next week I am hopeful on the floor 

we will have the Career and Technical Education Bill, which obviously was authored following those same two principles. And sometime in the future we will do the Higher Education Act, which, 

quite frankly, those two principles work for the Higher Education 

Act as well, Learn to Earn and skills-based education. 

My first question is, knowing the basic elements of WIOA that 

we really felt were so important, how well have we achieved at 

bringing business and industry a/k/a job creators into a majority 

level on our web boards? 

Mr. PAINTER. Congressman, I’ll take that first. I think I’m happy 

to observe you, sir, have done a very active board that —— 

Mr. THOMPSON. I am a recovering web board member. 

Mr. PAINTER. You are. The first time I ever heard of the term 

‘‘mechatronics’’ as an industry I heard from your workforce board 

as you worked closely with business. That’s what we’re seeing 

across the country, that there are initiatives at community colleges, 

there are initiatives elsewhere that have been brought about because of the workforce board’s role in convening businesses, in 

working with sector partnerships in their local area that have 

brought to the attention of the whole workforce development system the need to sometimes change curriculum, focus more on a 

particular certification than they have in the past. I think we are 

making progress. 

Mr. THOMPSON. Good. But the essential question, the basic point, 

the starting point, is are we at 100 percent compliance with all of 

our web boards having a majority stakeholder interest being job 

creators today? That was an essential element of WIOA. 

Mr. PAINTER. Let me say, many times people don’t call me to tell 

me wonderful success stories. They call me to tell me—whether it’s 

a State director or a local—it’s a problem. I’m not aware —— 

Mr. THOMPSON. Welcome to our world. 

Mr. PAINTER.—that we have compliance problems. Yes. I’m not 

aware we have those compliance—I’m not aware of boards that are 

not in compliance. 

Mr. THOMPSON. Okay. No, I just was interested because my assumption is we are in compliance, we are moving ahead with imCEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

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plementation. So, you know, at one time when I was on a workforce 

board there was a bit of a conflict of interest. It was the training 

and education facilities that had the stronger representation. Not 

that they are not great people, they are great partners, but our vision with WIOA was the people who knew where the jobs were 

going to be today and tomorrow were the ones we want governing 

our workforce investment boards. 

So assuming that we are in compliance, have we seen better employment success as a result of implementation of in-demand skillsbased education? 

Mr. PAINTER. I am going to say I can provide you examples, but 

I’m going to say yes, yes, we have. We have seen the example that 

I cited in Pittsburgh, 100 percent placement. 

Mr. THOMPSON. Great. 

Mr. PAINTER. It was not too long ago a guy was in West Virginia 

where the workforce board and the community college put together 

some basic training for advanced manufacturing. The placement 

rate was 100 percent. So I think we are seeing the industry move 

to a very targeted approach. 

Mr. THOMPSON. That is great. That is better than my experience 

under the old rules where we were training some arbitrary list at 

the State capital that had nothing to do with the economic job opportunities in our region. 

Mr. PAINTER. That’s why we appreciated, Congressman, local 

control and local direction for the program. 

Mr. THOMPSON. There you go. Absolutely. Very quickly, I was interested to follow up on the young lady from Delaware. WIOA, 

which obviously I am a big fan of, but, you know, you don’t get everything quite right and I do have some concerns. Have you seen 

any impacts on individuals with significant physical and intellectual needs? 

I love being—I at one time, and, unfortunately, a lot of that has 

gone away—being in shelter workshops on payday. Now, I worked 

with people facing life-changing disease and disability for 28 years, 

so I am committed to lifting people, empowering people, moving 

people to, you know, good gainful employment. But some folks have 

such complex disabilities that they just don’t reach that level and 

there was nothing more—it was a celebration on payday when 

those checks were handed out, even though they were a couple of 

dollars maybe. And I am finding that one of the impacts of WIOA 

perhaps, I am not quite sure, is that the opportunities for people 

who just have such significant physical and intellectual disabilities 

they cannot get to that minimum wage plus employment. 

And so I have run out of time, but if you have any insight into 

the impacts in your areas, your States, on those individuals, I 

would love to get that in writing. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Thanks. The gentleman yields. I recognize 

Ms. Bonamici for 5 minutes for questions. 

Ms. BONAMICI. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, and thank you for allowing me to join these two subcommittees. Even though I do not serve on the subcommittees this 

is such an important issue and I look at it also from my K–12 Committee experience and background. There are so many overlapping 

issues I think as we have seen from the discussion today. We all 

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hear about the skills gap when we are back at home and this has 

been true regardless of how unemployment is. Of course, there are 

different challenges, as my colleague from Delaware pointed out, 

when there is low unemployment. The need is different, maybe 

more intense because there are people with disabilities or the longterm unemployed and still have significant challenges. 

One of the things I wanted to note is that the level of expertise, 

and I appreciate all of your expertise as people who work in the 

field and, Mr. Berlin, your success story. Thank you for sharing 

that. The level of expertise on this committee I think is really impressive of people who have real world experience. I am someone 

who hears about the skills gap and is working hard to address it 

in a couple of ways. And we talked about the CTE legislation, 

which I am very excited about. I hope this time we can get it 

through the Senate as well as through the House. 

Mr. Dubin, you spoke in your testimony about work study and 

working with Mr. Byrne on a bipartisan proposal to help with work 

study funding, but also to help align work study jobs with the students’ career interests and career path; afterschool programs, 

which was noted in testimony how important afterschool programs 

are. I am extremely concerned about the proposed cuts to, for example, 21st century learning. We need to make sure that all of 

those programs are there so that we minimize the need to fix the 

skills gap, that we have more people ready for the workforce. Soft 

skills was addressed. 

The funding challenges are significant and I would like to introduce, Mr. Chairman, into the record a letter from the Campaign to 

Invest in America’s Workforce. This is addressed to the House and 

Senate Appropriations Committees in support of funding workforce 

programs. These are such a good investment. So I would like to introduce that into the record. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Without objection, so ordered. 

Ms. BONAMICI. Thank you. 

Like Representative Courtney and Chairwoman Foxx, many of 

us, I was at the bill signing for WIOA. It was my first bill signing 

as a member of Congress. It was pretty exciting. It was so bipartisan. And I was very proud of that bill and now we are seeing it 

being implemented. One of the things that I appreciated and, you 

know, listening to a lot of the hearings when we were working on 

it, is the coordination and the emphasis on coordination between 

employers, Federal agencies, workforce training programs, educational systems, nonprofits, and I note, Mr. Dubin, you talked 

about collaboration that is happening in your State. 

One of the things I wanted to talk about, in my district in Northwest Oregon, Easter Seals facilitates the Washington County Senior Community Service Employment Program, which is an Older 

Americans Act program, but they work together. And I also oppose 

the budget cuts—well, actually the budget that seeks to completely 

eliminate this program—Easter Seals colocates the Senior Community Service Employment Program in Oregon’s WorkSource Centers, which is part of America’s Job Center network. So as a result 

of this colocation, the participants get to serve optimal access to the 

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crimination out there. Older Americans have a much more challenging time. 

So, Mr. Painter, can you discuss a little bit the benefits of coordinated colocation and how these types of programs benefitted from 

this integration? 

Mr. PAINTER. Thank you, Congresswoman. In a previous life, as 

a local director, I got to administer senior community service employment. So firsthand we got to see the impact that it has in providing older Americans with an opportunity to reenter the workforce, to acquire different sets of skills. You’re right, the coordination is critical. It’s critical that we have an approach to business, 

that it’s a strategic approach to business, that it’s not necessarily 

pitting one group at another, but it’s looking at the business strategy and then coming back and as a collective team, which is happening more and more, how can we solve this problem and what 

talent resources do we collectively have. And then working, as 

Heath’s example, using on-the-job training, using internships. Platform to Employment out of Connecticut is a remarkable example 

of how you can take work, on-the-job training, internships, work 

experience, and craft that. But it takes that coordination among 

the providers. 

Ms. BONAMICI. Terrific. And as I yield back I just want to align 

myself with Mr. Takano’s concerns about the possibility of eliminating the registration process for apprenticeships. I would be more 

than interested in hearing examples of how the registration process 

for apprenticeships, if it is not working well, if we need to streamline it or fix it. I would be very concerned about eliminating it. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. I thank the gentlelady for yielding back. 

And that concludes members’ questions. I would like to thank our 

witnesses for taking the time to testify before our subcommittee 

today. 

And before I recognize our ranking member for any closing comments I just want to say what she said in the beginning, when we 

send letters to each other here we call them ‘‘Dear Colleagues,’’ but 

we actually have a dear colleague that is recovering and we have 

four other people who served this House and, therefore, served this 

country that are recovering today. But we also, as the day went on 

yesterday, talked to so many other of our dear colleagues who were 

part of a traumatic experience, one that was—I guess the guy 

started outside of third base, shooting, going in, and he was in left 

field, right next to him, but the guy shot into the infield. And so 

we have a lot of people that are going through that. So be mindful 

as we go throughout the day that we have a lot of people hurting 

and we have had a lot of prayers answered as well. 

So I recognize Ranking Member Davis for any closing comments. 

Ms. DAVIS. Thank you, Chairman, Mr. Chairman. And I appreciate those comments as well. I wanted to thank you all so much. 

I think it has been a very thoughtful discussion. We really appreciate your experiences and your expertise as well. 

And I just wanted to mention so quickly, because I think we have 

a sense of the breadth and the depth of so many, you know, fabulous examples throughout our country where people are really centered on trying to find the very, very best way to help both employCEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

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ees and employers and make the marketplace one that works for 

everyone. 

And one of the issues that we have touched on a little bit, but 

not fully is that one of apprenticeships. And I think that what we 

now have a proposal out there is to be again very thoughtful as 

how we approach that. You know, it is always in the details, that 

it is very, very important, and we want to be sure that we don’t 

cut off opportunities in some areas in order to do something different that in many cases may not have the same kind of accountability. We are talking about American taxpayer dollars and we 

want to be sure that those taxpayer dollars go to those programs 

that we have the ability to really be able to understand whether 

they are helpful or not, whether they are doing what we say they 

are going to do. 

So you have touched on some of that. We are certainly going to 

be having far more discussions in the future, Mr. Chairman. 

And I thank you all very much for being here. 

Chairman GUTHRIE. Thank you very much. And they’ve been 

very informative and really appreciate your testimony. 

And without being objection, there being no further business, the 

subcommittee stands adjourned. 

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[Additional submission by Mr. Smucker follows:] 

[Whereupon, at 12:10 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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