I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5852 
To amend the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to provide training 
services linked to employment demand through skills training grants, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 29, 2023 
Mr. NORCROSS (for himself and Mr. HORSFORD) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To amend the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act 
to provide training services linked to employment demand 
through skills training grants, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘21st Century Skills 
are Key to Individuals’ Life-Long Success Act’’ or the 
‘‘21st Century SKILLS Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) In 1962, Congress authorized the first sub-
stantial Federal job training programs in the post-
war period, to retrain workers displaced because of 
technological change. 
(2) For nearly 60 years, Federal workforce de-
velopment programs have emphasized targeted edu-
cation and job training and reemployment activities, 
service coordination and delivery, and a demand- 
driven approach that is responsive to consumer 
choice for participants and to the labor needs of 
local employers. 
(3) Now the 21st century economy demands 
systems that equip workers to be able to think criti-
cally and creatively, solve complex problems, make 
evidence-based decisions, adapt to evolving tech-
nologies, and work collaboratively. 
(4) Increasing 21st century skills development 
is linked to improving employment prospects and 
work success. Removal of structural barriers to em-
ployment prospects and work success, such as im-
plicit bias, hiring discrimination, transportation 
gaps, and housing insecurity, requires raising em-
ployer responsibility and job standards and improv-
ing connections for individuals with barriers to em-
ployment. 
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(5) Building on the functions of entities in the 
workforce development system, including aggre-
gating data and acting as catalysts to promote ca-
reers with good pay, will contribute to fostering in-
clusive economic growth. 
(6) This Act, and the amendments made by this 
Act, will remove barriers to inclusive economic 
growth by allowing workers to access training oppor-
tunities through eligible providers of training serv-
ices, including community colleges and registered ap-
prenticeship programs, and by providing supportive 
services, including child care and transportation. 
SEC. 3. SKILLS TRAINING GRANTS. 
(a) DISCRETIONARY
FUNDING
FOR
ACTIVITIES 
OTHER THAN TRAINING SERVICES.— 
(1) ALLOTMENTS.—Section 132 of the Work-
force Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. 
3172) is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(d) DISCRETIONARY AND MANDATORY FUNDING.— 
‘‘(1) MANDATORY FUNDING.—Notwithstanding 
any other provision of this chapter, none of the 
funds appropriated under subsection (a), (b), or (c) 
of section 136, and allotted or otherwise provided 
under this section, may be used to provide training 
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services, except under the provisions described in 
paragraph (2). Funds appropriated under section 
136(d) shall be used to provide training services and 
supportive services under section 134(c)(3), and ad-
ditional sums described in section 134(c)(3)(C)(ii) 
for career services under section 134(c)(2). 
‘‘(2) EXCEPTIONS.—The provisions described in 
this paragraph are section 129(b), paragraph (2) or 
(3) of section 134(a), or section 134(d), 169(c) or 
170.’’. 
(2) ALLOCATIONS.—Section 133(b)(1) of such 
Act (29 U.S.C. 3173(b)(1)) is amended by striking 
‘‘The’’ and inserting ‘‘Subject to section 132(d), 
the’’. 
(b) MANDATORY FUNDING
FOR TRAINING SERV-
ICES.—Section 134 of such Act (29 U.S.C. 3174) is 
amended— 
(1) by striking subsection (b) and inserting the 
following: 
‘‘(b) LOCAL EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ACTIVI-
TIES.— 
‘‘(1) TRAINING SERVICES.—Funds appropriated 
under section 136(d) shall be used to pay or reim-
burse local boards for the cost of providing training 
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services, supportive services, and career services as 
described in section 136(d). 
‘‘(2) OTHER EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING AC-
TIVITIES.—Funds allocated to a local area for adults 
under paragraph (2)(A) or (3), as appropriate, of 
section 133(b), and funds allocated to a local area 
for dislocated workers under section 133(b)(2)(B)— 
‘‘(A) shall be used to carry out employ-
ment and training activities described in sub-
section (c), other than subsection (c)(3), for 
adults or dislocated workers, respectively; and 
‘‘(B) may be used to carry out employment 
and training activities described in subsection 
(d) for adults or dislocated workers, respec-
tively.’’. 
(c) SKILLS TRAINING GRANTS.—Section 134(c) of 
such Act (29 U.S.C. 3174(c)) is amended— 
(1) in paragraph (1)— 
(A) in subparagraph (A)— 
(i) by striking clause (iii); and 
(ii) by redesignating clauses (iv) and 
(v) as clauses (iii) and (iv), respectively; 
(B) by redesignating subparagraph (B) as 
subparagraph (C); and 
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(C) by inserting after subparagraph (A) 
the following: 
‘‘(B) TRAINING
SERVICES, 
SUPPORTIVE 
SERVICES, AND
CAREER
SERVICES
FUNDS.— 
Funds appropriated under section 136(d) shall 
be used to provide training services, supportive 
services, and career services as described in sec-
tion 136(d) to adults and dislocated workers 
who are eligible for the services involved.’’; 
(2) in paragraph (2)— 
(A) in subparagraph (A), by striking 
‘‘Funds described in paragraph (1)’’ and insert-
ing ‘‘Funds described in paragraph (1) or made 
available under paragraph (3)(C)(ii)’’; and 
(B) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(D) PRIORITY.—With respect to funds al-
located to a local area for adult employment 
and training activities under paragraph (2)(A) 
or (3) of section 133(b), priority shall be given 
to recipients of public assistance, other low-in-
come individuals, and individuals who are basic 
skills deficient for receipt of career services de-
scribed in subparagraph (A)(xii). The appro-
priate local board and the Governor shall direct 
the one-stop operators in the local area with re-
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gard to making determinations related to such 
priority.’’; and 
(3) in paragraph (3)— 
(A) in subparagraph (A)(i)— 
(i) in the matter preceding subclause 
(I)— 
(I) by striking ‘‘funds allocated 
to a local area for adults under para-
graph (2)(A) or (3), as appropriate, of 
section 133(b), and funds allocated to 
the local area for dislocated workers 
under section 133(b)(2)(B),’’ and in-
serting ‘‘funds appropriated under 
section 136(d) and made available 
under subparagraph (C)(i)’’; and 
(II) by striking ‘‘, respectively’’; 
and 
(ii) in subclause (IV), by striking 
‘‘who are’’ and all that follows and insert-
ing ‘‘who meet the requirements of sub-
paragraph (E).’’; 
(B) by amending subparagraph (C) to read 
as follows: 
‘‘(C) ARRANGEMENTS
FOR
OBTAINING 
FEDERAL FUNDING.— 
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‘‘(i) TRAINING
SERVICES
AND
SUP-
PORTIVE
SERVICES.—The Secretary shall 
establish arrangements by which a local 
board shall obtain payment in advance for 
the cost of providing training services and 
supportive services through skills training 
grants or contracts to individuals who have 
been determined to meet the requirements 
of subparagraph (A) and are therefore eli-
gible for the services involved. 
‘‘(ii) CAREER SERVICES AND COORDI-
NATION ACTIVITIES.—When the Secretary 
provides payment under clause (i) to a 
local board for an amount under such 
clause, the Secretary shall also provide an 
additional sum equal to 10 percent of the 
amount to the local board. The local board 
shall use the additional sum to pay for— 
‘‘(I) career services described in 
paragraph (2), including— 
‘‘(aa) making the services 
described in clauses (v), (vii), 
(ix), (x), (xi), and (xii) of para-
graph (2)(A) available to any 
skills training grant recipient 
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outside of traditional working 
hours, as defined by the Sec-
retary; and 
‘‘(bb) the provision of infor-
mation, in formats that are usa-
ble by and understandable to in-
dividuals eligible to receive serv-
ices through the one-stop delivery 
system, about— 
‘‘(AA) the local avail-
ability of pre-apprenticeship 
and 
apprenticeship 
pro-
grams, and the costs of 
these programs to the skills 
training grant recipient as 
compared to the costs of 
training programs provided 
by other eligible providers of 
training services; and 
‘‘(BB) 
apprenticeship 
programs in industries in 
which apprenticeship pro-
grams have not been tradi-
tionally used, including in-
formation for populations 
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traditionally 
underrep-
resented in apprenticeship 
programs; and 
‘‘(II) activities to build relation-
ships between local boards and local 
eligible providers of training services, 
such as— 
‘‘(aa) working with such 
local eligible providers to improve 
data reporting to local boards on 
the primary indicators of per-
formance described in subclauses 
(I) 
through 
(IV) 
of 
section 
116(b)(2)(A)(i) and, if the local 
boards and local eligible pro-
viders agree, any primary indi-
cator of performance described in 
subclause (V) or (VI) of such 
section; 
‘‘(bb) negotiating with such 
local eligible providers of training 
services regarding any adjusted 
levels of performance required by 
the local board under section 
122(b)(3); and 
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‘‘(cc) coordinating with local 
providers of training services and 
the State to update the list of eli-
gible providers of training serv-
ices 
described 
in 
section 
122(d).’’; 
(C) in subparagraph (D), by adding at the 
end the following: 
‘‘Notwithstanding any other provision of this 
subparagraph, solely for purposes of this para-
graph, training services shall not include in-
struction, at an institution of higher education 
that provides a 4-year program of instruction, 
towards a baccalaureate or post-baccalaureate 
degree.’’; 
(D) by striking subparagraph (E) and in-
serting the following: 
‘‘(E) EMPLOYMENT AND INCOME.—To be 
eligible to receive training services and sup-
portive services under this paragraph, an indi-
vidual shall— 
‘‘(i)(I) be a dislocated worker; 
‘‘(II) be eligible for and receiving un-
employment compensation under any Fed-
eral unemployment compensation law; 
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‘‘(III) be unemployed and have ex-
hausted all unemployment compensation 
benefits available to the individual; or 
‘‘(IV) be employed for at least 6 of 
the last 12 months and have an income 
that is not more than 100 percent of the 
State median income in the State in which 
the individual resides; and 
‘‘(ii) be a member of a household with 
an adjusted gross income of not more than 
$150,000.’’; 
(E) in subparagraph (F)— 
(i) in clause (ii), by inserting before 
‘‘Each’’ the following: ‘‘Training services 
shall be provided through providers identi-
fied in accordance with section 122.’’; 
(ii) by striking clause (iii) and insert-
ing the following: 
‘‘(iii) SKILLS TRAINING GRANTS.— 
‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—An individual 
who seeks training services and who is 
eligible pursuant to this paragraph, 
may, in consultation with a career 
counselor, select an eligible provider of 
training services from the list of pro-
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