Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Passed, President to Sign

Author:  Marta Moakley, XpertHR Legal Editor

July 17, 2014

Congress has passed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA; H.R. 803), and the bill is headed to President Obama for signature.  The WIOA, which reauthorizes the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) through 2020, overhauls existing employment, training and education programs and streamlines the current workforce development system structure.

The WIA broadly funds job training, adult education, vocational rehabilitation and other employment services. The law had been overdue for reauthorization for the past decade. The WIOA builds upon the WIA's funded priorities through its stated purpose of strengthening the workforce development system and of promoting "individual and national economic growth."

The bicameral legislation had bipartisan support, as well as broad support of various labor organizations, state governors and large corporations. Key provisions of the bill include:

• Eliminating 15 existing programs;
• Requiring states to develop unified plans and to use common accountability measures; and
• Developing sector-based strategies.

The bill would streamline current practices by eliminating the "sequence of services" provisions of the WIA, which require an individual to receive training services in sequential order. Therefore, the highest level of training services (e.g., access to programs at a community college) is not immediately available to a currently eligible individual (e.g., a displaced worker). Under the WIOA, a displaced worker could receive those services with a one-stop center recommendation.

If the WIOA is enacted, recruiters may soon have access to a broader pool of skilled candidates to fill existing workforce gaps. In addition, this legislation may positively affect the long-term unemployed, whose current situation is so dire that some legislators have found it necessary to pass laws protecting them from employment discrimination. Otherwise employable candidates may experience declining skills if out of work for a significant amount of time, a challenge that these programs may help to address.

The WIOA's amendments would continue training or retraining efforts to aid displaced workers (e.g., workers affected by mass layoffs). However, states would have greater discretion to allocate funds under the bill. An employer's obligations under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act would continue under the WIOA.