The following information was obtained through NASWA. For additional information on these and other related matters, please visit www.naswa.org

The UI extension is at the top of the list of important items, tied to the national economy. Also included are the Senate Appropriations Panel proposed restoration levels of funding for Employment Service, WIA and other training programs.  
 
This will be my last legislative update as today concludes the current fiscal year!  Look for news on legislative items to come from your new chair, Veronica Champayne.  I know she will do a great job and will continue to provide you with timely and informative items related to the legislative picture of our workforce world.
 
It has been my sincere pleasure communicating in this venue through out the years and although people on the board change, I find that there are many people who have remained active board participants who have had different roles over the years.  To all of you, thank you for your great support and coordinated efforts on legislative activities.
 
My communications are not ending, they are just evolving to a certain degree.  I will continue to write a standing column in the Cal-Liope, titled “Changing Your Life”.  I plan to share information that relates to self help and personal excellence.  Look for this in your next issue and you can continue to email me your thoughts or suggestions on the column at:  iylife@aol.com

Have a great day & I hope you have a great summer!
 
Rob Claudio

July 1, 2008

President George W. Bush signed HR 2642 into law yesterday. This law, among other things, extends eligibility for unemployment insurance benefits by 13 weeks.
The provisions of the bill are effective immediately. Individuals must have worked 20 weeks to be eligible. The federal extended benefits are to be paid 100 percent from the federal extended unemployment compensation account.

June 27, 2008

UI PROVISIONS INTACT AS HOUSE PASSES BIPARTISAN WAR FUNDING BILL
The U.S. Senate on Thursday agreed with the House-passed bill and passed the H.R. 2642, the domestic spending provisions of the war supplemental appropriations bill, providing extended unemployment insurance (UI) benefits and additional funds to states for administrative costs of UI, by a vote of 92-6. The bill is expected to be signed by President Bush early next week.
The bill represents a compromise from earlier proposals and includes up to 13 weeks of extended benefits in all states and $110 million in supplemental funding in the form of Grants to States for the UI administrative costs for the balance of fiscal year 2008.
The primary UI-related features of the bill include:
Emergency unemployment compensation benefits will be available to individuals who have exhausted regular unemployment compensation under state law in all states for up to 13 times the individual's average weekly benefit amount for the benefit year or 50 percent of the total amount of regular compensation payable to the individual during the individual's benefit year, whichever is less. (Note: this means that if individuals qualify for fewer weeks of regular state benefits they will only be eligible for 50 percent of that amount e.g. an individual qualifying for 20 weeks of state benefits would only receive 10 weeks under the new federal extension;
The bill provides a reachback to individuals who have exhausted regular unemployment compensation and whose benefit year ended no earlier than May 1, 2007.
To be eligible, individuals must have exhausted all rights to regular state compensation and have worked 20 weeks in full-time covered employment or earned the equivalent in covered wages;
No payments of federal emergency benefits would be made for any week beginning after June 30, 2009.
Once the bill is signed, USDOL will transmit agreements to states --- which could occur early next week.

SENATE APPROPRIATIONS PANEL RESTORES FUNDING FOR CRITICAL LABOR PROGRAMS - DRAFT BILL TEXT AVAILABLE
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill by a vote of 26-3 on Thursday. According to a summary, legislation provides $2.9 billion for state grants for job training, an increase of $25 million over last year and $499 million over the budget request.
NASWA has obtained a draft copy of the Senate bill and accompanying report (click here) (15 m). The committee rejected the elimination of funding for Wagner-Peyser Employment Service Grants as well as cuts to Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Adult, Youth and Dislocated Worker and funded these programs at or, in the case of UI, above the FY 2008 levels.
Note: To access the draft bill and each of the parts of the report separately, use the following links:
Draft Bill text, Report - Part 1, Report - Part 2, Report - Part 3, Report - Part 4
Funding Levels in the Senate Bill are at the following Levels:
$703.8 million for Wagner-Peyser Employment Service Grants to States;
$864 million for WIA Adult;
$930 million for WIA Youth;
$1.481 billion (includes National Reserve) for WIA Dislocated Worker;
$2.782 billion for Unemployment Insurance (UI) State Activities;
UI Contingency Reserve: The Senate bill contains a reserve of $199 million should the unemployment workload exceed an average weekly insured claims volume of 3,487,000.
NASWA will be providing further analysis and detail.

LABOR-HHS-EDUCATION APPROPRIATIONS BILL STALLS IN HOUSE
The lead House appropriator, Chairman David Obey (WI), warned on Thursday the appropriations process may already be over for the year after a partisan dispute over gas prices prompted him to shut down the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations markup.
The House Appropriations Committee adjourned abruptly Thursday morning during its markup of the fiscal 2009 Labor-HHS-Education and Agriculture bills when Representative Jerry Lewis (CA), the panel's ranking member, tried to bring up the Interior appropriations bill to force a vote on off-shore oil drilling.
Over the last several weeks, Chairman Obey has moved many of the 12 fiscal year 2009 bills through the Appropriations Committee and had planned for the House to vote on each of these bills.
After the dispute, it is uncertain whether the House majority will wait until after the November elections before deciding how to finish the annual appropriations process or whether they will still move the 12 separate bills through committee and to the House Floor. It is unlikely any of the appropriations bills will be sent to President Bush as he has threatened to veto bills that exceed his overall spending request.

NASWA REPONDS TO KEY APPROPRIATIONS LAWMAKER ON PROGRAM PERFORMACE
NASWA President, Larry Temple, wrote to House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Jerry Lewis (CA) this week in response to his statement that workforce and training programs have questionable track records.
Mr. Temple, Executive Director of the Texas Workforce Commission, made the following points:
The publicly-funded workforce system will serve 20 million American citizens, including veterans, in 3,200 one-stop career centers during 2008;
According to the U.S. Department of Labor appropriations justification book, these programs have a good recent track record as shown by their performance under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) goals.
The U. S. Department of Labor only recently began the "first true net-impact study of WIA (Workforce Investment Act) programs" in 2007. However, the results of this study probably won't be available until 2014.
To read the full text of Mr. Temple's letter, click here.

NASWA ADMINISTRATORS CONTINUE TO WRITE THEIR LAWMAKERS ON WORKFORCE FUNDING - THANK YOU!
A number of state administrators have contacted their lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee in the last two weeks asking them to oppose further cutbacks or rescissions. These calls and letters have had a very positive effect. Although the USDOL proposed a FY 2009 budget with a 30 percent cut to workforce programs, the Senate bill which emerged from the Appropriations Committee this week restored funding to FY 2008 levels and in some cases, higher levels. While the House bill remains in committee, funding levels have also been restored to similar levels found in the Senate bill. This could not have been done without your support - funding for USDOL competes with Education and Health Care programs and with declining discretionary dollars, the choices are very difficult for lawmakers. While the effort is on-going and will be updated, some of the letters and calls include:
David J. Socolow, Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (click here);
Dawn Busick, Director, Missouri Division of Workforce Development (click here)
Elisabeth Buck, Director, Iowa Workforce Development (click here);
David D. Kerr, Kansas Secretary of Commerce (click here);
Roberta Gassman, Secretary, Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, (click here );
Roger B. Madsen, Director, Idaho Department of Labor, (click here );
James P. Sledge, Director, Illinois Department of Workforce Security, (click here
Keith Kelly, Commissioner, Montana Department of Labor and Industry, (click here );
Patricia Smith, Commissioner, New York State Department of Labor. Commissioner Smith held a press conference at a local one-stop career center with Representative Nita Lowey (NY), a Majority Member of the Appropriations Committee. The visit provided an opportunity to underscore the need for investment in workforce training programs to be competitive in the 21st century global economy.

SENATE MAJORITY WILL MOVE SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL BEFORE AUGUST RECESS - SENATORS URGING RESTORATION OF RESCISSION FOR WIA PROGRAMS
Senators Herb Kohl (WI), Maria Cantwell (WA) and Susan Collins (ME) are seeking a restoration of the $250 million rescission to the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Adult, Youth and Dislocated Worker programs.
The Senators gained support from almost 30 of the their colleagues and sent a letter (click here) to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee urging a restoration of these funds in a second supplemental stimulus package.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) are currently laying the groundwork for a second package focused on domestic spending they plan to bring to the floors of both chambers before Congress departs for a lengthy break in August.

NASWA UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE MEETS IN AUSTIN
About 160 information technology and unemployment insurance professionals gathered in Austin, TX this week for NASWA's Unemployment Insurance Technology (UIT) meeting/conference. Participants exchanged information on issues surrounding unemployment insurance technology modernization efforts and attended workshops on such topics as Disaster Recovery, Telecommuting and Outsourcing, Selecting effective Project Managers, and Completing a Successful UI System Modernization. The two and half day conference showed participants new ways of understanding the role of technology in their work environments.
A presentation was given on the Information Technology Portfolio (IT Portfolio), a survey style data base that will be managed by the NASWA Unemployment Insurance Technology Subcommittee that will allow states to input information about their IT and Business programs. From the IT perspective, it will contain information on general areas such as state mainframes, operating systems, vendors for projects, and networking solutions. From the business perspective, it will contain information on call centers, imaging solutions, and the application of such things as debit cards and direct deposit. It will also provide an area for states to share best practices and lessons learned.
NASWA would like to express its appreciation to the hosting state of Texas, participants, presenters, sponsors, and exhibitors. In addition, a special appreciation is extended to the UIT Subcommittee members for organizing a great conference agenda and to the Texas Conference planners, Billie O'Dowdy, Joanne Brown, Denise Foster, Kimberly Brandford-Brown, and their staff for their outstanding work helping the UIT Subcommittee organize, promote, and complete a successful conference.
The presentations and other information from the conference will be posted on the NASWA Workforce ATM shortly. Thank you to all who attended the conference and we look forward to seeing you at the next one in 2010!

ECONOMIC NEWS

UNEMPLOYMENT ROSE IN ALL BUT ONE STATE
Virtually all regional and state jobless rates increased in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported this week. Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increases, while one state had a rate decrease. Over the year jobless rates were up in 44 states and the District of Columbia and down in 6 states. The national unemployment rate rose from 5.0 in April to 5.5 percent in May, a full percentage point higher than a year earlier. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/laus.pdf .

FOUR-WEEK AVERAGE OF INITIAL JOBLESS CLAIMS HIGHEST SINCE KATRINA
The number of first-time claims for unemployment insurance held steady in the week ending June 21, remaining at 384,000 seasonally adjusted, according to data released by the Labor Department's Employment and Training Administration. The average number of UI claims filed during the past four weeks--a less volatile measure of employment trends--was 378,250 per week. An analyst at Moody's Economy.com noted this was the measure's highest level since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The weekly unemployment claims report can be found at: http://www.ows.doleta.gov/press/2008/062608.asp .

FIRST QUARTER GDP NOW RAISED TO 1 PERCENT, SECOND UPWARD REVISION
The economy grew 1 percent in the first quarter of this year, a little bit stronger than previously reported and with leaner inventories, the Commerce Department reported June 26.The complete report can be found at: http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/2008/pdf/gdp108f.pdf

51 CITIES ADDED HIGH-TECH JOBS IN 2006, BUT TOTAL REMAINED BELOW 2000 IN MOST
High-tech employment grew in 2006 in 51 of 60 top metropolitan areas, but the total number of workers remained lower than its peak in 2000 in 47 cities, according to figures released this week by the American Electronic Association (AeA), an industry group. The metropolitan area that added the most jobs in the sector in 2006 was Seattle (7,812), followed by New York (6,385) and Washington (6,117), AeA said in its "Cybercities" report. Compared with 2000, high-tech employment in 2006 was higher in 13 cities, led by Washington (7,502), while the number of jobs was lower in 47 metropolitan areas and nationwide (763,443). San Jose/Silicon Valley showed the largest drop over the six years, 84,387 jobs, or 27 percent.

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE PLUMMETS
Consumer confidence plunged in June to its lowest level since 1992, and home-price declines accelerated in April, according to data released Tuesday. The renewed signs of economic weakness underscored why Federal Reserve policy makers, who wrapped up a two-day meeting Wednesday, held the target for their benchmark interest rate steady at 2%. The Conference Board, a New York-based business research group, said consumer confidence dropped to 50.4 in June from 58.1 last month. The scale -- which uses as its benchmark a 1985 level of 100 -- peaked most recently at 111.9 in July 2007. Consumers' expectations of the economy six months ahead plunged to the lowest levels since the board began conducting its surveys in 1967.