A better block grant idea, workforce Pell, and $1.2 billion in grants listings.
Plus, Lori Chavez-DeRemer testifies to Congress about ending Job Corps.
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Hello
Greetings from D.C., where you’re getting this newsletter slightly late because of an obstinate two year old, who at one point closed my laptop, pulled it away, and said “No” with a wide grin.
I’ll be in New Orleans next week for Jobs for the Future’s Horizons conference. Say hi if you see me. I put too much work juggling children while sewing sequins on this Mardi Gras block grant costume for you not to.
Speaking of block grants, if you missed it yesterday, I put together an estimate and an analysis on what the Trump block grants could look like. Finally, bringing to a conclusion America’s favorite niche newsletter storyline: I’m pulling back on the predictions for programs’ futures for the moment. The White House proposing to eliminate everything kind of spoiled the feature. Not exactly the worst cost of the whole thing, clearly.
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News you should know affecting money that gets people to work.
Labor Secretary talks Job Corps closure and the future of apprenticeships on the Hill.
Last week, the Trump Administration announced plans to shut down Job Corps without Congress' approval, proposed eliminating nearly all of the Department of Labor’s workforce development programs, and essentially asked Congress to replace them with a vague sheet of paper labeled 'block grant/10% Registered Apprenticeship,' offering virtually no other details.
On Thursday, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who posted last year on social media a year ago about being a “Job Corps Champion,” testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee. It came the morning after a judge blocked the Job Corps closures and amid DOL trying to see if other grantees (including midstream projects not built for teenagers let alone homeless teenagers) will take on Job Corps students.
One guess as to what they talked about.
Asked by her fellow Oregonian, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (above), on Job Corps, Chavez-DeRemer said “the decision [to close centers] was not to eliminate Job Corps.” She did not answer if centers “paused” at present would ever reopen given that all indications are that they won’t.
On the “pause,” the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act requires a notice-and-comment period for closing a Job Corps center. I’m sure there is some thoughtful analysis going on within DOL about how activating the WIOA closure process creates a host of appropriations issues, but as a veteran of Trump I, I suspect DOL chose this more… direct route because the White House wanted it done as quickly as possible and this is the first door they found to get there, even if it said “INJUNCTION IMMINENT” on the outside.
Chavez-DeRemer also attempted to dodge a question on whether DOGE helped build the six-tab speadsheet the Administration is using to justify the end of Job Corps, which is interesting and, given DOGE’s reputation at this point, explains some of the gaps in the document. Otherwise, the questioning was shockingly tame considering the stomach churning I have heard about DOL making teenagers homeless at the same time the Secretary is playing up her whirlwind travel to all 50 states in the next few months—and Guam, as she said on Thursday. (Those are different appropriations accounts, but I understand the point, optically.)
Some Democrats noted that they are happy their former colleague supports Registered Apprenticeship. Several times, Chavez-DeRemer name checked the executive order committing to 1 million apprentices per year, a document that interestingly doesn’t specify those apprentices have to be in registered programs. (Neither does the Department’s budget request, which switches phrases every time the 1 million commitment is referenced, also interestingly.)
On that point, GOP Rep. Mark Harris of North Carolina complained about how Registered Apprenticeship is too hard and asked Chavez-DeRemer if DOL might issue new regulations that make it easier for employers. Chavez-DeRemer sidestepped The Big Regulatory Question in apprenticeship right now and said that DOL is streamlining internal procedures to speed along registration.
The less destructive block grant idea left on the table. For now?
Given Republicans have a political trifecta here in D.C., we’re probably getting block grants of some sort in the next few months. What’s surprising is that this debate hasn’t drifted to a most block grant approach that involves less mayhem and could free us from many of the problems of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act’s formula spending, the pot of workforce money that each state receives from the Hill every year.
The idea: merge the big formula programs together—Adult, Dislocated Worker, Children, and Employment Service—into a block grant, and leave it at that. The following is a skewed standard, but compared to killing everything, it’s not that much of a lift to get these four programs to a block grant. And going this way doesn’t require a multiyear regulatory redo to install new infrastructure while doing the things the Administration says it wants to do—let states figure out their own priorities and spend on what they want.
Beyond shoring up Republican support, I imagine there would be a decent amount of bipartisan support for this approach. If government efficiency is still a thing—no reason—you could say that too.
More than a couple people have suggested this the end goal of the Administration, along with a healthy cut to programs it doesn’t like and/or wants to save money on. I’m skeptical of that given the Administration isn’t exactly a fan of compromise.
But if it were to consider a compromise, well, there’s probably a big bipartisan win to be had here.
This week’s grants listings number: $1.2 billion.
A new quick-turn private opportunity and some Department of Education grants that follow the trend I flagged last week—diversity is back, baby. (I’m not sure they know diversity is back.)
Behind the paywall.
What grant awards are still missing?
A little detail with big consequences for workforce Pell.
A little detail with big consequences for the block grant conversation.