Trump wants to 'reimagine' unemployment, an $81 million mashup, and $3.6 billion in grants listings.
Plus, DOL reboots workforce programs for returning prisoners and sexual assault allegations enter the Labor Secretary scandal.
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Behind today’s paywall.
Manufacturers set their workforce agenda for 2026, and it could include a big investment in current workers.
A messy new $81 million mashup of DOL’s programs for re-entering prisoners.
Yeah, we need to talk about the Labor Secretary scandal again because there’s been some more deeply concerning stuff that could impact the money.
Toplines digest.
It’s a loaded week, so this edition I have a quick digest of news you should know about money and things getting people to work.
Trump Administration plans to ‘reimagine’ unemployment benefits.
The White House has invited state leaders to Washington to discuss “a new vision” that “reimagine[s]” the unemployment benefits program overseen by the Labor Department, according to The New York Times. Details are scarce, and when asked, a White House official told the Times mostly about improvement of economic data.
This could have a significant impact on federal workforce spending, the administration of which is batched by law alongside unemployment. If this is just about data, getting UI in shape to grade the success of workforce programs is the dream. Workforce providers on the ground—whom Republicans tend to blame for problems with the system—already are bracing for a hell of a time when the Administration starts the new work requirements Congress added to entitlements. The prospect of “reimagining” at the same time is head-splitting for them, I’m sure.
Skills-first bill unanimously clears the House.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., prohibits federal agencies from soliciting contracts that require contractors’ staff have a certain level of education. The bill is meant to expand skills-first hiring, or hiring workers based on the skills they actually have regardless of how they got them.
“We call it the paper ceiling and today we tore through it,” Mace said in a statement.
I’ll have more on this one soon.
Workforce Pellification in the states.
Wesley Whistle’s Workforce Pell Watch flags legislation in Missouri and West Virginia that identify high-wage jobs to prioritize for the new program, but using the poverty rate, meaning those “high-wage” dollar figures might turn out not so high wage.
By my math and the internet’s help, the West Virginia bill would produce “high-wage” jobs that are actually several thousand dollars less than the state’s $40,000 living wage for single adults with no kids.
The kinda-sorta Ed breakup continues.
The Education Department announced Tuesday it was tearing off more pieces of itself and giving them to its friends via interagency agreement.
Notable to me: Health and Human Services will be taking over Ready to Learn, a TV and digital media programming program that at least part of which was supposed to go to the Department of Labor, per a fall interagency agreement.
This week’s grant listings number: $3.6 billion.
The big number dropped because one of HUD’s Maybe-a-Zombie Grants may have actually cleared a deadline, but there’s a fair amount of new money this week.