WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) introduced bipartisan legislation to provide the unemployed with the information, skills, and relationships they need to get back to work. The On-the-Job Training Act provides critical improvements to the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program to help the workers collecting UI benefits return to the workforce more quickly. The bill would give states the flexibility to connect their UI programs to on-the-job training for the unemployed.

“We’ve got an unemployment insurance program that’s stuck in the past and an economy that’s not waiting around for us to make it better. The result is that more Americans are left behind without the skills required to find a new job and get back on the payroll. We need a program that’s more dynamic and more flexible to meet the changing needs of today’s global economy,” Senator King said. “Our bill gives states the ability to break through the government red tape and think in new and innovative ways to help match people who need jobs with the employers who can provide them.”

“We often hear that the federal unemployment programs do not do enough to help people get back to work,” said Senator Portman. “We need a system that connects the unemployed with the skills they need to compete in today’s global economy. This legislation builds on existing law to help workers avoid long periods of unemployment and develop the skills and the relationships that are so critical to getting back on a career track.”

In 2012, Congress gave the Department of Labor (DOL) the authority to work with states to better link the UI program with on-the-job training that leads to the crucial skills training and relationships the unemployed need to get a job. Participation is entirely voluntary for both the UI beneficiaries and the individual states, and statute requires the program to be cost neutral.

Former Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis heralded the waiver as “a key component in the first major overhaul of the Unemployment Insurance system in decades.” However, in 2012 DOL released almost 20 pages of guidance and requirements that states believe is overly bureaucratic and administratively burdensome. The National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) testified before the House Ways and Means Committee that “too many conditions” had been imposed on the waiver process.

As a result, not a single state has successfully applied for a waiver since it was enacted into law in 2012. This legislation fixes the broken waiver system by:

• Extending the waiver authority two years through December 31, 2017;
• Clarifying and simplifying application requirements;
• Providing additional flexibility to those states with existing innovative programs;
• Establishing important due process for demonstration projects;
• Shifting the responsibility of program evaluation to the federal government instead of keeping it with the states who have limited resources to handle the process;
• Providing some administrative support for states

U.S. Representatives Jim Renacci (R-OH-16) and John Carney (D-DE) have introduced similar legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives called the Flexibility to Promote Reemployment Act.

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