The House bill and Senate bill for the Department of Labor, that passed out of Committee propose various funding levels to provide employment services to persons, including homeless people and people at-risk of homelessness, compared to the enacted FY2017 funding levels, with cuts to programs totaling $985 million in the House Committee Bill and $23 million in the Senate Committee Bill.

For Training and Employment Services — Adult, Youth, and Dislocated Worker Activities, the Senate Committee Bill proposes $2.709 billion, which is the same amount as the enacted FY2017 level, but the House Committee Bill  proposes $2.624 billion, which is $85.72 million less than the enacted FY2017 level with $38.82 million less for Adults, $41.57 million less for Youth, and $5.33 less for Dislocated Workers.  The House bill should maintain funding for Adult, Youth, and Dislocated Workers Activities because the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data available show that only 81.6% of Americans age 25 to 54 are employed and more than 2 million people age 25 to 54 who are not working want to work.

For Training and Employment Services — National Programs, the Senate Committee Bill proposes $625 million and the House Committee Bill proposes $418 million, which is $3 million less and $210 million less than the enacted FY2017 level.  Specifically, the House Committee Bill eliminates funding for the National Apprenticeship Program in the amount of $95 million, reduces funding for the Dislocated Workers Assistance National Reserve by $90 million, reduces funding for the Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Program by $9 million, and reduces funding for the Reintegration of Ex-offenders by $6 million.  In addition, the Senate Committee Bill and the House Committee Bill eliminate funding for Technical Assistance and reduce and eliminate funding for the Workforce Data Quality Initiative, respectively.

The House and Senate bills should maintain funding for the National Programs.  The House bill should maintain funding for the National Apprenticeship Program and Dislocated Workers Assistance National Reserve because as discussed with regard to the Adult, Youth, and Dislocated Worker Activities millions of Americans age 25 to 54 are not working and want to work and more than 100,000 unemployed Americans age 25 and older have no previous job experience.  The House bill should maintain funding for the Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Program because the most recent BLS data show that half a million (or approximately one-fourth of) agricultural workers are employed part-time less with tens of thousands of agricultural workers working part-time because of business conditions or they could only find part-time work or seasonal work.  The House bill should maintain the Reintegration of Ex-offenders because an average of 590,4000 persons are released annually from state and federal prisons and programs that provide training and/or post-release employment services for prisoners help reduce recidivism.  The House and Senate should maintain funding for Technical Assistance and the Workforce Data Quality Initiative because technical assistance and data analysis can help increase employment success.

For Job Corps, the Senate Committee Bill provides $1.699 billion and the House Committee Bill provides $1.688 billion, which are $5 million less and $16 million less than the enacted FY2017 level.  Both the House and Senate bills should maintain, and increase, instead of decrease funding for Job Corps Operations, Construction, Rehabilitation, and Acquisition, and Administration because the most recently reported Department of Housing and Urban Development data show that more than 31,000 unaccompanied youth and 9,000 parenting youth who are age 18 to 24 were homeless and a report summarizing recent surveys of homeless youth show that less than two-fifths of homeless youth were working and that one-fourth to three-fourths of homeless youth reported needing job training/job search/employment services.

For State Unemployment Insurance and Employment Service Operations, the Senate Committee Bill proposes $3.462 billion and the House Committee Bill proposes $2.830 billion, which are $61 million and $692 million less than the enacted FY2017 level.  Nearly all of the decrease in the House Committee Bill is due to the complete elimination of Employment Services Grants to States of $671 million and the Senate Committee Bill also reduces funding for Employment Services Grants to States by $5 million.  In addition, the Senate Committee Bill also reduces funding for American Job Centers by $5 million.  Both the House and Senate bills should maintain funding for Employment Services Grans to States and American Job Centers because they provide no-fee employment services to job-seekers and employers nationwide and access to career development and labor market information services and the most recent BLS data show that 4.4% of Americans are unemployed, 24% of those unemployed have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more, and 15% of the 6.7 million unemployed jobseekers use public employment agencies to search for a job.

For Veterans Employment and Training programs, both the Senate Committee Bill and the House Committee Bill propose $284 million, which is $5 million more than the enacted FY2017 level.  Both the House and Senate bills should provide this increased funding for Veterans Employment and Training programs because the most recent BLS data show that 18% of veterans age 25 to 54 are unemployed or not in the labor force with 250,000 such unemployed veterans and  1.1 million such veterans not in the labor force.

Overall, the Senate and House Committee Bills propose to decrease funding for several important programs that provide training and employment services to homeless individuals and families and to those at risk of homelessness.  With more than 2 million people of prime working age who are not working and want to work and 500,000 homeless persons and more than 175,000 homeless persons without shelter on a given night and thousands of unemployed homeless adults and unemployed homeless youth, Congress should maintain and increase, instead of decrease, funding for training and employment services programs that provide job training and employment services to people who are currently homeless and who are unemployed and, therefore, at heightened risk of homelessness.