[House Hearing, 112 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
EXAMINING LOCAL SOLUTIONS TO STRENGTHEN FEDERAL JOB TRAINING PROGRAMS
=======================================================================
FIELD HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN LAS VEGAS, NV, AUGUST 30, 2011
__________
Serial No. 112-36
__________
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COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
JOHN KLINE, Minnesota, Chairman
Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin George Miller, California,
Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, Senior Democratic Member
California Dale E. Kildee, Michigan
Judy Biggert, Illinois Donald M. Payne, New Jersey
Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey
Joe Wilson, South Carolina Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott,
Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Virginia
Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Lynn C. Woolsey, California
Duncan Hunter, California Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
David P. Roe, Tennessee Carolyn McCarthy, New York
Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
Tim Walberg, Michigan Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
Scott DesJarlais, Tennessee Rush D. Holt, New Jersey
Richard L. Hanna, New York Susan A. Davis, California
Todd Rokita, Indiana Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
Larry Bucshon, Indiana Timothy H. Bishop, New York
Trey Gowdy, South Carolina David Loebsack, Iowa
Lou Barletta, Pennsylvania Mazie K. Hirono, Hawaii
Kristi L. Noem, South Dakota [Vacant]
Martha Roby, Alabama
Joseph J. Heck, Nevada
Dennis A. Ross, Florida
Mike Kelly, Pennsylvania
Barrett Karr, Staff Director
Jody Calemine, Minority Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on August 30, 2011.................................. 1
Statement of Members:
Heck, Hon. Joseph J., a Representative in Congress from the
State of Nevada............................................ 4
Prepared statement of.................................... 5
Kline, Hon. John, Chairman, Committee on Education and the
Workforce.................................................. 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 3
McKeon, Hon. Howard P. ``Buck,'' a Representative in Congress
from the State of California............................... 5
Prepared statement of.................................... 6
Miller, Hon. George, senior democratic member, Committee on
Education and the Workforce, prepared statement of......... 8
Statement of Witnesses:
Aguero, Jeremy A., principal analyst, Applied Analysis....... 12
Prepared statement of.................................... 14
Ball, John, executive director, Workforce Connections........ 37
Prepared statement of.................................... 39
Enns, Darren, secretary/treasurer, Southern Nevada Building
and Construction Trades Council............................ 15
Prepared statement of.................................... 17
Guthrie, Edward, executive director, Opportunity Village..... 32
Prepared statement of.................................... 35
Hafen, Hon. Andy, Mayor, City of Henderson, NV............... 9
Prepared statement of.................................... 11
Metty-Burns, Rebecca, executive director, division of
workforce & economic development, College of Southern
Nevada..................................................... 49
Prepared statement of.................................... 51
Walker, LeRoy, regional vice president, human resources, St.
Rose Dominican Hospitals................................... 18
Prepared statement of.................................... 20
Additional Submissions:
Mr. Aguero:
Slides: ``Overview of Southern Nevada Employment and
Workforce Trends''..................................... 66
Mr. Guthrie:
Letter, dated June 20, 2011, from Terry Farmer, chief
executive officer, ACCSES.............................. 98
``The 2010 Community Impact Assessment of Las Vegas'
Opportunity Village,'' Internet address to............. 102
Mr. Heck:
Letter, dated September 6, 2011, from Brad Deeds, adult
education coordinator, Nevada State GED Administrator.. 60
Kelly, John, NISH, prepared statement of................. 61
Patchett, Brian, president and CEO, Easter Seals Southern
Nevada, prepared statement of.......................... 63
Mr. Kline:
Milam, Danielle, development director, Las Vegas-Clark
County Library District, prepared statement of......... 59
EXAMINING LOCAL SOLUTIONS
TO STRENGTHEN FEDERAL
JOB TRAINING PROGRAMS
----------
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Education and the Workforce
Washington, DC
----------
The committee met, pursuant to call, at 11:00 a.m., at the
Opportunity Village, Ralph and Betty Engelstad Campus, 6050
South Buffalo Drive, Las Vegas, Nevada, Hon. John Kline
[chairman of the committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Kline, McKeon and Heck.
Staff Present: Casey Buboltz,
Coalitions and Member Services Coordinator; Rosemary
Lahasky, Professional Staff Member; Brian Melnyk, Legislative
Assistant; Brian Newell, Deputy Communications Director; and
Livia Lam, Minority Senior Labor Policy Advisor.
Chairman Kline. A quorum being present, the committee will
come to order.
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the latest in a series
of field hearings for the Education and Workforce Committee.
It is good to be here in Nevada. We appreciate the time of
our witnesses, the time the witnesses have taken to be with us
today, and we look forward to hearing their testimony.
I would really like to extend my personal appreciation to
the leadership and staff of the Opportunity Village and
recognize the men and women who have benefited from the support
offered by this remarkable organization.
Opportunity Village has provided hope to more than a
thousand individuals with disabilities, and has stood as a
model of service to the community. Through your hospitality,
you've demonstrated why this organization stands out as the
favorite charity of Las Vegas.
We're grateful for your service and for hosting our hearing
and for the wonderful cookies that some of us were afforded,
the opportunity to be made right here, I think some 3,500 a
day. Boy, are they good. So thank you for all of that
hospitality.
Since the start of the 112th Congress, members of this
committee have made it a priority to actively engage with the
men and women whose lives are touched by the policies developed
in Washington.
Today marks the sixth field hearing held by this committee
during the last eight months--we are getting some feedback here
in the sound system.
There we go, okay.
Today this field hearing reflects our commitment to
bringing the voices and experiences of the people to federal
policymakers. These hearings also reflect our belief that many
of the most innovative solutions come not from the nation's
capital, but from workers, employers, citizens, and local
leaders in towns across America.
With a bureaucracy as vast and complicated as the one that
resides in Washington, it is easy to leave government programs
on auto-pilot, resulting in less effective support for those in
need and wasted taxpayer dollars. Unfortunately, this sums up
the state of the nation's job training programs.
According to a recent report by the non-partisan Government
Accountability Office, the federal government administers 47
separate job training programs spread across nine different
agencies, representing annual taxpayer investment of $18
billion. 44 programs overlap with at least one other program.
Only five programs, only five have been evaluated to determine
whether they are effectively serving workers.
Our deficits and debt are skyrocketing and unemployment
continues to hover around nine percent, and higher here in
Nevada. Wasting the hard-earned dollars of taxpayers and
squandering support for workers is unacceptable.
In 1998, Congress passed the Workforce Investment Act,
which provided workers with a system of one-stop centers that
offer the support they need in a more efficient and effective
way, and took a first step toward streamlining job training and
employment programs. However, this law is long overdue for
reform and as the GAO report makes clear, we have a lot of work
ahead of us to enhance support for workers and promote better
use of taxpayer dollars.
Just as importantly, we must ensure these services reflect
the realities of today's workforce. Last week the Congressional
Budget Office released a grim report on our nation's economic
future. In the report, the non-partisan budget office projects
that a year from now unemployment may be as high as eight and a
half percent. The report cites a number of structural
impediments hindering hiring across the country, including ``a
mismatch between the requirements of existing job openings and
characteristics of job seekers.''
Simply put, unemployed workers would have a better shot at
finding a job if they had the skills and training needed for
today's workplaces. Many States, including Nevada, have
advanced positive solutions that try to bridge the gap between
workers and employers. I look forward to learning more about
these efforts and how we can advance similar initiatives in
Washington.
Before I close, I would like to thank Congressman Buck
McKeon, a senior member of this committee, a former chairman of
this committee, and currently chairman of the House Armed
Services Committee, for being with us and for his dedication to
the nation's workers. Thank you, Buck. He has long championed
job training reform, and his leadership will be extremely
important as this process moves forward.
I would also like to thank Congressman Joe Heck for service
on the committee and for his continued advocacy for a better
approach to support workers in a more fiscally responsible way.
[The statement of Mr. Kline follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. John Kline, Chairman,
Chairman, Committee on Education and the Workforce
Good afternoon, and welcome to the latest in a series of field
hearings of the Education and the Workforce Committee. It is good to be
here in Nevada. We appreciate the time our witnesses have taken to be
with us today, and we look forward to hearing their testimony.
I would like to extend my personal appreciation to the leadership
and staff of the Opportunity Village, and recognize the men and women
who have benefited from the support offered by this remarkable
organization. Opportunity Village has provided hope to thousands of
individuals with disabilities, and has stood as a model of service to
the community. Through your hospitality, you've demonstrated why this
organization stands out as the ``favorite charity'' of Las Vegas. We
are grateful for your service and for hosting our hearing.
Since the start of the 112th Congress, members of this committee
have made it a priority to actively engage with the men and women whose
lives are touched by the policies developed in Washington. Today marks
the sixth field hearing held by this committee during the last eight
months, reflecting our commitment to bringing the voices and
experiences of the people to federal policymakers. These hearings also
reflect our belief that many of the most innovative solutions come not
from the nation's capital, but from workers, employers, citizens, and
local leaders in towns across America.
With a bureaucracy as vast and complicated as the one that resides
in Washington, it is easy to leave government programs on auto-pilot,
resulting in less effective support for those in need and wasted
taxpayer dollars. Unfortunately, this sums up the state of the nation's
job training programs.
According to a recent report by the non-partisan Government
Accountability Office, the federal government administers 47 separate
job training programs spread across nine different agencies,
representing an annual taxpayer investment of $18 billion. Forty-five
programs overlap with at least one other program. Only five programs
have been evaluated to determine whether they are effectively serving
workers.
Our deficits and debt are skyrocketing and unemployment continues
to hover around 9 percent. Wasting the hard-earned dollars of taxpayers
and squandering support for workers is unacceptable.
In 1998, Congress passed the Workforce Investment Act, which
provided workers with a system of one-stop centers that offer the
support they need in a more efficient and effective way, and took a
first step toward streamlining job training and employment programs.
However, this law is long overdue for reform. And as the GAO report
makes clear, we have a lot of work ahead of us to enhance support for
workers and promote better use of taxpayer dollars.
Just as importantly, we must ensure these services reflect the
realities of today's workforce. Last week, the Congressional Budget
Office released a grim report on our nation's economic future. In the
report, the non-partisan budget office projects that a year from now
unemployment may be as high as 8.5 percent. The report cites a number
of structural impediments hindering hiring across the country,
including ``a mismatch between the requirements of existing job
openings and characteristics of job seekers.''
Simply put, unemployed workers would have a better shot at finding
a job if they had the skills and training needed for today's
workplaces. Many states, including Nevada, have advanced positive
solutions that try to bridge the gap between workers and employers. I
look forward to learning more about these efforts and how we can
advance similar initiatives in Washington.
Before I close, I would like to thank Congressman Buck McKeon, a
senior member of this committee and chairman of the House Armed
Services Committee, for being with us and for his dedication to the
nation's workers. He has long championed job training reform, and his
leadership will be extremely important as this process moves forward.
I would also like to thank Congressman Joe Heck for his service on
the committee and for his continued advocacy for a better approach to
support workers in a more fiscally responsible way. Without any
objection, I will now yield to Congressman Heck for some brief opening
remarks.
______
Chairman Kline. Without any objection, I would now yield to
Congressman Heck for some brief opening remarks.
Mr. Heck. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, and welcome to the Third District of Nevada.
I am very pleased in our great State and I'm pleased we are
hosting the latest in a series of field hearings of the House
Committee on Education in the Workforce.
I'd also like to thank all our witnesses for taking time to
be here this morning and joining us. Your testimony will be
very valuable as we examine ways to improve job-training
opportunities both here in the Silver State and across the
nation, and of course, Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for
the opportunity to hold this field hearing here, as well as
Congressman McKeon for taking the time out of his busy schedule
to participate.
It goes without saying that America is struggling, and
Nevada is struggling with high unemployment and economic
uncertainty. Jobs are scarce. Competition for employment
opportunities is fierce. In Nevada, more than one in ten
citizens is jobless. In fact, our State has had the worst
unemployment record in the nation for more than a year. Across
the country, the unemployment rate has remained above eight
percent for 30 months and this is absolutely unacceptable.
Policymakers must do everything possible to foster a strong
and competitive workforce. Right now, millions of out-of-work
Americans are desperate for opportunities and assistance as
they try to build a better future for their families. For these
Americans and Nevadans, employment assistance and job training
services can be invaluable. Unfortunately, too many of these
important programs are not working efficiently.
In an effort to provide better support to the State's
struggling workforce, the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment
Board, also known as Workforce Connections, has recently taken
steps to engage with the local business community. This
burgeoning relationship helps Workforce Connections ensure
effective job training is available for employment in the
region's high-growth job sectors, including healthcare and
green energy. The advice the board solicits from employers
enhances the services offered, improves job placement
opportunities, and encourages a more strategic and effective
use of taxpayer resources.
The efforts underway in Southern Nevada can serve as a
guideline as we work to modernize the Workforce Investment Act,
and that's why members of the House Committee on Education and
the Workforce are here today. We want to hear from the business
and community leaders about the local economic climate and the
needs of the workforce. We want to learn from employment and
job training officials about the ways they are helping job
seekers, and where they see a need for improvement.
As we work to build a stronger, more competitive workforce,
ensuring access to effective job-training opportunities and
employment services will be critical. Your thoughts and
insights will help us modernize federal job-training programs
to ensure they are more effective, more constructive, and more
resourceful in the future.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my
time.
[The statement of Mr. Heck follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Joseph J. Heck, a Representative in
Congress From the State of Nevada
Good morning, and welcome to the third district of Nevada. I am
very pleased our great city of Las Vegas is hosting the latest in a
series of field hearings of the House Committee on Education and the
Workforce. I'd like to thank our witnesses for joining us; your
testimony will be very valuable as we examine ways to improve job
training opportunities both here in the Silver State and across the
nation.
It goes without saying that America is struggling with high
unemployment and economic uncertainty. Jobs are scarce, and competition
for employment opportunities is fierce. In Nevada, more than one in 10
citizens is jobless. In fact, our state has had the worst employment
record in the nation for more than a year. Across the country, the
unemployment rate has remained above 8 percent for 30 months. This is
absolutely unacceptable.
Policymakers must do everything possible to foster a strong and
competitive workforce. Right now, millions of out-of-work Americans are
desperate for opportunities and assistance as they try to build a
better future for their families. For these Americans, employment
assistance and job-training services can be invaluable. Unfortunately,
too many of these important programs are not working efficiently.
A recent report by the non-partisan Government Accountability
Office found 47 separate and distinct job-training programs
administered by 9 federal agencies. Of these 47 programs, 44 overlap,
offering similar services to the same disadvantaged workers. Despite
the $18 billion price tag for these programs, very few have been
evaluated for effectiveness. There is obvious need to reduce costs and
streamline support in federal workforce training services.
In an effort to provide better support to the state's struggling
workforce, the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board, also known
as Workforce Connections, has recently taken steps to engage with the
local business community. This burgeoning relationship helps Workforce
Connections ensure effective job-training is available for employment
in the region's high-growth job sectors, including healthcare and green
energy. The advice the board solicits from employers enhances the
services offered, improves job placement opportunities, and encourages
a more strategic and effective use of taxpayer resources.
The efforts underway in Southern Nevada can serve as a guideline as
we work to modernize the Workforce Investment Act, and that's why
members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce are here
in Las Vegas today. We want to hear from business and community leaders
about the local economic climate and the needs of the workforce. We
want to learn from employment and job-training officials about the ways
they are helping job-seekers, and where they see a need for
improvement.
As we work to build a stronger, more competitive workforce,
ensuring access to effective job-training opportunities and employment
services will be critical. Your thoughts and insight will help us
modernize federal job training programs to ensure they are more
effective, more constructive, and more resourceful in the future. With
that, I yield back the balance of my time.
______
Chairman Kline. All right, thank you, gentlemen.
I recognize Mr. McKeon for any opening remarks he may have.
Mr. McKeon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to submit
my remarks for the record, but I would like to just take a
minute and say a couple of things.
I commend you, first of all, for coming here to hold this
hearing. We can sit in Washington and hold hearings, but it's
very important to get out in the country to find out what's
really going on, and I commend you for this and other field
hearings that you have held. And I commend Mr. Heck, for you
are fortunate to have him representing you here in the
Congress.
I've had the opportunity of serving with him. Both of these
gentlemen also serve on the Armed Services Committee, the
Chairman as a marine, and Mr. Heck is a Colonel in the Army,
and they have provided great service to the country. I want to
thank the witnesses for being here and for all of you for
coming to participate in this.
Unemployment is one of the biggest problems we have in the
country and it is not the same throughout the country. Right
around Virginia, Washington, D.C., in that area, unemployment
is only about six percent. There's a lot of government money
that seems to find its way into that area.
But when you come out into the heartland, my district, I
come to the Nevada border. I have the largest district in
California, so I'm a neighbor all along the Nevada border, up
to Lake Topaz, where 395 comes into Nevada, and I have a son
that lives here in Las Vegas. So I try to get over here to see
him and see what's going on, and I have children that live in
Utah, so I drive through here at times to get up and visit
them.
But I have been on this committee now since 1993 and served
as the subcommittee chair and wrote--when I say ``wrote,'' the
staff always writes, but the legislation Workforce Investment
Act and that was passed in 1996 the first time. But we didn't
get it through the whole process until 1998, and it has not
been reauthorized since then and it really needs to be because
when you write legislation you start out with a goal, but by
the time it gets through the whole process, it's not what you
envisioned.
We started out trying to take many federal programs and
block grant them out and get the leadership involved at the
local area where the decisions really should be made.
There are a lot of problems with the Act that need to be
cleared up and I encourage the Chairman and want to work
closely with him as we go through to reauthorize this bill. It
really is important. So hearing from you here today as to the
things that you see that we can improve in the Act, it's very,
very important.
Mr. Chairman, I yield the remainder of my time.
Chairman Kline. I thank the gentlemen.
[The statement of Mr. McKeon follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, a
Representative in Congress From the State of California
Mr. Chairman, thank you for calling this very important hearing to
examine local solutions to strengthen our nation's workforce training
system; and thank you to Congressman Heck for hosting this hearing. I
am pleased to have the opportunity to be here and I thank our witnesses
for taking the time to come testify before the Committee. I look
forward to hearing how we can make WIA more effective at the local
level.
Mr. Chairman, it is imperative that the federal government create
favorable conditions for job creation and promote policies that help
get Americans back to work. Republicans in the House of Representatives
have been working diligently to help create jobs. We have passed
legislation to allow our domestic energy resources to be developed
which will create thousands of jobs; we have ensured that there will be
no new taxes and have thwarted any attempts to raise taxes; we have
sought to reduce the crushing regulatory burden that constricts the
growth of businesses; and, as evidenced by this hearing, Republicans
are working to ensure that our nation's workforce training system
remains strong through a reasonable set of reforms.
On June 22, 2011, three of my Republican colleagues joined me in
introducing the Workforce Investment Improvement Act (H.R. 2295), a
bill that builds on reforms proposed by Republicans in recent years to
strengthen and improve programs and services under WIA with the
concurrent goals of putting Americans back to work and making the
United States more competitive in the 21st century. I consider the
reauthorization of WIA to be one of the most pressing items on the
Education and the Workforce Committee agenda and see it as an integral
step to rebuilding our changing economy.
Modernizing our job training infrastructure has been one of the
highest priorities of my work on the committee, and will continue to
be. I share the belief with my Republican colleagues that the workforce
training system needs to be dynamic and results-oriented so it can
effectively serve job seekers and workers in need of retraining. Now
more than ever it is imperative that the system functions for the
benefit of workers.
The key goals of the bill include:
eliminating duplication
strengthening coordinating infrastructure
improving accountability
enhancing the role of employers
and increasing state and local flexibility to better serve
our nation's workers
Together, these reforms will ensure the nation's workforce
development system can respond quickly and effectively to the changing
needs of job seekers and those in need of training. Throughout the
process I have worked with numerous stakeholders to improve the
legislation and have sought to fully understand from the business
community exactly what is needed in order to match job skills to jobs
available.
The past Majority on the Education and Labor Committee spent four
years talking about the plight of American workers but did virtually
nothing to help those workers. It is unfortunate that Democrats refused
to address the need to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act when
our nation's unemployment rate continued to climb.
I worked for over six months to make this a bipartisan effort and I
was willing to meet my Democratic colleagues halfway on policy, but
ultimately they decided they are not willing to compromise for the
benefit of American workers. Let me be clear, American workers looking
to sharpen their skills to keep up with the changing economy don't see
WIA as a partisan, political issue. They see WIA as an opportunity to
protect their livelihoods. So while folks in Washington bicker about
minutiae, workers of all political stripes are being left behind. House
Republicans understand the urgency and are working to reauthorize WIA
in the 112th Congress.
13.9 million Americans are currently unemployed with a 9.1%
unemployment rate. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless
for 27 weeks and over) is hovering around 6.2 million. In July, 44.4
percent of unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more. The
unemployment situation is not just about cyclical unemployment; there
is a structural unemployment component which needs to be addressed, and
the reauthorization of WIA is the best way the federal government can
play a role. In order to integrate these workers back into our economy
we must have a targeted Workforce Investment Act reauthorization, and
that is what I am proposing.
My WIA reauthorization bill will do the following:
Increase efficiency and focus on results
Eliminate duplication and waste by consolidating funding
to streamline program administration and enhance efficiency at the
state and local levels
Streamline state and local workforce investment boards by
providing greater representation and influence for local business
representatives, education officials, community groups, and
representatives of employees
Ensure the one-stop delivery system is demand-driven
Strengthen employment services to help job seekers get
back to work by incorporating current employment service functions into
the description of a new category known as work ready services
One-stop centers will be required to provide labor
exchange services, including job search and placement assistance, as
well as appropriate recruitment services for employers
Remove barriers to job training by eliminating arbitrary
provisions of current law that prevent job seekers from accessing
training immediately
Create Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic
Development (WIRED) plans which will allow regional areas to integrate
workforce development programs, one-stop services, and community and
economic development funds into a comprehensive workforce development
system
I know WIA reauthorization is a top priority for Chairman Kline and
I look forward to working with him further to make that a reality. We
must help put Americans back to work, equipped with skills that will
aid their success. Members need to understand that this is not just a
Washington initiative, but an initiative favored by workers all across
America. Thank you again for holding this hearing and I look forward to
working to strengthen our nation's workforce training system.
______
Chairman Kline. I would point out Mr. McKeon is from a
rather large family and I'm sure that the economy in Eastern
California, throughout Nevada, and Utah are grateful for that
involvement.
Pursuant to Committee Rule 7(c), all committee members will
be permitted to submit written statements to be included in the
hearing record. Without objection, the hearing record will
remain open for 14 days to allow statements, questions for the
record, and other extra material referenced during the hearing
to be submitted in the official hearing record.
[The statement of Mr. Miller follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. George Miller, Senior Democratic Member,
Committee on Education and the Workforce
WIA is a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Americans. Job
training is a critical tool in helping put Americans back to work.
Unfortunately, Republicans want to eliminate these opportunities.
Thankfully, Democrats were able to protect these services in GOP's
latest attempt to zero out these effective programs.
The Republicans have yet to offer any plan or an outline of a plan
that would help the hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers in
Nevada who are desperate for a job. Instead, time and time again
Republicans have threatened the job training opportunities that
Nevada's unemployed or dislocated workers rely on to try and get ahead
and to support their families. The Republicans' lack of real commitment
to the serious unemployment crisis we're facing is a threat to our
economic stability, to sustainable job growth and our global
competitiveness.
______
Mr. Kline. Now we get to the point of the introduction of
witnesses, and for that, I am pleased to yield to my colleague,
Mr. Heck.
Mr. Heck. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have two very
distinguished panels of witnesses today. I would like to begin
by introducing the first panel.
Mayor Andy Hafen was elected as the City of Henderson's
12th mayor in June 2009, which is my mayor. During his elected
service, Mayor Hafen has seen Henderson become the second
largest city in Nevada, be named as one of the top 100 places
to live in the United States. Mayor Hafen is active in the
Nevada League of Cities, served as the secretary-treasurer,
second vice-president, and ultimately president, elected in
2006.
Mr. Jeremy Aguero is the Principal Analyst for Applied
Analysis, well known to those of us in the Las Vegas community
for his in-depth analysis of our economic condition. He has
been with the firm since its inception in 1997. His areas of
expertise include economic analysis, operational model
development, and fiscal impact analysis. Mr. Aguero attended
the University of Nevada Las Vegas, where he graduated with
honors in 1996. After college Mr. Aguero spent 18 months with
Coopers & Lybrand and began his tenure with Applied Analysis.
Mr. Darren Enns is the current Secretary Treasurer of the
Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council.
Anybody who knows the impact of unemployment in southern
Nevada, it is those members of the building and trades. Mr.
Enns also sits on the executive board of the Nevada State AFL-
CIO and is a member of the Plasterers and Cement Mason Local
797. Mr. Enns was born and raised in Southern Nevada. He and
his wife Elaine have four sons.
Mr. LeRoy Walker serves as the Regional Vice President of
Human Resources for the St. Rose Dominican Hospitals in Nevada.
Through his leadership St. Rose has been the recipient of
various local and national awards. Mr. Walker also serves on
the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board, University of
Southern Nevada board for their MBA program, and the Nevada
Health Care Sector Council.
Chairman Kline. Thank you, Dr. Heck.
Before I recognize each of you to provide your testimony,
let me briefly explain the lighting system. We discussed this
before the hearing started, but for a refresher for the
witnesses and for all in the room, let me explain how this
works.
You will each have five minutes to present your testimony.
When you begin, the light in front of you will turn green; when
one minute is left, the light will turn yellow; when your time
is expired, the light will turn red, at which point I would ask
you to wrap up your remarks as best as possible.
After everyone has testified, members will each have five
minutes to ask questions of the panel, and we will stay with
that, going back and forth, until we've had a chance to explore
the subject in some depth.
I would now like to recognize the Mayor, the Honorable Andy
Hafen for five minutes. Sir, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF HON. ANDY A. HAFEN, MAYOR,
CITY OF HENDERSON
Mr. Hafen. Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Kline, members
of the committee. On behalf of my colleagues on the city
council and the residents of Henderson, I thank you for the
opportunity to appear before you.
Before I begin my testimony, I'd also like to express my
thanks to Congressman Heck. Congressman Heck represents the
City of Henderson and we greatly appreciate him and his
gracious invitation to testify before you on a subject that's
so important to our future.
I have been asked to speak about our economic situation,
the jobs outlook, and some of the initiatives we've undertaken
to help improve the employment situation in Henderson. I know
our time is limited, so I'll get straight to the point on the
issues I have been asked to discuss.
As you're probably aware, prior to 2008 our economy was
stronger than it had ever been. For many years Henderson was
recognized as one of the fastest growing cities in America.
However, around the third quarter of 2008 we saw signs of
an impending economic downturn and realized that our years of
growth and economic prosperity were in jeopardy. The ensuing
recession caused some very strong declines in our largest
revenue streams, in particular, our consolidated tax and
property tax.
The consolidated tax, or C-Tax, is made up of sales tax,
real property transfer taxes, and several other smaller revenue
streams. In 2008 that consolidated tax revenue was in excess of
$92 million, and our consolidated tax last year was just over
$70 million.
On the property tax side, in 2008 our assessed property
valuation was $15.9 billion, and our property tax collections
were in excess of $78 million.
Our assessed valuation this year is less than $10 billion,
and our property tax collections are estimated to be around $66
million.
Losses in these and other revenue streams caused by
foreclosure, decreased property values, high unemployment, lack
of growth and other factors have forced our city to cut more
than $105 million from our budget and to reduce our staff
complement by more than 200.
According to the Executive Office of the President's
Council of Economic Advisors, every $92,000 in government
spending results in one private sector job. Given the dramatic
shortfalls to ours and every other budget in this region, that
means a diminishment in the amount of job growth we, as a city,
are able to promote.
Weak economic indicators and continued uncertainty about
our economy continue to stall reinvestment and growth.
According to the United States Bureau of Labor and
Statistics, the national unemployment rate is about 9.1
percent. Nevada, by contrast, currently sits at 12.9 percent,
and Southern Nevada unemployment is at 14 percent.
All of these factors combined to create a scenario that is
certainly ripe with challenge when it comes to job creation and
recovery.
However, in Henderson we've made it a priority in our
strategic planning efforts to focus on ways to promote a strong
and diverse local economy and we believe that despite our
continued economic struggles, we've been achieving success in
that area.
Every year we review the job outlook in Henderson to ensure
we are placing priority in industry clusters that have the
highest potential to create new jobs.
Over the last few years our primary focus has resulted in
two key areas. The first has been private education, and the
second has been healthcare.
Over the last few years, our efforts in Henderson have been
able to bring 13 private colleges and universities, the largest
number in any State--in any city in the State. We recognize the
value of education as a pathway for good-paying jobs and
diversification, so this has become a priority for us in our
economic development efforts.
In the healthcare arena, we have created the Southern
Nevada Medical Industry Coalition. This is a regional
collaboration involving members of government, academia,
doctors, nurses, businesses and chambers of commerce.
This effort has grown significantly and is now a private,
non-profit with statewide representation and is one of the most
successful organizations in the region tapping the federal
Workforce Connections funding.
This past year alone they've successfully implemented
creative programs matching healthcare training applicants with
real jobs in the private sector.
As we continue to research growth opportunities for
employment, we now find ourselves with a focus on alternative
energy, in particular, solar energy. In October, the City of
Henderson will host the first annual Global Solar Summit. We've
invited the leading solar panel manufacturers from Asia,
Europe, and America to convene in Henderson for a unique
business development conference.
We will be matching the leaders of these companies with
regional utilities and solar developers. Over 300 companies
will be in attendance, in addition to our federal workforce
training officials, to promote training and growth
opportunities.
We have been working hard to identify the best industries
for our region and have heavily utilized federal workforce
training programs to support our efforts.
In conclusion, I would just like to say we look forward to
working together to create jobs, educate and train the
workforce of today and tomorrow, and to rebuild our economy
that is bright, vibrant and full of promise for our people.
Thank you very much.
Chairman Kline. Thank you, sir.
[The statement of Mr. Hafen follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Andy Hafen, Mayor, City of Henderson, NV
Good morning Chairman Kline, members of the committee. On behalf of
my colleagues on the city council and the residents of our great city,
I thank you for the opportunity to appear before you.
Before I begin my testimony, I'd also like to express my thanks to
Congressman Heck.
Congressman Heck represents the city of Henderson and we greatly
appreciate him and his gracious invitation to testify before you on a
subject that's so important to our future.
I've been asked to speak about our economic situation, the jobs
outlook, and some of the initiatives we've undertaken to help improve
the employment situation in Henderson.
I know our time is limited, so I'll get straight to the point on
the issues I've been asked to discuss.
As you're probably aware, prior to 2008 our economy was stronger
than it had ever been. For many years Henderson was recognized as one
of the fastest growing cities in America.
However, around the third quarter of 2008, we saw signs of an
impending economic downturn and realized that our years of growth and
economic prosperity were in jeopardy.
The ensuing recession caused some very strong declines in our
largest revenue streams, in particular our Consolidated Tax and
Property Tax.
The Consolidated Tax, or C-Tax, is made up of sales tax, real
property transfer taxes, and several other smaller revenue streams.
In 2008 that Consolidated Tax revenue was in excess of $92 million
dollars. Our Consolidated Tax last year was just over $70 million
dollars.
On the Property Tax side, in 2008 our assessed property valuation
was $15.9 billion dollars, and our Property Tax collections were in
excess of $78 million.
Our assessed valuation this year is less than $10 billion and our
Property Tax collections are estimated to be around $66 million
dollars.
Losses in these and other revenue streams caused by foreclosure,
decreased property values, high unemployment, lack of growth and other
factors have forced our city to cut more than $105 million dollars from
our budget and to reduce our staff complement by more than 200.
According to the Executive Office of the President's Council of
Economic Advisors, every $92,000 dollars in government spending results
in one private sector job.
Given the dramatic shortfalls to ours, and every other budget in
this region, that means a diminishment in the amount of job growth we,
as a city, are able to promote.
Weak economic indicators and continued uncertainty about our
economy continue to stall reinvestment and growth.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor & Statistics, the national
unemployment rate is at 9.1 percent.
Nevada, by contrast, currently sits at 12.9 percent, and Southern
Nevada unemployment is at 14 percent.
All of these factors combine to create a scenario that is certainly
ripe with challenge when it comes to job creation and recovery.
However, in Henderson we've made it a priority in our strategic
planning efforts to focus on ways to promote a strong and diverse local
economy, and we believe that despite our continued economic struggles
we've been achieving success in that area.
Every year we review the job outlook in Henderson to ensure we are
placing priority in industry clusters that have the highest potential
to create new jobs.
Over the last few years, our primary focus has rested in two key
areas. The first has been private education as an industry. The second
has been healthcare.
Through our efforts, Henderson is now home to 13 private colleges
and universities, the largest number of any city in the state.
We recognize the value of education as a pathway for good paying
jobs and diversification, so this has become a priority for us in our
economic development efforts.
In the healthcare arena, we've created the Southern Nevada Medical
Industry Coalition.
This is a regional collaboration involving members of government,
academia, doctors, nurses, businesses and chambers of commerce.
This effort has grown significantly and is now a private, non-
profit with statewide representation and is one of the most successful
organizations in the region tapping the federal workforce connections
funding.
This past year alone they've successfully implemented several
creative programs matching healthcare training applicants with real
jobs in the private sector.
As we continue to research growth opportunities for employment, we
now find ourselves with a focus on alternative energy, in particular
solar energy.
In October, the city of Henderson will host our first annual Global
Solar Summit. We've invited the leading solar panel manufactures from
Asia, Europe and America to convene in Henderson for a unique business
development conference.
We'll be matching the leaders of these companies with regional
utilities and solar developers.
Over 300 companies will be in attendance, in addition to our
federal workforce training officials, to promote training and growth
opportunities.
We're working hard to identify the best industries for our region
and have heavily utilized federal workforce training programs to
support our efforts.
We will continue to rely on these programs to help educate and
train workers for these industries in the future.
All of these economic development efforts are vital for us to
achieve our goal of providing a strong and diverse local economy.
And all of them depend in great part on our ability to draw on the
workforce training programs available to educate the workers these
industries require.
So while we are still facing an uncertain economic future, one
thing is certain for us, and that is education is vital to create jobs
and get Henderson and Nevada back on track.
We appreciate you taking the time to come to Southern Nevada to
listen to us and learn about our challenges and our successes.
We look forward to working together to create jobs, educate and
train the workforce of today, and tomorrow, and to rebuild an economy
that is bright, vibrant and full of promise for our people.
Thank you.
______
Chairman Kline. Mr. Aguero, you are recognized for five
minutes.
STATEMENT OF JEREMY AGUERO, PRINCIPAL ANALYST, APPLIED ANALYSIS
Mr. Aguero. Chairman Kline, Congressman McKeon, Congressman
Heck, I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you here
today.
Your staff asked me to provide a brief synopsis of
employment and workforce conditions in Southern Nevada. In
addition to my remarks, I have also provided a series of
exhibits entitled Southern Nevada Employment and Workforce
Trends, and I hope you find this information useful for your
purposes.
It is appropriate that you're holding this hearing here
today because this region, this State, and this community have
been acutely impacted by the recession. After leading the
nation in nearly every measure of economic prosperity,
including population growth, job creation, personal income
growth and investment for more than 20 years, Southern Nevada
now ranks at or near the nation's highest in terms of
unemployment, housing price declines, foreclosure and
bankruptcies.
The numbers are nothing short of staggering. The local
unemployment rate now stands at 14 percent and has been above
10 percent for 31 consecutive months. Although the unemployment
rate is below peak levels, its decline is attributable to the
exodus of would-be workers from the labor pool, as opposed to
new job creation.
Since the recession officially began in December of 2007,
Southern Nevada has lost more than 140,000 jobs, 15 percent of
its workforce. An average of 3,200 jobs have been lost each
month for more than three and a half years. One in every 6.5
workers has been displaced.
Although unemployment has fallen from 15.7 percent to 14
percent during the past 12 months, total employment has still
declined by 3,100 positions.
For those lucky enough to remain employed, hours and wages
have been cut. The underemployment rate is currently estimated
at 23 percent. Average hours worked among private sector
workers have fallen by 11.7 percent; average weekly wages by
10.7 percent.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis ranked Nevada dead last in
terms of income growth between the first quarter of 2010 and
the first quarter of 2011, the last data available. And while
the recession may have ended nationally, the bureau also noted
that Nevada's economy continued to contract in 2010, shrinking
by 0.2 percent.
Even if jobs were being created in Nevada, many displaced
workers would likely remain unemployable. This is due to a
number of factors, including the disproportionate share of
those now unemployed who previously worked in the construction
sector. At the economy's peak, construction accounted for more
than 12 percent of Southern Nevada's workforce, roughly 2.5
times the national average.
Since that point, more than 72,000 construction workers
have lost their jobs, roughly two in every three. The
transferability of these skill sets is limited in today's
economy, a challenge also confronting scores of service
industry and lower level administrative employees whose jobs
have been eliminated.
Not all of our challenges are the result of cyclical or
structural changes in the economy. Some of our wounds are self-
inflicted. Nevada reports among the lowest levels of
educational attainment for its adult population. Adding to this
challenge, the State has neglected its K through 12 education
system for more than a generation, a fact reflected by the
lowest high school graduation rate in the United States, and
frightening low reading, math and science test scores among
elementary and secondary students.
Notwithstanding the best efforts of some, our college and
university system has never had the resources, nor the standing
to effectively contribute to our State's economic development
goals.
I do not want to leave you with the impression that
Southern Nevada is a sinking ship. Although unmoored and
struggling to find a safe harbor, there are some notable
pockets of prosperity. The tourism industry has reported strong
improvements over the past 12 months, adding 8,000 positions.
Moreover, core employment--defined as total employment less
construction and government jobs--has been positive for most of
the past 12 months and is up more than 13,000 positions since
bottoming out in August of 2009.
While some businesses continue to struggle, others are
again profitable. Conditions are far from good, but they are
markedly improved when compared to conditions 12 or 24 months
ago. While our community is fatigued and fragile, it is also
resilient and resourceful.
I, for one, appreciate your continued efforts on our
behalf. Thank you again for being here today and for allowing
me to join you.
Chairman Kline. Thank you, sir.
[The statement of Mr. Aguero follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jeremy A. Aguero, Principal Analyst,
Applied Analysis
Chairman Kline, Congressman Heck, and members of the Committee on
Education and the Workforce, I appreciate the opportunity to testify
before you here today. Your staff has asked me to provide a brief
synopsis on employment and workforce conditions in southern Nevada. In
addition to my remarks, I have also provided a series of exhibits
entitled, Southern Nevada Employment and Workforce Trends. I hope you
find this information helpful.
It is appropriate you are holding this hearing here today because
this region, state, and community have been acutely impacted by the
recession. After leading the nation in nearly every measure of economic
prosperity, including population growth, job creation, personal income
growth and new investment, for more than 20 years, southern Nevada now
ranks at or near the nation's highest in terms of unemployment, housing
price declines, foreclosure and bankruptcy.
The numbers are nothing short of staggering. The local unemployment
rate now stands at 14 percent and has been above 10 percent for 31
consecutive months. Although the unemployment rate is below peak
levels, its decline is attributable to the exodus of would-be workers
from the labor pool as opposed to new job creation. Since the recession
officially began in December 2007, southern Nevada has lost more than
140,000 jobs, 15 percent its workforce. An average of 3,200 jobs have
been lost each month for more than three and a half years; 1 in every
6.5 workers has been displaced. Although unemployment has fallen from
15.7 percent to 14.0 percent during the past 12 months, total
employment has declined by 3,100 positions.
For those lucky enough to remain employed, hours and wages have
been cut. The underemployment rate is currently estimated at 23
percent. Average hours worked among private sector workers have fallen
by 11.7 percent; average weekly wages by 10.7 percent. The Bureau of
Economic Analysis ranked Nevada dead last in terms of income growth
between the first quarter of 2010 and first quarter of 2011 (the latest
available data); and, while the recession may have ended nationally,
the Bureau also noted that Nevada's economy continued to contract in
2010, shrinking by 0.2 percent.
Even if jobs were being created in Nevada, many displaced workers
would likely remain unemployable. This is due to a number of factors,
including the disproportionate share of those now unemployed who
previously worked in the construction sector. At the economy's peak,
construction accounted for more than 12 percent of southern Nevada's
workforce--roughly 2.5 times the national average. Since that point,
more than 72,000 construction workers have lost their jobs, roughly two
in every three. The transferability of these skill sets is limited in
today's economy, a challenge also confronting scores of service
industry and lower-level administrative employees whose jobs have been
eliminated.
Not all of our challenges are the result of cyclical or structural
changes in the economy. Some of our wounds are self inflicted. Nevada
reports among the nation's lowest levels of education attainment for
its adult population. Adding to this challenge, the state has neglected
its K-12 education system for more than a generation, a fact reflected
by the lowest high school graduation rate in the United States and
frighteningly low reading, math and science test scores among
elementary and secondary students. Notwithstanding the best efforts of
some, our college and university system has never had the resources nor
standing to effectively contribute to the state's economic development
goals.
I do not want to leave you with the impression southern Nevada is a
sinking ship. Although unmoored and struggling to find a safe harbor,
there are some notable pockets of prosperity. The tourism industry has
reported strong improvements during the past 12 months, adding nearly
8,000 positions. Moreover, core employment--defined as total employment
less construction and government jobs--has been positive for most of
the 12 months and is up more than 13,000 positions since bottoming out
in August 2009.
While some businesses continue to struggle, others are again
profitable. Conditions are far from good, but they are markedly
improved when compared to conditions 12 or 24 months ago. While our
community is fatigued and fragile; it is also resilient and
resourceful.
I for one appreciate your continued efforts on our behalf. Thank
you again for being here today and for allowing me to join you.
______
Chairman Kline. Mr. Enns, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF DARREN ENNS, SECRETARY TREASURER, SOUTHERN NEVADA
BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION TRADES
Mr. Enns. Thank you. Hello, my name is Darren Enns. I'm the
secretary treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building and
Construction Trades Council. I would like to start by thanking
Ranking Member Miller for the invitation, and Chairman Kline
and members of the committee for allowing me to testify today.
I come before the committee on behalf of 20,000 highly
trained craft workers in the Southern Nevada area who belong to
one of 17 local unions that make up the Southern Nevada
Building and Construction Trades Council.
These locals, in partnership with their signatory
contractors, run apprenticeship and training programs that
provide the skills necessary for a good career in the
construction industry. As the apprenticeship system has
functioned for centuries, the apprentice works and earns a wage
with good benefits while attending class all the while moving
to journeyperson status. Furthermore, the national scope of all
of our unions allows us to bring in travelers with standardized
training and certifications, providing reliable and highly-
trained workers for our contractors, regardless of the need.
Unfortunately, that demand for workers in our area isn't
there anymore, even though Southern Nevada and the country as a
whole has gaping needs for new energy and infrastructure.
Because of the lack of construction jobs in Nevada, I have
been on the lookout for a way to try to help make things better
for the people I represent. For this reason I found myself
attending workforce investment board workshops at the local
level and listening to all of the ideas that people put forth
in order to create jobs.
As the organization that represents the premier training
programs in the area, I wanted to share our model for high-
skilled training that seamlessly matches people with
employment. I also hoped to gather new ideas to ensure we
remained the best trainers in the country and to find
opportunities to meet new industry demands, and thus create
more jobs for my members. I applaud the local board for
listening to my ideas and recognizing what the building trades
bring to the training world. I hope that our model helped them
to find ways to build more connections between training and
employment.
I believe, however, we should be trying to create jobs, not
students. Unfortunately----
Voice. What we need is jobs. We need jobs. I have been 28
years in the construction industry----
Chairman Kline. Ma'am, would you wait until he finishes
speaking? Thank you very much.
Mr. Enns.
Voice. I want to find jobs for people. That's what I want.
I want to hear how you are going to fund these trainings.
Chairman Kline. Mr. Enns, would you suspend your----
Voice. I want to hear from Joe Heck, what he intends to do
about job training and jobs. You don't want to spend money on
anything, so where are you going to get the money to do even
this program? I support training. But I need a job. I'm going
to lose my health insurance. I have a little piddly little IRA
that I am going to sell so I can pay my rent, my mortgage for
the next--for the end of the year.
Chairman Kline. Mr. Enns.
Mr. Enns. I believe we should be trying to create jobs, not
students. Unfortunately----
Voice. What we need is a job, you know, it is simply
beautiful when you say, driving, trying to move, I have not had
a job for six months. I have to pay my rent. I have to do what
I have to do.
Chairman Kline. We would like to hear from the witness in
the hearing, if you could please step outside. Mr. Enns, you
are recognized.
Mr. Enns. Thank you. Unfortunately, there is nothing my
workforce investment board, or any other, can do to spur
meaningful job creation. Businesses are cautious----
Voice. Can I ask you, are you going to remove everybody who
is asking for jobs? Please, Mr. Heck, is that what you are
doing in the Congress.
Chairman Kline. If there are others who would like to
disrupt the hearing, we would like to get through that as
quickly as we can. No.
Mr. Enns.
Mr. Enns. Businesses are cautious and hoarding cash, afraid
to create a job in these uncertain times. I can't blame them,
when they can't be sure if the government is going to slash
needed programs that generate real economic activity and cut
off their unemployment benefits, or if real help will come from
Washington, D.C. to put our economy back on track, like
rebuilding our infrastructure, investing in new energy
projects, or helping people like my members with mortgage
relief.
During this recession our members have continued to build
their skills, even with the lack of work. The journeymen craft
workers have gone back to the classrooms for journeyman upgrade
classes so that they can better serve the contractors who
they--when they finally do go back to work.
In the State of Nevada we supported OSHA 10 and 30-hour
training for all construction workers and all of our many
craftspeople have returned to the classroom for that safety
training that is now a State law. In my experience as a member
of the Plasterers and Cement Masons Local 797, I know that we
as union members are very well trained, and yet our industry is
still plagued with high unemployment. So when discussions start
to go the direction of training, it seems to me that we're not
going to get anyone to work this way.
Despite the best efforts of the local workforce investment
board, I personally never saw anyone go to work as a result of
their efforts. We need to be creating jobs, so my local
workforce investment board can begin the hard work that the
Southern Nevada Building Trades have been doing for decades:
Providing meaningful training, leading to good careers,
directly connected to employment and industry needs.
It is a good feeling when you are able to send someone to a
job that they may not have gotten without your efforts. I'd
encourage Congress to pursue that feeling. Wouldn't you feel
great if you returned to your district to see your constituents
repairing a structurally deficient bridge or building a new,
clean and safe school.
I would like to close with personal account of a
conversation I had with my grandfather, who was my instructor
in the plastering trade many years ago. We had a job on the
west end of Las Vegas that sat on a golf course. We stopped for
a break at lunch time, high on a building that had a commanding
view of the Las Vegas Valley. After eating and enjoying the
view, I commented to my grandfather about how much the city had
grown in the last several years of my short recollection. He
agreed and he said--and I said ``It has to come to a stop
sometime.'' He laughed and said, ``We have been saying that for
30 years.''
Well, it's been another 20 years since then and I'm
saddened to report that we have found the day when it stopped.
Construction craftspeople are now suffering the worse
unemployment in Nevada history. We need your help to create
jobs. Building trades have been taking care of the training, in
our industry anyway, for decades, and we will continue to do
so. Thank you.
Chairman Kline. Thank you, sir.
[The statement of Mr. Enns follows:]
Prepared Statement of Darren Enns, Secretary/Treasurer,
Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council
Hello my name is Darren Enns and I am the Secretary/Treasurer of
the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council. I would
like to start by thanking Ranking Member Miller for the invitation, and
Chairman Kline and the members of the committee for allowing me to
testify today. I come before the committee on behalf of 20,000 highly
trained craft workers in the Southern Nevada area who belong to one of
17 local unions that make up the Southern Nevada BCTC. These locals, in
partnership with their signatory contractors, run apprenticeship and
training programs that provide the skills necessary for a good career
in the construction industry. As the apprenticeship system has
functioned for centuries, the apprentice works and earns a wage with
good benefits while attending class all the while moving to
journeyperson status. Furthermore, the national scope of all of our
unions, allows us to bring in travellers with standardized training and
certifications; providing reliable and highly-trained workers for our
contractors regardless of the need. Unfortunately, that demand for
workers in our area isn't there anymore. Even though Southern Nevada
and the country as a whole has gaping needs for new energy, and
infrastructure.
Because of the lack of construction jobs in Nevada I have been on
the lookout for a way to try to help make things better for the people
I represent. For this reason I found myself attending workforce
investment board workshops at the local level and listening to all of
the ideas that people put forth in order to create jobs. As the
organization that represents the premier training programs in the area,
I wanted to share our model for high-skilled training that seamlessly
matches people with employment. I also hoped to gather new ideas to
ensure we remained the best trainers, and to find and all opportunities
to meet new industry demands and thus create more jobs for my members.
I applaud the local board for listening to my ideas and recognizing
what the Building Trades bring to the training world. I hope that our
model helped them find ways to build more connections between training
and employment.
I believe we should be trying to create jobs, not students.
Unfortunately, there is nothing my workforce investment board, or any
other, can do to spur meaningful job creation. Businesses are cautious
and hoarding cash, afraid to create a job in these uncertain times. I
don't blame them, when they can't be sure if the government is going to
slash needed programs that generate real economic activity and cut off
their unemployment benefits, or if real help will come from Washington,
DC to put our economy back on track--like rebuilding our
infrastructure, investing in new energy projects, or helping people
like my members with mortgage relief.
During this recession, our members have continued to build their
skills even with the lack of work. The Journeymen craft workers have
gone back to the classrooms for journeyman upgrade classes so that they
can better serve the contractors when they finally do go back to work.
In the state of Nevada we supported OSHA 10 hour and 30 hour training
for all construction workers and all of our many craftspeople have
returned to the classroom for that safety training that is now a state
law. In my experience as a member of the Plasterers and Cement Masons
Union local 797 I know that we as union members are Very well trained,
and yet our industry is still plagued with high unemployment So when
discussions start to go the direction of more training, it seems to me
that we're not going to get anyone to work this way. Despite the best
efforts of the local WIB, I personally never saw anyone go to work as a
result of their efforts. We need to be creating jobs, so my local WIB
can begin the hard work that the Southern Nevada Building Trades have
been doing for decades--providing meaningful training, leading to good
careers, directly connected to employment and industry needs.
It's a good feeling when you are able to send someone to a job that
they may not have gotten without your efforts. I'd encourage Congress
to pursue that feeling. Wouldn't you feel great if you returned to your
district to see your constituents repairing a structurally deficient
bridge or building a new, clean and safe school?
I would like to close with a personal account of a conversation
that I had with my grandfather who was my instructor in the Plastering
trade many years ago. We had a job on the west end of Las Vegas that
sat on a golf course. We stopped for a break at lunch time high up on
the building that had a commanding view of the Las Vegas Valley. After
eating and enjoying the view I commented to my grandfather about how
much the city had grown in the last several years of my short
recollection. He agreed and then I said ``It has to come to a stop some
time'' He laughed and said ``we've been saying that for 30 years...''
Well, it's been another 30 years since that day and I'm saddened to
report that we have found the day when it has stopped. Construction
craftspeople are now suffering the worst unemployment in Nevada
history. We need your help to create jobs. The Building Trades have
been taking care of the training, in our industry anyway, for decades
and will continue to do so.
______
Chairman Kline. Mr. Walker, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF LEROY WALKER, VICE PRESIDENT, HUMAN RESOURCES, ST.
ROSE DOMINICAN HOSPITALS, NEVADA MARKET
Mr. Walker. Thank you for this opportunity. There are many
who would say that there's no longer a nursing shortage. Rest
assured that once we turn the corner related to our economic
situation, the nursing shortage will be even deeper than we
could imagine. Please recognize many of our staff are waiting
for an economic recovery prior to announcing their retirement.
I say this as I see our staff come to human resources on a
weekly basis, checking on their retirement benefits. Therefore,
programs must be in place now to address what could be a mass
exodus of our caregivers in the new future.
In an environment in which costs are spiraling out of
control, healthcare is challenged to reduce costs. One area we
find in which costs can be reduced is in our on-boarding and
orientation of candidates for various positions. Our
environment is one in which more and more legislation requires
more and more training, much of which we find ourselves
responsible for in order to provide safe patient care. These
types of programs, while necessary, certainly do not reduce the
costs of healthcare.
Within my organization we've identified issues that have an
impact on on-boarding and implementing various programs to
address skill gaps.
Every new hire is required to have a thorough background
check completed pre-hire. This check is conducted against a
national database. It is unfortunate when we find a new
graduate candidate that cannot pass the background check, due
to issues that may have occurred prior to even applying to
nursing school. This type scrutiny, while necessary, also
results in delays in the hiring process.
We have found that nursing schools have typically provided
clinical assignments, rotating students through the community.
While these clinical assignments are necessary, they do not
serve each organization well since equipment, documentation,
and quality may differ throughout the community. As a result,
St. Rose has developed a relationship with Roseman University--
that's a for-profit entity--to provide an on-site nursing
program tailored for the future needs of St. Rose. These
students learn one way to do things, and that's the St. Rose
way, and they're less likely to leave the organization, since
they have received their training through the organization.
Due to the rotation of students throughout the community
for their clinical experiences, we found the need to implement
a different program, called the Versant Program. It is designed
to provide new graduates with the opportunity to have up to 18
weeks of additional training and mentorship within our
organization as they transition from life as a student to life
as a professional. That's an addition of 18 weeks of added
costs to train a new graduate in areas that are important to
the organization.
We provide a multitude of certifications on-site for staff
to ensure that they maintain the qualifications for their
positions. Additionally, we provide education assistance
programs to our staff.
We recruit nationally for trained clinical staff. However,
we are challenged by the current economic situation in which
selling of homes in other parts of the country makes it
difficult to recruit in the once attractive Las Vegas market,
even with our very attractive housing buyers market.
We continue to build relationships with various students
throughout the community to ensure that their curriculum and
students can better meet the needs of the employer upon
graduation.
While we are regularly attempting to address issues related
to the skill gaps with our nurses, we all must be cognizant of
the fact that shortages exist in virtually every allied health
profession.
Nevada is ranked 32nd in the nation in respiratory
therapists per capita. We currently average 28.1 respiratory
therapists per 100,000.
Nationally, the projected growth of imaging techs is 17
percent by 2018. Nationally we currently average 66.9
radiologic technicians per 100,000.
The American Registry of Radiologic Technologists board of
trustees has formally approved the associate degree as the
minimum educational requirement for the certification
examinations beginning January 1st of 2015. This is something
we need to address now. That will be the minimum certification.
Training needs within the--I'm sorry, coders will be
required to learn and adapt to new requirements surrounding
ICDT-10 in order for hospitals to be appropriately reimbursed.
Training needs within healthcare are complex and have
resulted in a need to have organizations to ensure that staff
is trained properly. Additionally, the partnering with various
educational systems to ensure that their curriculum is in
alignment with our needs has become more necessary than ever.
As we each find the need for more and more healthcare, we must
find a better, more efficient way to ensure that staff is
appropriately trained and prepared to provide the care we need.
In closing, the support of government and the business
community is essential to insure that Nevada has the healthcare
professionals we need in the future. It is through these
initiatives that we will train the leaders of the future and
provide opportunities for Nevada to retain our investment in
those who will care for current and future generations. Thank
you.
Chairman Kline. Thank you, Mr. Walker.
[The statement of Mr. Walker follows:]
Prepared Statement of LeRoy Walker, Regional Vice President,
Human Resources, St. Rose Dominican Hospitals
While there are many who will say there is no longer a nursing
shortage, rest assured that once we turn the corner related to our
current economic situation the nursing shortage will be even deeper
than we could imagine. Please recognize many of our staff are waiting
for an economic recovery prior to announcing their retirement. I say
that as I see our staff come to Human Resources weekly, checking on
their retirement benefits. Therefore, programs must be in place now to
address what could be a mass exodus of our caregivers in the future.
In an environment in which costs are spiraling out of control,
healthcare is challenged to reduce costs. One area we find in which
costs can be reduced is in our on- boarding and orientation of
candidates for various positions. Our environment is one in which more
and more legislation requires more and more training, much of which we
find ourselves responsible for in order to provide safe patient care.
These type programs, while necessary, certainly do not reduce the costs
of healthcare.
Within my organization we have identified issues that have an
impact on on-boarding and implemented various programs to address skill
gaps.
Every new hire is required to have a thorough background
check completed pre-hire. This check is conducted against a national
data bank. It is unfortunate when we find a new graduate candidate that
cannot pass the background check due to issues that may have occurred
prior to even applying to nursing school. This type scrutiny, while
necessary, also results in delays in the hiring process.
We have found that Nursing schools have typically provided
clinical assignments rotating students through the community. While
these clinical assignments are necessary, they do not serve each
organization well since equipment, documentation, and quality may
differ throughout the community. As a result SRDH has developed a
relationship with Roseman University (a for-profit entity) to provide
an on-site nursing program tailored to the future needs of SRDH. These
students learn one way to do things, the SRDH way, and are less likely
to leave the organization since they have received their training with
us.
Due to the rotation of students throughout the community
for their clinical experiences, we have found the need to implement the
Versant Program which is designed to provide new graduates with the
opportunity to have up to 18 weeks of additional training and
mentorship within our organization as they transition from life as a
student to life as a professional. That is 18 weeks of added costs to
train a new graduate in areas important to the organization.
We provide a multitude of certifications on site for staff
to ensure they maintain the qualifications for their positions.
Additionally, we provide education assistance programs to our staff.
We recruit nationally for trained clinical staff. However,
we are challenged by the current economic situation in which selling of
homes in other parts of the country, makes it difficult to move to the
once attractive Las Vegas market, even with our attractive housing
buyers market.
We continue to build relationships with the various
schools throughout our community to ensure that their curriculum and
students can better meet the needs of the employer upon graduation.
While we are regularly attempting to address issues related to the
skill gap with our nurses, we all must be cognizant of the fact that
shortages exist in virtually every other allied health profession.
Nevada is ranked 32nd in the nation in respiratory
therapists per capita.
We currently average 28.1 respiratory therapists per
100,000
The population over 65 is projected to grow by 90% by 2020
Nationally the projected growth for imaging techs is 17%
by 2018
Nationally we currently average 66.9 Radiologic
technicians per 100,000
BLS predicts that 76,000 additional imaging and radiation
technologists by 2018
American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) Board
of Trustees has formally approved the associate degree as the MINIMUM
educational requirement for its certification examinations beginning
Jan. 1, 2015.
Coders will be required to learn and adapt to new
requirements surrounding ICDT-10 in order for hospitals to be
appropriately reimbursed.
Training needs within healthcare are complex and have resulted in
the need for organizations to ensure that staff is trained
appropriately. Additionally, the partnering with various educational
systems to ensure that their curriculum is in alignment with our needs
has become more necessary than ever. As we each find the need for more
and more healthcare, we must find a better more efficient way to ensure
that staff is appropriately trained and prepared to provide the care we
need.
The support of government and the business community is essential
to insure that Nevada has the healthcare professionals we need in the
future. It is through these initiatives that we will train the leaders
of the future and provide opportunities for Nevada to retain our
investment in those who will care for current and future generations.
______
Chairman Kline. I want to thank all the witnesses for your
testimony and for your patience.
We are going to now start a series of moving back and forth
among the members of the committee to ask questions and explore
some of the issues that you have raised. We are going to try to
stick to our own five minute rule. Rosemary will remind me, I'm
sure.
Let me start by saying that we have heard some discussion
here about we need jobs, and that's the job. We need jobs. We
need the economy growing and we need to match up the skills
with the jobs that are available.
We are struggling with a system that is not working
efficiently or effectively. Sometimes it hasn't been measured.
When I was first elected I went to visit a one-stop shop in my
home county, the largest county in my district, and it was a
very nice tour, very nice people, representatives of the
community college, members of the board.
We walked through the facility and I saw places where there
were computer stations and people sitting at the computer
stations working on resumes, and I asked the question, I said,
``Well, how many people come in here?'' And they gave me a
number, a fairly substantial number of people looking for work,
and this is when the economy was in pretty good shape, back in
2003. And I said, ``Well, how many of those people get jobs?''
Well, they didn't know.
I said, ``Well, then, how you know that this is working?''
And they said, ``Well, we have 100 people a month or something
come through and get help with their resumes.'' And I said,
``That's nice, but how many of those get a job?'' And they
didn't know.
We are doing a very, very poor job, I think, around the
country of really measuring whether or not the efforts that
we're putting in are doing what they are supposed to do.
So we have a number of issues to explore here today. We've
had some comments from you about what is working and what is
not working and clearly, again, one of the reasons that we are
here is that the Southern Nevada and Las Vegas area is
struggling with pretty high unemployment, and certainly we know
the building trade has had a big, big hit here, as it has many
places in the country.
Let me start by going to the mayor. You said that you and
the council had picked out some industry clusters to look at
ways to sort of enhance the economy and open up jobs here in
Henderson and you were focusing your efforts on growing
industries in two key areas: education and health care. And you
mentioned some of the work in healthcare, and not so much in
education, but I've got two questions here: How did you pick
those two areas, and how is that working out in both areas.
Mr. Hafen. Well, first I would like to tell you that we
have a great economic development director, and through some of
his analysis and assessments, he came up with these two
industries as being lacking in the city--well, in Southern
Nevada. So that's the way that those two industries, education
and healthcare, were focused on in the City of Henderson.
Chairman Kline. There wasn't enough industry
representation, or there was an unmet demand.
Mr. Hafen. I think a little bit of both. Of course
Congressman Heck, Dr. Heck can tell you that healthcare in this
Southern Nevada area, and I believe in the country, is a major
up-coming employment center.
Chairman Kline. What are your efforts in reaching out to
develop the education sector? What are you doing about that.
Mr. Hafen. The thing that I think we've done very well with
that is we have been out actively in the community and outside
of our own borders recruiting. As I said in my testimony, we
have 13 private colleges in the City of Henderson that are up
and running and are successful, and of course we have a great
number of students attending those colleges and universities.
Chairman Kline. Are these in the private sector, for-profit
or not-for-profit or a combination.
Mr. Hafen. A combination.
Chairman Kline. A combination, okay. Well, that's one of
the reasons we like to come out here and hear about the
innovation that's happening in the locality, that we are not
getting some of those ideas so much back in Washington.
I see I've got more questions. We are going to go through a
couple of rounds here, but rather than start another question
when I'm clearly going to over-run my time, I will in turn
yield five minutes to Mr. McKeon.
Mr. McKeon. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The little disruptions we
had, people are really frustrated throughout the country.
Actually, that was a very mild disruption, compared to some of
the town hall meetings I've seen.
People are frustrated. They want jobs. I don't know what
jobs they want; I don't know what their training was, how do
we--you come from different fields. You really focused in on
nursing, and I think what you alluded to is we think we have
solved the nursing problem because the economy has slowed
everything down and we think we have now enough nurses, knowing
that we don't. And so that's a fairly important sector.
Everybody--I shouldn't say everybody, but probably
everybody in the field knows you need nurses and I know that
there are schools providing that training. How do they find out
what other things, what are the, specifically, what do you
think the factors are that are causing people that create jobs
from creating them? What's holding people back?
Who creates jobs? Entrepreneurs? Some industries create
jobs, but they come after the economy is already booming.
Somebody has to get the economy moving. What do you see as the
impediment to the creation of jobs? Anybody?
Mr. Aguero. Mr. Chairman, I'll move up to the mic and
attempt to answer the question. I think it is a very difficult
one. Is the question that you are asking nationwide or here in
Southern Nevada?
Either one. Well, let me tell you, I think I know a little
bit more about Southern Nevada than I do the nation as a whole.
Let me tell you that I don't think it is one thing. I think
it's any number of things.
The first question you asked is where are jobs created.
Here in Southern Nevada jobs have largely been created, more so
over time, by very large companies: hotels, casinos, those
types of things were the impetus for most of the job creation.
Over the past decade, however, about 90 percent of the job
growth we did have, before the economy turned downward, was
hotel-casino jobs. These are other industries, business and
professional services, education and health services,
manufacturing, distribution-type industries that were largely
leading the type of industry that we had.
The second question sort of bridged, okay, how do we--what
are the impediments? Why is that not happening today? Relative
to why it is not happening today, I think, number one, is just
the pure uncertainty of the economy.
This economy, much like the balance of the nation, was sort
of seeing some leveling off and even some movement upward until
the slew of very difficult circumstances that hit the nation:
Rising gas prices in the early spring; tornadoes; a tsunami
with nuclear implications; debt crises both here at home and
overseas.
All of those types of things created some degree of
significance, a significant degree of uncertainty within the
economy. Right here at home we have not done a very complete
job, if you will, of sort of answering the question: How we are
going to fund our State and local governments over a longer
term. Again, leading to uncertainty.
I would also add to that the other impediments are things
like education. I tend to believe that education is what you
have after you've forgotten everything they taught you in
school, borrowing that from someone else, surely.
But we have failed to educate our children and now we're
shocked and stunned that they are not employable. And come on,
certainly that's not all of them. But the fact that we as a
nation have focused more on fiscal capital and less on human
capital, while nations outside of our borders have gained
ground on us from education, means that our students have a
competitive disadvantage within the workforce.
I think that the combination of those two things: the
uncertainty and the fact that we are simply not prepared for
the jobs of today, much less the jobs of tomorrow, are likely
causing the impediments that you asked about.
Mr. McKeon. Yes.
Mr. Walker. And I would like to tie into some of that. I
agree with the comment, but one point I would like to drive
home is as students graduate from some of these college
programs, we are reeducating because they are not getting all
the things that we need as an employer for them to do for us as
that employer.
To say that I have to educate somebody for an additional 18
weeks because this is how we do things within our organization,
in my mind says why aren't we talking more to the colleges to
ensure that they know what we are looking for as an employer,
so that they are ensuring that those students get those things,
so that we're not paying those additional dollars.
Chairman Kline. The gentleman's time has expired. Dr. Heck.
Mr. Heck. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My thanks to the panel
for taking the time to be here today and I share the
frustrations of those who voiced their concerns. And on a
personal level, I have a 24-year-old daughter who is a recent
graduate from UNLV with a degree in hotel and restaurant
management, our premier school at UNLV, just moved away from
Las Vegas because she couldn't find a job here. Just last week
she has moved away from Las Vegas to find a job elsewhere.
I know we need jobs here in Nevada. It has affected my
family. Mayor, I'm blessed that I've lived in Henderson my
entire time that I have been in Nevada. We have had visionary
leadership, both yourself and your predecessors, in a very
deliberative and stepwise progression of growing Henderson into
the city that is one of America's most livable cities.
We mentioned the 13 universities and schools and I've
visited most of them since being elected and I'm very impressed
by what they offer. Not only do they bring talented folks to
our city as employees, but they are also educating the future
generations and we certainly have grown to being the medical
epicenter of Southern Nevada, with Touro, the State college,
and the nursing program.
How do you see that as tying into the new development of
the medical village, hopefully coming on-line in the not too
distant future, growing those type of jobs? How big of a role
do those universities and entities within Henderson play in
helping to create the other jobs, the construction jobs,
building that village and the staffing of the village, once it
is up and running?
Mr. Hafen. They will play a very important role. As Mr.
Walker commented, what we need to do is somehow put together
our colleges and our universities with developments such as
Union Village and make sure that the educators are teaching
what the workers need to know. And there's going to be some
very high technology and cutting-edge operations at that Union
Village Center.
So our education and universities need to be able to give
these types of developments those students that can be up and
running from the very start.
Mr. Heck. Is that interchange taking place today? What can
be done to foster that communication between the employer and
the developer and those that are actually doing the training of
our future workforce?
Mr. Walker. That's a conversation between the employers and
those educational institutions because as they sit down and
develop curricula I, for one, have insisted, especially as it
relates to nursing curricula, that they sit down and talk to
our C and E. They know what our organization needs. So they
talk about how the curriculum can be tailored such that
individuals can step out of those programs and immediately be
able to start doing things within our organization.
While you are speaking of nursing, it is far more than
nurses. It's the radiology imaging, respiratory therapy, it is
all those things.
Mr. Heck. But those conversations are on-going, or they
have started.
Mr. Walker. Those conversations have started.
Mr. Heck. Started, need to foster and grow.
Mr. Walker. Yes.
Mr. Heck. Mr. Enns.
Mr. Enns. I don't mean to butt in, but I'm afraid I might
not get a chance if I don't. What I wanted to notice here was
that we have been looking at one side of the picture, in my
opinion, and I have been involved in these talks for over,
probably about two years now, obviously, because of our
economy. And we keep hearing the same words over and over
again: employer; developer; educational institutions.
But the one thing that we are leaving out is the people. We
have, what we are working on here, what we are talking about
here is a long-term solution. While I don't discount that we
should have a long-term solution for the education and the
promotion of jobs in the State of Nevada, what we, one thing we
aren't focusing on is the people who are out of work in the
State of Nevada. And you mentioned, Mr. Heck, that the highest
unemployed percentage of unemployed people in the State of
Nevada is construction workers.
I haven't heard anyone say that so far today, except for
myself. And so if we want to change the unemployment statistics
in the State of Nevada, what's the quickest way to change it?
Find a way to put the people to work that are out of work. It's
not just construction workers, but that's who I represent.
So how do we do that in the quickest way possible? I think
we should be talking about that, also, not just the up-coming
fields, and the education that's required to get people--I'm
not sure, I do know some construction workers who have gone
into the nursing field, I'll tell you that. But they are few
and far between. And I don't know how we are going to get 40 or
50,000 construction workers into the nursing field.
So we've got to look at ways, in my opinion, that get those
that are out of work to work. If it is not in construction, it
may be in something else. I would support the idea of
alternative energy and renewable energy stuff in the State of
Nevada. This is a perfect place for that, and I think that, you
know, we talk about it a lot. We are making some end roads
toward building renewable energy in the State of Nevada.
But that's the quickest way, in my opinion, to get those
numbers changed, is to put those people back to work and we
have a perfect way to do it and it does require education to do
that.
Chairman Kline. Thank you. I am mindful that we have
another panel, and I want to make sure I leave time for them.
But I think we have enough time to go through another quick
round of questions here while we have this panel.
So I'm the Chairman. I get to make that decision. That's
what we are doing to do. So I'll recognize myself and try very
hard to strictly adhere to our own five-minute clock because we
do have the other panel.
I want to continue to explore the discussion that Mayor
Hafen and Mr. Walker, Mr. Heck were having about connecting the
employer with the educational institution. We've had a number
of hearings, field hearings, as I mentioned earlier, around the
country. One of the things that we have heard is in the
educational institution itself, that there be members of the
business community who are on advisory boards, for example,
helping to develop the curriculum.
Mr. Walker, you said you need 18 weeks more of training. It
seems to me that's a problem that we ought to be able to solve.
Workforce investment boards, there is a requirement under the
Act that there be employers, business representatives on that.
It seems to me we need to start to make that connection and
I would like to hear from you, Mr. Mayor, or from anyone who
has had direct experience with that to see where there are
examples where that connection is being made to not only help
identify the jobs that are available, and then what we are
doing about connecting the people who are training for those
jobs with where the job openings are.
Mr. Hafen. Maybe I can offer this: We, myself and the other
council members, go out on a weekly basis and we visit
businesses in the City of Henderson. One of the trends that we
saw in some of those visits was that, especially in some of our
industries, the business owners were saying hey, we just don't
have the educated workforce that can maintain some of the
equipment that we have.
I think where we are lacking, maybe as a city and city
council, is we didn't go that one step further and through this
testimony today, I intend to include educators and the
universities and some of the private colleges in the City of
Henderson in these weekly visits so that we can coordinate
between education and the employer to exactly what their needs
are.
Chairman Kline. Well, let me interrupt for just a second.
It seems to me that's the way it was supposed to be set up.
That's why we have hearings like this is to find out what's
working and what's not working.
Back to my original comments about going to a one-stop,
walking through and asking how many people actually got jobs
and being given the blank stares, they really didn't know, they
weren't tracking that. So they didn't know if it was working.
But that system is designed to help connect the training
preparation of workers with where they are needed. That's why
you have the make-up that you have on the board. But that's
currently not working because we have Mr. Walker's testimony
that says they are not prepared, the workers are not prepared,
nurses and radiologists and so forth and they have to get
additional training.
There's a disconnect there and I hear the same thing from
the mayor here, says that out and about, as all mayors should
be, and that's a very good thing and there's a disconnect. So
that's part of what we are exploring here.
I know Mr. Enns has testified that in the apprenticeship
and journeyman and union training system it is designed for
connect, but there don't happen to be jobs available there
right now. So there is a connect between training and what they
need to do, there just aren't the jobs there. So there's going
to have to be some crossing over, and I know not every
construction worker is going to go into nursing. I certainly
hope they don't. One of these days I'm going to have a leak in
my roof and I want to make sure there's somebody there to do
it.
But we have a disconnect and I'm trying to explore if
there's anything here that you are seeing where we can make
that connection. Mr. Enns?
Mr. Enns. I'll state it again, that you can have all the
education you want and put people through four and six and
eight years worth of college to prepare themselves for the jobs
that will be available in the future, and even for the jobs
that may be available today, although they may be few and far
between.
But you are still going to have tens of hundreds of
thousands of people across the country that are sitting at home
out of work.
Chairman Kline. No question, until the economy gets going,
we are going to have a high jobless rate. That's an important
issue which we need to address as a Congress and a nation.
But the specific issue before us now is how do we connect
the available employees with the jobs that are there, and there
seems to be a continuing disconnect. Mr. McKeon.
Mr. McKeon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Whose responsibility
is it to create jobs?
Mr. Hafen. I would like to go back to that. You asked that
question before, too, and it is actually all of ours: It is the
private sector; it is the public sector; it is the business
people.
Quite frankly, I think one of the problems that we have,
especially in this economy, and I'm not going to be too
Pollyanna-ish here, but people need to have hope and faith that
things are going to get better. And what I try to do when I'm
out and about is let people know that Henderson is open for
business, and I think if you just get that attitude changed
within our country, that things will start loosening up and get
better.
Mr. McKeon. Whose responsibility is it to create jobs.
Mr. Aguero. I would echo what the mayor said. I think it is
all of our responsibility to create jobs, particularly those
that have them today. The small business owner; the large
business owner, to try and keep people employed.
I think at the heart and soul of this community, respecting
the fact that some places like construction have been
disproportionately impacted by the downturn because they simply
can't hold on. I can't tell you how many business folks I have
talked to, large and small, that have done everything that they
can to bring jobs back, as well as through most of the
downturn, try and keep as many people working as long as
possible for as long as possible.
So going directly to your question, I think what is
reflected in this community and continues to be reflected
today, is that it is everyone's responsibility, large and
small, across all industries: public sector; private sector, to
help folks get back to work.
Mr. McKeon. You know, I was visiting an aerospace company
in my district that builds wings and they were expanding to a
new building. This was years ago. And they said they had
problems keeping people that could run the computers and do the
things that they wanted them to do and they tried to advance
from within and they said when they would get somebody trained,
a larger company, Lockheed, would hire them away.
So they had a real quandary. And we talked a little bit and
I got them together with the city, with the community college.
They found out that some of the taxes they were paying were not
going to the city that they should have. We were able to get
that fixed and they were able to then have some seed money. And
I went to the community college and they agreed they would
provide a professor and now they have--this was years ago, but
they got it started very shortly after that.
The seed money from the city provided the computers and the
community college provided a professor and the business
provided the classroom location. Now they have two full-time
professors in there and they don't care, they said send the
Lockheed employees, and the Northrop employees because there's
enough for all of them to do. So communication was very, very
important.
The question you asked about how do we get people working
right now. I come from a business background. I did not look at
the government as it being their responsibility to create jobs.
I didn't look at it as my responsibility to create a job.
But if I wanted to grow my business, it became natural. As
I grew, it created more jobs. And I've talked to a lot of
business people now, people that are in the field that would
normally be creating jobs. They say uncertainty.
I was in the retail business. Why would I want to open a
store in this kind of environment? I just want to hunker down
and try to exist, try to get through it. Regulations,
government regulations, when my dad was a young man and first
went into business, it was very simple. Now a days you have to
get all kinds of licenses, permits, and pass all kinds of
requirements to start a business. It's very difficult. And then
to keep it going, and that also creates uncertainty.
Then financing, when we wanted to open a new store we could
go to the bank and borrow money. Ever since the collapse a few
years ago, lenders are getting hit by regulators. So a loan
that they would make a few years ago that was a very good loan
is now a bad loan, and they get criticized for it.
So it always, it used to be the saying that if you need
money, you can't get it. If you don't need it, you can get it.
That is in spades now, and you have to be able to prove without
uncertainty that you can repay that loan. There is no risk-
taking.
So it is very difficult, so an entrepreneur that will
create jobs, somebody that wants to start hiring right now, put
people to work right now, is reluctant to do so. And we are in
a real catch 22. We need to loosen up some of those
regulations, loosen up some of that financing, and that's what
got us into the pickle we are in. So it is like who is going to
take the first step. Yield back.
Chairman Kline. The gentleman's time has expired. Dr. Heck.
Mr. Heck. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Aguero, I certainly
appreciate and have long appreciated your passion for education
here in Southern Nevada. I don't think you ever give a
presentation without underscoring the importance of our
educational experience, both K through 12, and secondary, and
the challenges we've faced for decades, especially looking at
the newer ideas of trying to concentrate on science,
technology, and math.
The good part of this committee is while one part is
workforce, the other part is education. It's the Education and
the Workforce Committee. So I get to try to have an impact on
both sides.
One of the other issues we are working on currently is the
reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
which will bring some other information back to Washington. But
I'm going to ask you a question, and then I want to transition
to Mr. Enns for the follow-up.
Certainly we've had, we had very robust growth in the
construction industry, just because of who we are and how fast
we were growing. The joke was we were the only place where
construction workers were building homes for other construction
workers.
In your years of being here, in your experience of really
knowing the economic analysis of Southern Nevada, do you
foresee us ever returning to those levels of construction or
growth where those over 100,000 construction jobs that are gone
would come back.
Mr. Aguero. No, sir, I do not. And principally I think the
statistics bear it out, to some degree. At the peak of the
market some 112,000 people were employed in the construction
trade here in Southern Nevada alone. It represented 12, 12 and
a half percent of our workforce. The national average is
somewhere in the five and a half range, even when the economy
was performing comparable well.
Today, after having lost two out of every three
construction jobs, we are now only back to about four and a
half percent of our workforce in construction, something
consistent with the national average.
Now, that isn't to say that we don't have some
infrastructure that needs to be put to work, and some folks can
be put to work, that some of the buildings that we have in
Southern Nevada don't, or won't require some degree of
refurbishment or continued effort, we have. I think we can
sustain those levels.
That said, the ability to transition those employees to
that level of 72,000 displaced construction workers back into
the construction industry simply defies logic, given what we
know in terms of the needed development.
Mr. Heck. So Mr. Enns, I appreciate the fact obviously that
our construction industry is the most decimated part of our
economic foundation here in Southern Nevada. But with the
projection that, unfortunately, all those construction workers
that have done incredible work in making the city and town what
it is, will probably never be able to be reabsorbed back into
the construction workforce, what is it that we can do for them.
We can say we are going to start construction projects and
I'm a big supporter of green energy and renewable projects, but
there was just a report that the government spent $40 million
and created less than 20 green jobs out of it.
We can keep doing green energy projects and give them the
job to put in the solar field for six months. What's going to
happen when that goes away? Hopefully there's hope on the
horizon about a big project that will be approved to go in
Laughlin, where you're talking about 4,000 construction jobs.
But what is it--I understand we've got folks that need jobs
now. What are we going to do for the construction workers that
will never, unfortunately, probably be able to be absorbed in
the construction industry full-time again in Southern Nevada.
Mr. Enns. I'll tell what you we can't do, we can't write
them off and say, well, we can't fix it, so I'm sorry.
Mr. Heck. I agree. That's why I'm asking, what can we do.
Mr. Enns. I think we have a lot of opportunities in
Southern Nevada. I'm a little more optimistic than Mr. Aguero
here, and we work together a lot. But I am--I do work in the
construction field and I can see lots of great opportunities.
You mentioned the solar industry. It's a great opportunity
here in Southern Nevada. We have something that you don't have
throughout the whole rest of the country. I'm not an economist,
and I'm not a military man, either. But I do know that our
nation suffers from, if you will, we are--we require a lot of
oil from other countries in order to keep our nation afloat,
and that can be a big security risk to us.
We need to find ways in our country to find our own ways of
creating energy in this country, without having to go get it
somewhere else, I believe. Southern Nevada is a great place for
an entrepreneur to start up a business. Mr. McKeon, you
mentioned about private businesses. Every single contractor
that hires our workforce is a private company. Every one of
them.
Even the ones that do the solar projects around the
country, and I would submit that there aren't very many solar
projects that get built in six months. Most of them are at
least a year, sometimes two to four years for the construction,
and I don't think in the construction industry, I don't think
we are asking for 100,000 jobs this year or next year, or even
in five years. We would settle for 10,000 this year and maybe
10 or 15 or 20,000 next year.
I think we need to make end roads in that direction and one
of the things that you, all of you can do, without overspending
the taxpayers' money, Mr. Aguero mentioned that there's a lot
of--there's a lack of trust, that banks are not giving loans,
there's an uncertain marketplace that we have today and you
can't get a loan, even if you want a loan. Do you know how many
people would build a solar project if they could get the
funding to do it?
But one of the things you can do is back these people so
they can get their loans. Government backing would be very
helpful. And like I say, I'm not an economist and I don't
understand all the money parts of it, but my understanding is
that a good percentage of those would be able to be built and
run on their own and never really need the government's money,
only the government's co-sign and signature. That would be a
way to get a lot of people to work. And I'm with you, Mr. Heck.
I understand we're not going to get 100,000 jobs back in Las
Vegas in the next couple of years, but some progress and some
hope would sure put us in the right direction.
Chairman Kline. Thank you, sir. The gentleman's time has
expired. I thank the whole panel. Excellent testimony. That's
terrific engagement and questions and answers.
Thank you for appearing today. We'll ask you to step back
and make room for the next panel.
[Recess.]
Chairman Kline. Okay, the second panel has arrived. Thank
you for being so prompt.
I'm always a little bit concerned when we have two panels
that there will be time for the second panel and you all will
have wandered off to use the facilities or something. So thank
you very much for being prompt.
I would now like to represent--or to recognize Mr. Heck for
the introduction of the second panel.
Mr. Heck. I thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is now my pleasure
to introduce our second distinguished panel.
Mr. Edward Guthrie has served as the executive director for
Opportunity Village since 1994. Prior to coming to Opportunity
Village, Mr. Guthrie served as the executive director of a
similar organization in upstate New York and Maryland for
almost 20 years.
Opportunity Village operates one of the largest custodial
service firms; owns the second largest document destruction
firms in Las Vegas; and every year it serves over 400,000 meals
to our servicemen and women stationed at Nellis Air Force Base.
Mr. John Ball was named Executive Director of Workforce
Connections, Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board in
November of 2007. Mr. Ball has held a variety of public sector
leadership positions, has served as a city councilor, county
commissioner, and in a cabinet office for two governors. Prior
to entering public service, Mr. Ball owned and managed a real
estate brokerage firm and served in two tours of duty for the
United States Air Force in Vietnam. Thank you, sir.
Ms. Rebecca Metty-Burns is the executive director of the
College of Southern Nevada, Division of Workforce and Economic
Development. Ms. Metty-Burns has over 16 years experience in
the hospitality industry as a human resources leader and
project director, supervising corporate training, international
project development, and in organizational development
initiatives.
She also has extensive experience in workforce curriculum,
design and training assessment.
Chairman Kline. Thank you, Dr. Heck.
A very quick reminder, the light system, I know it is going
to be a little bit difficult for Mr. Guthrie to see the light.
As you noticed, I wasn't quick to drop the gavel at the end of
five minutes, but please try to--I think it is a----
Mr. Ball. It is a short leash.
Chairman Kline. It is a short leash. The light will turn
green at the start of the testimony and after four minutes it
will turn yellow and then red. Rosemary will do her best to
stay right on top of it.
Mr. Guthrie, thank you again for the wonderful hospitality
here. I've enjoyed your cookies, water, the facilities, so
thank you again, and you're recognized for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF EDWARD GUTHRIE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OPPORTUNITY
VILLAGE
Mr. Guthrie. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman Kline,
Congressman Heck, Congressman McKeon, and our other
distinguished guests, I want to welcome everybody to
Opportunity Village.
As you said, my name is Ed Guthrie and it's been my
distinct pleasure to be the executive director of Opportunity
Village for 17 years now.
When I was recruited to Opportunity Village back in 1994, I
was told there were only three things that people in Southern
Nevada could all agree on: one of them was Runnin' Rebels
basketball; the other one was Nellis Air Force Base; and the
third one was Opportunity Village, and everybody in the
community seems to support all of them.
We were started in 1954 by a small group of parents of
individuals with intellectual disabilities. We got here about
the same--we started about the same time Bugsy Siegel arrived
in town. We were here before Howard Hughes and we have
outlasted both of them. Another entertainer that you might
remember is Elvis Presley. Opportunity Village has been around
so long that every scarf that Elvis Presley ever gave away was
sewn here at Opportunity Village. One of the little known facts
about Opportunity Village.
We have provided, last year we provided assessment,
training and rehabilitation for about 1,400 adults with
disabilities, primarily those with intellectual disabilities.
We do it through a number of different areas. About 400 of
those individuals are individuals with very severe
disabilities. They're in day activities, community programs.
The other thousand individuals are people that are either
placed in employment or are trained and then assessed and
placed in competitive employment out in the community.
Here at Opportunity Village we believe people should have
choices, informed choices, and so we offer a variety of
different programs for individuals. One of our more successful
programs is the Job Discovery program. It is a school-to-work
transition program that we have been running with the Clark
County School District for the last eight years now.
About 80 students with severe intellectual disabilities
come through this program every year. They get a chance to
sample five different jobs for nine weeks each. We have found
that they get the chance then to make all the stupid mistakes
that you and I and others all made when we were high school
kids on our first job. So they make them on these jobs. With
our support, they learn from those mistakes and they are able
to go on and find jobs in the community.
We clean over two million square feet of government
commercial office space. If you happened to have a glass of
wine last night with your dinner here at one of the
restaurants, the wine was supplied by Southern Wine and
Spirits. We clean Southern Wine and Spirits.
If you are a veteran, and you go to a VA clinic here in
town, that's cleaned by Opportunity Village. If you needed to
pull a permit to do a construction project at the government
offices of Clark County, the government center is cleaned by
Opportunity Village, and if you stop at the restroom at
McCarran Airport, the restroom attendants are from Opportunity
Village as well.
We have the second largest document destruction company in
Nevada. People with disabilities and Opportunity Village shred
over 20,000 pounds of confidential documents every day.
We are also the postal service for Nellis Air Force Base.
We deliver a thousand pieces of mail every day, on the average,
at Nellis Air Force Base, and our people with disabilities have
been able to acquire all the clearances necessary to deliver
confidential, as well as regular mail out at Nellis Air Force
Base, and then as Congressman Heck said, we serve over 400,000
meals every year to the airmen and women out at Nellis Air
Force. We operate all four of their dining facilities.
On the lighter side, if you look around this room, you will
see some art on the walls. All the art in this facility was
developed by people with disabilities. We've been able to sell
over $100,000 worth of their art throughout the community, and
if you happen to go to the Encore tonight, you will see at
least one of our pieces of art hanging in the Encore here in
one of the major casinos in Las Vegas.
Then our cookies. Our cookies are my favorite part of the
program because one of my parts of my job description is to go
over and taste-test the cookies periodically to make sure they
meet the high-quality standards of Opportunity Village, and we
deliver about 3,500 cookies a day to the employee dining rooms
of all of a number of the different casinos here in town.
Finally, we package coffee and other condiments. I was
telling somebody earlier, I don't know if Jeremy Aguero sells,
but we have our own economic indexes, in addition to Jeremy's.
Ours is the chocolate index. We package a lot of the chocolates
that the guest room attendants place on your pillows when you
go to stay at one of the hotels, and we can tell you the
economy is not growing very quickly. It is growing. Either
that, or we'd have chubbier guest room attendants than we had
last year because we are packaging more chocolate this year
than we packaged last year at the same time.
We are an example of a public-private partnership. The
building that you are in, the Kitty Rodman center here--Kitty
Rodman is right above your head, right over there--was built as
part of a $44 million capital campaign. $5 million of that
money came from state and public funds; the balance of those
funds was raised from private donors like the Ralph and Betty
Engelstad Foundation, Kitty Rodman, Steve and Karen Thomas,
Joyce Mack, Tom and Leslie Thomas are some of the major donors
that contributed, but there were a whole bunch of other small
contributions that came into Opportunity Village as well.
Our annual operating budget is similarly a public-private
partnership. Only 25 percent of the revenue used to operate
Opportunity Village comes from fee-for-service revenue, either
through Medicare, Section 110 money from the Rehabilitation
Act, or other government money. About 45 percent of the revenue
comes from the contracts that we discussed earlier, and a good
30 percent of the money is fund-raising, support from the
general public.
If I were to give you some examples of how the community
supports Opportunity Village, if you come back at holiday
season, you can't have spent a holiday season in Las Vegas
without knowing the Magical Forest at Opportunity Village.
Literally thousands of volunteers help us.
We have one of the few pine forests in the Mojave desert.
We planted it ourselves. We own three trains and a carousel,
and literally thousands of volunteers help us staff this event
for 40 nights in a row and we raise $1.2 million to help
operate, to help fill in the gaps for the funding for
Opportunity Village.
Chairman Kline. Sir, if you could wrap up your testimony.
Mr. Guthrie. Very good.
I guess the three things that I would like to talk about is
how you can help us to help people with disabilities. One of
them is we would like to see you allow greater flexibility in
the Rehabilitation Services Act portion of the Act. That
portion of the Act, the Section 110 basic grant is part of that
Act and that's a formula driven on population.
The population of Nevada has risen; the State match is not
available because the money is simply not in the budget to do
that. So individuals with disabilities end up waiting for
services. Private individuals and public agencies would be
willing to work with the State and others to come up with State
match, but we need to be more flexible with that.
I think we also need to be able to say that we need to
instruct the RSA, the Rehabilitation Services Administration,
that a placement in a--at a job at Nellis Air Force Base, even
though it's with a small group of other people with
disabilities, is as valued a placement as a placement at a job
where the individual is the only person with a disability on
the job. So any changes to that part of the Act we think would
be detrimental to people with disabilities.
The AbilityOne program I know is under the jurisdiction of
this committee. It is not the subject of this meeting, but I
think the AbilityOne program is an incredibility valuable
program for people with disabilities. Nationwide over 50,000
different people have jobs through it with agencies like
Opportunity Village because of the AbilityOne program, and I
think anything you can do to encourage subcontracting and other
avenues like that to expand that program is incredibly
valuable.
Then lastly, I think the Section 14(c) program under the
Fair Labor Standards Act protects the ability of individuals
who cannot make minimum wage, do not have the ability to
produce at that level, to receive a wage.
Opportunity Village has over 700 people in our program that
are paid special minimum wages, based on their productivity.
Nationwide 430,000 individuals receive special minimum wages
because of this, through the Section 14(c) program.
If you were to try to subsidize the wages of all of those
individuals with disabilities throughout the country, it would
cost you an additional $4 billion. I don't think this is the
time for the Federal government to try to take on an additional
$4 billion dollar debt.
Chairman Kline. Thank you, sir, for your testimony.
[The statement of Mr. Guthrie follows:]
Prepared Statement of Edward Guthrie, Executive Director,
Opportunity Village
Mr. Chairman, Congressman Heck and other distinguished members of
the Committee: Welcome to Opportunity Village. My name is Ed Guthrie
and it's been my distinct pleasure to be the Executive Director of this
fabulous agency for the past 17+ years. When I was recruited to
Opportunity Village, I was told that there are only three things that
everyone in Las Vegas can support: Runnin' Rebel Basketball, Nellis Air
Force Base and Opportunity Village. A lot has changed in Las Vegas in
the past 17 years but the support of our community for Opportunity
Village and the people we serve has only grown.
Opportunity Village was started in 1954 by a small group of parents
of children with intellectual disabilities. We've always been a part of
the fabric of Las Vegas. Opportunity Village started about the time
Bugsy Siegel arrived in town and before Howard Hughes, and we've
outlasted both of them. Another little known fact is that Opportunity
Village sewed all the scarves that Elvis gave his loving fans when he
played at what's now the Las Vegas Hilton.
Opportunity Village provided assessment, training and employment
services to 1,408 youth and adults with intellectual and other
disabilities last year. We serve people with all levels of disability
and everyone who attends Opportunity Village receives a paycheck every
two weeks. Approximately 390 of the most severely disabled people we
served in FY-2011 were in therapeutic day training (non-work) programs
while over 1,000 people with severe disabilities were in vocational
assessment, vocational training or employment programs. Of those 1,000
people over 60% were in community employment or training programs that
led to community employment.
At Opportunity Village, we believe in informed choice. We do not
believe that ``one size fits all''. People with disabilities should be
offered a range of opportunities. That's why we offer a variety of
options from which people with disabilities and their families can
choose, consistent with their strengths, interests, and needs.
The Job Discovery program is a school-to-work transition
program that offers students with intellectual disabilities, who are in
their senior year of high school, the opportunity to experience five
different jobs for nine weeks each. They get the chance to make all the
stupid mistakes that most high school students make on their first job
and they get to ``try on'' a career.
Opportunity Village cleans over 2 million square feet of
government and commercial office space and we employ people with
disabilities to do the cleaning. Our crew that cleans all 350,000
square feet of the Clark County Government Center was just honored by
the County Commissioners. You may have used one of the rest rooms we
cleaned at McCarran Airport.
We are the 2nd largest document destruction company in
Nevada. People with disabilities at Opportunity Village shred over
20,000 pounds of confidential documents every day.
We are the postal service for Nellis AFB. We deliver an
average of over 1,000 pieces of official and private mail every day.
Our people with disabilities have the security clearances to handle all
the confidential correspondence.
People with intellectual disabilities serve over 350,000
meals every year to the brave men and women through our food service
contract at Nellis AFB.
If you notice the art on the walls, this art was created
by people with intellectual disabilities. We sold over $40,000 of their
art, some for as much as $2,500/ piece.
If you smell cookies baking that's because Opportunity
Village bakes over 15,000 cookies per week for the employee dining
rooms at the Venetian, the Mirage and other hotel/casinos.
We package coffee for all the properties operated by
Caesar's Entertainment and room amenities for other hotel/casinos. In
fact, we have our own ``economic indicator'' that we call the
``chocolate index''. We package the chocolates that the housekeeping
staff leaves on your pillow and, although the economy is still slow, we
are packaging more chocolates than we did last year.
Opportunity Village is a great example of a ``public-private''
partnership. The building you are in, the Kitty Rodman Event Center,
was built as part of a $44+ million capital campaign. A little over $5
million was public money but almost $39 million was from private
contributions. Some were from major donors like the Ralph & Betty
Engelstad Foundation, Kitty Rodman, Tom and Leslie Thomas, Steven and
Karen Thomas, and Joyce Mack but there were hundreds of other donors
who contributed too.
Opportunity Village's annual operating budget is also an example of
the ``public-private'' partnership. Approximately 25% of our revenue is
from government fees and grants (e.g. Medicaid, RSA Section 110 funds,
etc.). About 45% of our budget is contract revenue from baking cookies,
delivering mail, cleaning floors, etc. and the other 30% is fundraising
income from the people of Southern Nevada.
Opportunity Village also uses the Medicaid Home & Community-Based
Services (HCBS) waiver to provide services to some of the most severely
disabled adults in Nevada. Federal bureaucrats at the Center for
Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) are proposing changes to Medicaid
regulations that will deny funding to services like those provided here
at Opportunity Village. Please help us safeguard access to these
valuable services for people with the most severe disabilities.
Let me give you a couple of examples of how the community supports
Opportunity Village:
Everyone who has spent a holiday season in Las Vegas knows
the Magical Forest. Opportunity Village owns one of the few pine
forests in the Mojave Desert. We planted hundreds of pine trees at our
West Oakey campus and every year we decorate them with millions of
lights. We own two small trains as well as a carousel. We need 75
volunteers a night to run the Magical Forest and every year thousands
of people volunteer and tens of thousands pay to see the trees, ride
the train and eat the funnel cakes. Through the efforts of our
volunteers we raise over $1 million per year.
Have you ever seen a sea of ten thousand people dressed as
Santa Claus? Well, if you are in Las Vegas on the 1st Saturday in
December, you'll see thousands of Las Vegans dressed in Santa suits to
participate in the ``Great Santa Run'', a 5k that raises over $300,000
each year to benefit Opportunity Village.
I could talk about Opportunity Village all day but the purpose of
this hearing is to highlight local solutions to strengthen job training
programs.
People with intellectual disabilities have an unemployment rate of
almost three times the rate for the average person. So, if the
unemployment rate for average folks in Las Vegas was 13.8% in June,
2011, then the unemployment rate for folks with intellectual
disabilities was over 40% and it's been that way all year.
Opportunity Village paid almost $3.9 million in wages to people
with intellectual disabilities in FY-2011 and we estimate that people
with severe disabilities placed in competitive employment after
receiving services at Opportunity Village earned another $2.3 million
last year.
Opportunity Village found community employment for 111 people with
severe disabilities in FY-2011. Our research shows a reduction of
$5,000/year in welfare, Medicaid, food stamps and other benefits for
every person that we place in community employment. People with
disabilities gain independence and self-esteem from working, and they
reduce their dependence on other benefits, which saves taxpayers!
You can help us build on this success by:
Allow Greater Flexibility with RSA Section 110 (Basic
Grants): Opportunity Village uses Rehabilitation Act section 110 funds
to provide assessment, training and placement in community employment
for people with severe disabilities. Nevada, like many States does not
have the State tax revenue to leverage all the federal dollars that are
available, so people linger on waiting lists for services. Encourage
RSA to allow private agencies (and individuals) to contribute the
``State match'' so people don't have to wait for services. Instruct RSA
that a placement of an individual on an AbilityOne contract or ``state-
use'' contract is an acceptable ``closure''. In addition, please do not
adopt amendments to the Rehabilitation Act that limit opportunities and
choices currently available to persons with the most significant
disabilities, including work experiences in mobile work crews.
AbilityOne: The AbilityOne program allows Federal agencies
to purchase goods or services from community rehabilitation programs
(like Opportunity Village) without going through the competitive bid
process so long as 75% of the people working on these contracts are
people with severe disabilities. Encourage Federal agencies to make
better use of the program. For example, encourage designated
subcontracts for AbilityOne when the Department of Defense awards
``base operating contracts'' to large contractors. Another example
would be to encourage Federal agencies to use AbilityOne when they are
contracting for custodial, grounds maintenance, or other services on
leased space.
Section 14(c): Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards
Act allows community rehabilitation programs (like Opportunity Village)
to pay individuals with severe disabilities less than the minimum wage
if their disability impedes their productivity. In 2009, over 430,000
people with severe disabilities throughout the US received a special
minimum wage; over 700 of those individuals were at Opportunity
Village. Every one of the individuals served by Opportunity Village
receives the dignity and self-respect that comes from earning a regular
paycheck. If the federal government had to subsidize the wages for the
almost 727 people at Opportunity Village who make less than minimum
wage so that they could make at least minimum wage, it would cost the
federal government approximately $6.7 million per year. This is not the
time to ask the federal government to subsidize $6.7 million per year
in wages to people with disabilities. Section 14(c) enables these
individuals to receive the tangible and intangible benefits from
working. Please oppose any and all efforts to eliminate or phase out
this important provision of law. People with the most significant
disabilities deserve the opportunity to work and they are counting on
you to preserve this opportunity.
The Importance of Jobs for People with Intellectual
Disabilities: People with intellectual disabilities want to able to
live, work and play in our/their community. We need to assure that they
have good quality services to enable them to succeed. If you look at
the Opportunity Village logo, you'll see one person offering another
person a ``hand-up'' * * * not a ``hand out''. Please help us help
them. Opportunity Village and similar community rehabilitation programs
throughout the country are doing great things for people with
intellectual disabilities (and the families who love them). They
deserve your support.
Mr. Chairman, That's the end of my comments. I want to thank you
for accepting our hospitality and listening to our concerns.
______
Chairman Kline. Mr. Ball, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF JOHN BALL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
NEVADA WORKFORCE CONNECTIONS
Mr. Ball. Thank you, Chairman Kline, Congressman McKeon,
and Congressman Heck. Welcome to Southern Nevada and thank you,
Mr. Chairman, and the Ranking Member Miller for the opportunity
to share ideas with you today.
You have heard a lot about why this is the best place in
the country to have that conversation, so I'll dispense with
that section and insert a couple of comments on some of your
previous questions.
Just to note that in Congressman Heck's district the Foliot
Furniture project which is outlined in our written remarks is a
great example of a funded partner of ours. Easter Seals worked
really closely with the new firm to specifically tailor
training for over 80 new employees and get them on the job and
get that green furniture production facility up and running
very successfully.
Mr. Walker's hospital is a great beneficiary of another of
our funded partners, the Southern Nevada Medical Industry
Coalition, which actually grew out of the city manager's office
in the City of Henderson. It has over 600 members across the
State, with the help of a healthcare sector council. They have
helped us kind of slice and dice why some of those problems
have occurred, in terms of getting educated nurses into jobs.
So for the time being we are funding a very successful
program through the SNMIC to get that training for nurses, that
bridge training that gets them successfully in the hospitals
with the employer.
Let me, Mr. Chairman, your question was how many of these
people get a job, so let me pull just a couple of numbers out
of our testimony and highlight that. In the face of the kind of
circumstances that you have heard about in Southern Nevada,
these programs are working very well. So listen to these
numbers.
In the program here just ended two months ago, in our adult
program we placed--or our entered employment rate, so this is
not training, these are people going into jobs--was 72 percent
against our DOL target of 63 percent.
Our retention rate was 82 percent, versus the DOL target of
70, and our average earnings in those jobs was $11,771, against
the DOL target of $11,500. Once again, in the toughest labor
market in the country, these programs can work.
In our dislocated workers program, our entered employment
rate was 76 percent against a target of 70; our retention rate
was 86 against the target of 80. So once again, it is working.
On the youth side, and I think we are particularly proud of
this, given the dropout rates that you heard before, our
placement in employment or education was 78 percent, versus a
federal target of 40 percent, and our attainment of degree or
certificate was 63 percent versus 40 percent.
Our State energy sector partnership, which is funded under
the Recovery Act, just finished its last quarter ahead of goal.
Last February 2nd, on National Job Shadow Day, we placed over
3,000 young people in businesses across Southern Nevada, by far
the largest number in the country. And our new youth program is
operating with some numbers that I would be happy to cite, but
you might not believe me, they are that spectacular at this
point.
So what we see, and I think what we can talk with you about
over the next few months, are clear examples of how when
business, labor, education, and local government get together,
these programs can work. They are not without their
difficulties and failures, but the track record is there.
Let me cite very quickly three key cornerstones we think of
any new act or reauthorization that we put together. The first
is local flexibility. Mr. Chairman, you mentioned this tendency
to think that despite all the goodwill and intelligence in
Washington, D.C., in our case San Francisco or Carson City,
there's nobody that knows this labor market like the business
and labor leadership of Southern Nevada.
So I just wanted to say one thing, when you are looking at
what that new legislation looks like, that the Workforce
Investment Act is an empowerment model. So every overly
restrictive, overly restrictive regulation or policy or
procedure or directive that you allow into that Act is a
diminution or a reduction of our ability to meet the challenges
and opportunities in the local labor market. So I hope you will
be brutal and vigilant about how that language comes out in the
act.
Second, the local private sector leadership is key. Now,
we've got business, labor, education, and local government. But
those first two are the strongest cornerstones of our work.
Business and labor are the folks that are out belly to belly
with the realities of the labor market every day, in a global
economy. So that information, through their eyes, that gets fed
back to us in our working committees and staff level, that we
can analyze and then interpret into new programs, that allows
us to be competitive and produce the kind of numbers you are
talking about.
So I just want to highlight that whatever you do about
membership or anything else, I hope you'll give us the maximum
flexibility at the local level to choose that membership and
understand that front line business and labor knowledge is
what's key to this.
Finally, I want to say, Mr. Chairman, we are extremely
appreciative that the future workforce is represented in the
Workforce Investment Act. We have to have that ability to build
that pipeline over the next five, ten, fifteen, twenty years,
and I just want to say young people that are coming out of the
schools today are competing with literally hundreds of millions
of young people across the globe that we didn't have to compete
with when I was coming out of school. So they need every
advantage we can give them and that early and successful
connection to the world of work is an absolute key there.
So programs like job shadows, internships, work
experiences, summer youth programs are a critical part of our
arsenal, and they need to be adequately funded to work, and I
hope they will be in the new version of the federal workforce
policy.
You have, Mr. Chairman and members, I think the toughest
policy area and program area at the national level right now.
We wish you great success in continuing to improve our playing
field, and we commit ourselves to working with you over the
next few months.
Chairman Kline. Thank you very much.
[The statement of Mr. Ball follows:]
Prepared Statement of John Ball, Executive Director,
Workforce Connections
Chairman Kline, Ranking Member Miller and Members of the Committee,
thank you for the opportunity to present this testimony today, and
welcome to Southern Nevada. Certainly you could not have picked a more
relevant labor market to visit in your quest for information and ideas
regarding the strengthening of the federal workforce system. We are
pleased to share with you a few examples of approaches that are working
here in the face of the country's most challenging local economy, and a
few lessons learned about preparing a globally competitive workforce in
the 21st century.
The work being done by Workforce Connections (we are the WIB
serving Southern Nevada, including Clark, Esmeralda, Lincoln and Nye
counties) and our community partners has evolved rapidly in the last
three years in response to the dramatic shift from years of abundant
economic growth to a state of survival for Southern Nevada's workforce.
As one of only two WIBs serving the state, our close cooperation with
Nevadaworks, the WIB serving Northern Nevada, allows us to align
policies and programs to assure effective services across the diverse
geography and local economies of the state. Specific examples of
Workforce Connections' initiatives and data trends are presented in
this testimony to illustrate how Workforce Investment Act initiatives
are impacting Southern Nevada communities.
Nevada is suffering from the worst unemployment rates in the
country (a high of 14.9% in 2010); a grim real estate outlook, both
commercially and residentially; the collapse of our construction
industry and severe downturn of gaming and hospitality; and the highest
dropout rates in the country. If you're looking for the stark
definition of the Great Recession, you can find it here. Responding to
these challenges, Workforce Connections and our partners have deployed
a range of efforts to aid in job creation, upgrading skills and
intensive support to job seekers. The need for timely and sustainable
recovery in this region has never been greater, and designing and
implementing creative and customized solutions locally, where
opportunities and resources are well understood, has proven to be a
highly effective model for the workforce system. The performance of our
regional workforce system over the last four years, in spite of the
negative economic environment, has been truly impressive. Attached to
our written testimony are graphs of our performance over those four
years. Here is a quick extract: in the program year which ended just
two months ago, our WIA formula Adult program had an entered employment
rate of 72% against a goal of 63%. Our retention rate was 82% against a
goal of 70%. Our average earnings were $11,771 against a goal of
$11,500. In our Dislocated Worker program, entered employment was 76%
against a goal of 70%, retention rate was 86% against a goal of 80%,
and average earnings were $14,060 against a goal of $14,500. In our WIA
formula Youth program, placement in employment or education was 78%
against a goal of 40%, attainment of degree or certificate was 63%
against a goal of 40%, and literacy and numeracy gains were 23% against
a goal of 29%.
We look forward to a robust consideration of appropriate
performance measures as part of the WIA Reauthorization discussions. I
would note here that while our focus has recently, and rightfully,
turned to job placement as an outcome, the importance of skills
credentials, certificates and diplomas should not be minimized. In an
increasingly competitive global economy, demand-driven credentials will
be an important passport to career success.
Aligning Economic Development and Workforce Development at the local
level
Policy and program flexibility at the local level allows successful
WIBs to implement and continuously improve new programs that keep pace
with the dynamic real time evolution of local and regional economies.
WIA Reauthorization should include a thorough elimination of the
numerous outdated and obsolete provisions and traditions that hamper
the ability of local WIBs to keep pace with the needs of business and
labor in the new economy, and do not improve performance accountability
in any meaningful way. As local and state economic development and
workforce development systems increasingly align, the timely input from
businesses, labor, education and elected officials that drives
successful WIBs can be a tremendous asset to intersystem alignment if
WIBs are empowered to move at leadership speed with their partners.
With economic and workforce development alignment, participation from
private businesses, labor and education, and demand-driven industry
sector strategies hitting the ground in Southern Nevada, economic
recovery is moving forward along the road to long term sustainability.
Southern Nevada utilizes the resources of the Workforce Investment
Board and its partners to put ideas into action. These resources
include a broad spectrum of current information and experienced
thinking from a wide variety of community partnerships that are:
Coordinating training providers, educational institutions,
business sectors, organized labor and a diverse group of support
agencies to respond to the needs of job seekers
Identifying market driven strategies relevant to Southern
Nevada employers
Supporting businesses with growth strategies, layoff
aversion, placement of qualified applicants in new positions, or
retraining existing employees for expanding opportunities
Helping rural communities achieve successful and
sustainable local niches within the regional economy
Committed to building a community ethic that values
education and preparing the future workforce for successful careers
Example: Foliot Furniture
Starting in 2009 Easter Seals of Southern Nevada, a funded partner
of Workforce Connections, placed approximately 70 participants in a WIA
On The Job Training Program to help Foliot Furniture, a manufacturer of
green-commercial furniture, expand their business into a facility in
southeast Las Vegas. The successful program not only helped workers
gain employment but also created jobs in the emerging green economy
sector; a sector recognized for its economic potential to diversify the
local economy and provide substantive career growth opportunities.
Workforce Connections: shoulder to shoulder with business
and labor on the front lines of a changing economy
Local workforce systems have the information and service networks
to respond immediately to local employment shifts. The most dramatic
loss of jobs and business in Southern Nevada has occurred in the
construction and gaming/hospitality industries. In 2010, over 30% of
construction jobs in Nevada disappeared. The completion of major
projects like City Center and the Hoover Dam Bypass dovetailed with the
cancellation of planned undertakings such as the Echelon and
Fontainebleau resorts and the lack of funding for other needed
infrastructure projects to decimate the construction trades. At the
same time, traditional visitors from across the country lost personal
income, resulting in layoffs throughout the hospitality and retail
sectors. To offset the loss of these and other jobs, Workforce
Connections has deployed industry sector strategies to transition
workers into emerging markets that can better diversify the regional
economy while building career pathways for its workers.
Example: Rapid response efforts at the Sahara Hotel and
Casino--1,000 workers terminated at once
Workforce Connections conducted three Employment Edge workshops for
the Sahara Hotel and Casino employees being laid off with the closing
of the property in May of 2011. Thirty days prior to the closing,
three-hour workshops were held covering career self assessment, resume
writing, online job search, interviewing techniques and a number of
other topics related to securing new employment. In addition, staff
from Workforce Connections, DETR/One Stop Center, Nevada Partners Inc.,
AFL-CIO, AARP, NV Energy, and several other agencies were present to
connect the employees to additional services and training, with the
goal of easing and speeding their transitions to new jobs, in a classic
example of the kind of crisis performance that local WIBs have been
carrying out across the country for years, out of the limelight but
right where the action is in the process of economic renewal.
Let me return briefly to the issue of infrastructure investment.
There is a golden opportunity for a high ROI (Return on Investment)
infrastructure strategy in the Intermountain Southwest, a region of
which Southern Nevada is the hub. It has been said that Las Vegas used
to be in the middle of nowhere, and now it is in the middle of
everywhere. Projections are that the Southwest will continue to have
relatively high population growth rates for the foreseeable future, but
the infrastructure to support critical transportation, energy
development and transmission, and water resource management is not
keeping pace. We previously mentioned the completion of the Hoover Dam
Bypass Bridge, and we hope you have the opportunity to take the short
trip out just past Boulder City to see this latest wonder of American
engineering and construction. But it is a 21st century bridge shackled
by a mid-20th century highway. Las Vegas and Phoenix remain the largest
adjacent American cities not connected by an interstate highway. In the
other direction, nearly half of the goods imported into this country
now come through the ports of Southern California. Much of that cargo
is transported across the Southwest, destined to be increasingly
bottlenecked by insufficient highways and railroads. Anyone who has
driven Interstate 15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas is amazed at the
lack of passenger rail service in that corridor. As alternative energy
sources are developed in the Southwest, transmission infrastructure is
about to become a key consideration. And the movement of water to meet
the growing needs of cities, industries and agriculture in the
Southwest will continue to require new capacity for storage and
distribution.
That's an impressive list of infrastructure needs, and the
construction collapse in the Southwest has left in place a highly
skilled workforce in the construction trades and building related
professions. A portfolio of infrastructure projects across the
Southwest could benefit from and help sustain a highly skilled
workforce, and build a foundation for prosperity across a region that
some demographers are referring to as the New American Heartland.
Strategic efforts to develop Southern Nevada's Health Care Sector
As in many parts of the United States, the health care sector is
and will remain a strong segment of local economies. The sector will
continue to provide many family wage jobs, as well as the career
ladders and lattices that make those jobs accessible to many workers in
a system with well-designed, relevant training programs. The Nevada
Health Care Sector Council was established in response to Nevada Senate
Bill 239. This legislation required industry sector councils to convene
for the purpose of identifying needs and practices that best meet
regional economic development goals. Working closely with the State
Workforce Investment Board, the council identifies and supports job
training and education programs, and is charged with informing the
State WIB of health care organizations that have the greatest
likelihood of meeting regional workforce development and economic
goals.
To do this, the council is engaged with health care industry
leaders in defining and addressing their workforce challenges and with
that input, developing programs to align worker skills with industry
needs. Council participants are representative of Nevada's health care,
labor, education, business and government sectors. By promoting
collaboration and encouraging the private sector to take ownership and
investment in industry growth, the council is helping to ensure the
long-term competitiveness of the health care sector in providing care
to local communities and contributing to Nevada's economic health.
Example: Work Session with Health and Human Services
Members of the Nevada Health Care Sector Council recently met with
Herb Shultz, Regional Director of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services to discuss Nevada's determinant statistics. Dr. John
Packham, from the University of Nevada Reno, presented health care
minimum data sets for key professionals in Nevada. Holly Balmer and Dr.
Hyla Winter, from the Nevada System of Higher Education, highlighted a
survey sent to public and private institutions of higher education. Mr.
Shultz shared information regarding health care reform and offered
suggestions as to how the Council could benefit from upcoming funding
opportunities and training programs for long-term unemployed health
care professionals.
Green Economy Sector Strategy
In support of statewide energy sector strategies, state energy
policies and the Governor's overall workforce vision, Workforce
Connections has an integrated team dedicated to developing Southern
Nevada's energy efficiency and renewable resource workforce. Strategic
alignment with Nevada's economic development agencies provides
partnership possibilities with new employers requiring workers equipped
with green skill sets that lead to job opportunities for Nevada's
dislocated workers. The existing WIA funded partners network plays a
key role in identifying adult participants seeking green job training.
Youth participants in local WIA programs are taking part in the
Nevada State Energy Sector Partnership (SESP) pre-apprenticeship green
curriculum intended to expose them to green career pathways. Designed
with an accessible ``plain English'' approach, the curriculum covers
principles of renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy generation
and conservation, recycling, food supply chains, water conservation,
and other sustainable practices.
Example: Ganix Bio-Technologies
The Latin Chamber of Commerce is currently running an On The Job
Training program with the innovative aquaculture company, Ganix Bio-
Technologies that has built a 30,000-square-foot shrimp farm just 30
miles north of the Las Vegas strip. Participants in the program are
being exposed to the cutting-edge sustainable farming concepts in a
unique example of how Southern Nevada can supplant job losses by
supplying the skilled workforce needed to fulfill capacity in the green
economy sector.
Youth Development efforts to build our future workforce
With a focus on preparing the future workforce, Workforce
Connections coordinates many efforts to motivate and support youth in
Southern Nevada toward educational success and career readiness. The
primary goals of this effort are to increase Nevada's high school
graduation rate and encourage a community ethic that values education.
Workforce Connections is proudly working with the Nevada Public
Education Foundation and partners across the state to align youth
development programs with the research-based Ready for Life / Shared
Youth Vision policy framework, including recently reorganizing our
several WIB youth programs to be consistent with that framework. With
the strong support of Governor Sandoval and community leaders
throughout Nevada, the Ready for Life movement is uniting the business
and education communities in a common effort that recognizes the
necessity of education and workforce training as the foundation of our
future economy.
Workforce Connections is currently building a partnership with the
new leadership of the Clark County School District (CCSD), one of the
largest and most challenged school districts in the nation, as they
launch a major initiative to increase the high school graduation rate.
Their plans to improve the performance of Southern Nevada students
involve individual assessment plans to define and overcome
deficiencies, regular connection with adults to track progress and
provide guidance, and participation from the community in mentoring
students towards post-secondary success. Toward this last element,
Workforce Connections is actively convening the business community as
well as community service organizations specializing in youth
development in meeting the demand for meaningful connections to the
workplace.
Example: Project 5000 Kids Job Shadow Day, February 2, 2011
Nevada's high school graduation rate ranks last in the country.
Project 5000 Kids (P5K) aspired to make Nevada first in something
positive by participating in National Job Shadow Day. On February 2,
2010 P5K paired 3,127 students with 90 Southern Nevada business
locations and succeeded in hosting the largest Job Shadow Day effort in
the nation. Participating companies included the City of Henderson, the
Southern Nevada Water Authority, Las Vegas Review Journal, Desert View
Hospital in Pahrump, Station Casinos, MGM Resorts International, and
Caesars Entertainment. Students from 49 schools from Panaca to Pahrump
got behind-the-scenes exposure to career opportunities available to
them if they stay in school.
Dr. Lisa A. Edler, Community Partnership Coordinator for East
Career and Technical Academy noted, ``The gratitude is still brimming
over today and the messages of `stay in school' and `go to college'
were equally emphasized by each employer. It was the most successful
event I have seen teachers and students attend in CCSD.'' As a direct
result of the event, a number of students have applied for internships
at the businesses they visited. Southwest Career and Technical Academy
connected with representatives from Mandalay Bay and has invited them
to serve on an advisory board for their Culinary and Hospitality
programs. Business executives too were inspired by the caliber of
students they got to meet and have a new confidence in our future
workforce. ``We don't always get to see the best of young people today,
as negative attention tends to dominate the media,'' Said Rachel Kryder
of BEC Environmental, Inc., ``It made me feel very optimistic to be
reminded of all the hard working and enthusiastic students out there
that too often are overshadowed.''
Example: The Green Monster Truck
In a fine example of local program collaboration and strategic
alignment, YouthBuild Las Vegas and the Nevada SESP team have piloted a
unique green energy training program for youth know as the Green
Monster Truck. Being launched into full service for program year 2011,
the Green Monster Truck is a mobile classroom powered by the sun.
Equipped with solar arrays and batteries that power on-board training
systems, the truck is a hands-on experience that teaches renewable wind
and solar energy generation, electrical wiring and residential energy
auditing concepts using the very same tools and techniques used by
professional energy auditors in the field.
Local leadership from business, labor and education
Another key strength of the WIA system is the strong role of local
business, labor and education leaders and organizations in developing
relevant, demand-driven strategies and training programs, as well as
providing experienced and skilled oversight of the investments and
business processes of local WIBs. In addition to the majority business
leadership on the Board of Directors, Workforce Connections works
continuously with local chambers of commerce and professional
development organizations to gather real-time information on the
workforce issues affecting day-to-day business while promoting programs
that support job growth and retention to employers.
Our continuous business outreach efforts include current
partnerships with:
Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, Board of Trustees and
several committees
North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, Board of Directors
Henderson Chamber of Commerce, organized Business
Roundtable summit
Boulder City Chamber of Commerce
Mesquite Chamber of Commerce
Las Vegas Latin Chamber of Commerce
Las Vegas Asian Chamber of Commerce
Urban Chamber of Commerce
Women's Chamber of Commerce of Nevada
Nevada Development Authority
Nevada Restaurant Association
Nevada Staffing Association
Southern Nevada Human Resource Association
Example: Business Roundtables
In a grassroots economic development effort Workforce Connections
has convened a nine-part series of business roundtable discussions for
business owners, managers and professionals. Partnered with local
chambers of commerce, the roundtables host a panel of economic and
business experts who share information on the current state of affairs
and future economic outlook of Southern Nevada followed by a dialogue
with attendees to develop actionable projects intended to provide
positive and enterprising benefits to local businesses. The series
expects to host 1,000 attendees by the end of 2011.
In conclusion
Chairman Kline and Ranking Member Miller, we will conclude by
offering you our continued cooperation and support as you chart the
future of the federal workforce system. In Southern Nevada, we know
that it works. While we have had the nation's highest unemployment rate
for some time, we now also have the most rapidly declining unemployment
rate. The resources of the WIA system and the local partnerships it
supports have been a successful part of that progress. The timely
infusion of additional formula funds and new ARRA funding was
absolutely critical to our region's ability to expand and improve vital
workforce services at the most critical moment in decades. Local
flexibility is a key strength of the system, and should be reflected in
the rethinking of everything from WIB membership requirements to
outdated funding silos to the percentage of system funding that reaches
the local level, where the information and action is. Another key
strength of WIA is its reach into the future workforce. Again, the
ability to customize strategies at the community, school district and
neighborhood levels is paramount, and the importance of strong summer
youth employment programs in linking educational success and workforce
readiness is evident nationwide.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify. Enjoy your visit in
Southern Nevada, and Godspeed on your journey home.
______
Chairman Kline. Ms. Metty-Burns.
STATEMENT OF REBECCA METTY-BURNS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DIVISION
OF WORKFORCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN
NEVADA, LAS VEGAS
Ms. Metty-Burns. Chairman Kline and members of the
committee, thank you very much for the opportunity to talk with
you about job training programs at the College of Southern
Nevada.
I'm with the Division of Workforce and Economic Development
at CSN. We operate industry driven workforce programs that
support the enhancement of skills and education for the
Southern Nevada workforce.
Within the workforce programs we've had mixed results with
the ability to access and utilize Workforce Investment Act
funds. We continue to find it challenging and frequently
frustrating to provide the training and education the local
workforce needs when confined to the limitations that come with
the fund.
At times we are choosing to opt out of requesting the funds
when requirements demand cumbersome bureaucratic administration
be put in place over a focus on quality delivery of education.
Often funds are tied up in case management with the remaining
training dollars being so few they can't make a significant
impact. The certificate and degree programs at the college are
not even eligible for WIA funds, even though a more in-depth
educational approach may be the more appropriate pathway for
job placement, a higher wage, or long-term success.
Within the division, our workforce programs are self-
funded. We must deliver programs local industry demands. We
have moved forward to develop our own solutions to fund
innovations needed in program design and delivery in order to
impact our community.
Our first focus was to remove the silo from programs funded
with WIA money and strategically extend their impact. Our Adult
Education program receives WIA Title II funding. We have
started blending our workforce training expertise with our
basic skills classes in order to more effectively serve our
students.
A core skill for many careers in Las Vegas is, of course,
customer service. English as a Second Language for Luxury Las
Vegas Customer Service was developed in partnership with two
hospitality companies. We utilized our own reserve funds, no
WIA funds, to build curriculum. We embedded ESL instructors in
the hospitality operation in order to assign curriculum with
realistic guest interactions and to reflect customer service
standards in our workforce.
The employers and employees were highly satisfied with the
results, and our assessment shows exceptional gains, even with
shorter instructional time.
We ask you to consider adjusting WIA performance measures
to allow flexibility in education and training measurements to
reflect meeting competencies required of business and
industries as successful program operation.
Many of our students enter into programs with skill levels
that would require extended instruction. As an example, 114
entering GED preparation students were recently assessed and we
found 49 percent are entering the program with a third grade to
sixth grade equivalent level in their language and math skills.
We recognize we must provide more than a single method in
instruction to impact these students, so we redesigned the
curriculum and the approach. We're using a hybrid approach as
students attend instructor-led classes and do course work on-
line and an accelerated approach that incorporates instructors
on-line and individualized tutoring. Students will also take
the WorkKeys assessment, providing students the ability to
obtain the National Career Readiness Certificate as well.
We are overwhelmed with the need to improve basic skills
for a large part of our workforce. Over 17 percent of the Clark
County workforce does not have a high school diploma.
As you are making decisions on how to direct available
funds, please place Adult Education on the priority list.
It is with the technical skills training that it seems most
difficult to work with WIA funds. We've decided to target our
program development around job gaps in the workforce, rather
than chasing funding trends. For example, while funding was
available for green jobs training, we couldn't find job
openings in the local area. However, there were jobs for
dialysis patient care technicians.
We designed the patient care technician training programs
so students receive instruction at Workforce Division, and then
through a partnership with the local dialysis clinic the
students also receive 220 hours of clinical experience. The
program was started with a donation of refurbished equipment
and reserve funds were utilized for curriculum.
From our first classes, 23 of the 24 students were
unemployed. Currently, 19 are now employed as patient care
technicians. Our current class orientation had 40 potential
students attending. However, we are only able to enroll 12 at a
time.
The demand for these students continues to grow as local
dialysis clinics look to our students to fill available
positions.
Many of these students are interested in continuing their
education to more advanced healthcare roles. We hope you will
consider aligning WIA funding for advanced certifications and
degree attainment through the community colleges.
The opportunity to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act
is a call to action. Allocating investment in community
colleges allows greater reach to more of the workforce and the
ability to train the technology to compete globally. Funding
decisions need to be tied to education programs that
demonstrate industry-required skills, abilities and knowledge,
to provide the best opportunity for job attainment or job
retention. Community college workforce programs are well
positioned to deliver holistic approach.
Hold us accountable, but have the accountability make sense
to the needs of the community and have measurements and
outcomes that reflect the competencies needed by industry. Most
of all, include higher education as a significant stakeholder
in the decisions on program investment and innovations for
workforce development.
Again, I want to thank you for the opportunity to testify
in this vital discussion, investing in our workforce. The
College of Southern Nevada truly appreciates the work and time.
You are helping to improve our workforce and community.
[The statement of Ms. Metty-Burns follows:]
Prepared Statement of Rebecca Metty-Burns, Executive Director, Division
of Workforce & Economic Development, College of Southern Nevada
Chairman Kline and members of the Committee on Education and the
Workforce, welcome to Nevada and thank you for the opportunity to talk
with you about job training programs at the College of Southern Nevada.
I am Rebecca Metty-Burns, Executive Director of the Division of
Workforce & Economic Development at the College of Southern Nevada. The
Division operates industry driven workforce programs to support the
enhancement of skills and education for the Southern Nevada workforce.
Within our workforce programs we have had mixed results with our
ability to access and utilize Workforce Investment Act (WIA) funds. We
continue to find it challenging and frequently frustrating to provide
the training and education that the local workforce needs when confined
to the limitations that come with WIA funds. At times we are choosing
to opt out of requesting the funds when the requirements demand a
cumbersome bureaucratic administration be put in place over a focus on
quality delivery of education. Often funds are tied up in case
management with the remaining training dollars being so few they cannot
make a significant impact. The certificate and degree programs at the
College are not even eligible for WIA funds as the timeframe exceeds
what WIA will allow, even though a more in-depth educational approach
may be the more appropriate pathway for job placement, a higher wage or
long term success.
Within the division our workforce programs are self-funded. We must
be able to cover the costs of the programs and division staff expenses
or we do not operate. We can't rely on federal metrics to prove our
validity; we must deliver programs local industry demands. We have
moved forward to develop our own solutions to fund innovations needed
in program design and delivery in order to impact our community.
Our first focus was to remove the silo from programs funded with
WIA money and strategically extend their impact and link students with
a more holistic approach to skills attainment. Our Adult Education
program receives WIA Title II funding. We have started blending our
workforce training expertise with our basic skills classes in order to
more effectively serve our students.
A core skill for many careers in Las Vegas is of course customer
service. ESL for Luxury Las Vegas Customer Service was developed in
partnership with Aria Resort and Casino and the Four Seasons of Las
Vegas. We utilized our own reserve funds, no WIA funds, to build
curriculum so the materials could be used for many programs, not solely
those funded by WIA. The hospitality companies offered full access to
our ESL instructors and we imbedded them in the hospitality operation
while they were designing curriculum in order to use realistic guest
interactions and understand customer service standards for our local
workforce. We then piloted two classes with employees of the partner
companies. Our goals were to improve student understanding of customer
service standards and to increase their skill level with customer
service vocabulary and conversation. The employers and employees were
highly satisfied with the results. We also ran the traditional
assessments we use to measure language competency with these industry
focused classes. In a typical class we look for a 3-4 point test gain
after 70-100 hours of instruction. These classes were shorter, 50-60
hours. However, one group was right on target with a 3.5 point gain;
another group gained a phenomenal 10.75 average increase on their post-
assessment.
We ask you to consider adjusting WIA performance measures to allow
flexibility in education and training measurements to reflect meeting
competencies required of business and industry as successful program
operation.
Over the past 5 years the Adult Education programs have had over
18,500 enrollments for classes for GED attainment, English as a Second
Language and Civics. Many of our students enter in to programs with
skill levels that will require extended instruction, so a student may
enroll multiple times. We recently held a registration for the start up
of several new GED classes. We assessed the skills of 114 GED
Preparation students and found 49% are entering the program with a 3rd
grade to 6th grade level equivalent in their language and math skills.
Half of these students are currently working in our workforce. We know
these students will need a great deal of time and a steady pace to
build basic skills in order to obtain their GED Certificate. However,
we also have the other half of the population that has the foundational
skills to move more rapidly towards taking the GED exam.
We recognize we must provide more than a single method in
instruction to impact these students. We need to fund and incorporate
technology and increase interaction to improve results and provide
workforce related skills at the same time as GED attainment. So we
redesigned the curriculum and the approach. To answer the needs
reflected in the extreme range of levels, the program focuses on
increasing individual attention, appropriate pacing and blending of
workforce skills. To introduce students back to the learning process
and provide a supportive environment, the GED 100 Series for students
with a third to sixth grade level equivalent was designed to steadily
and progressively build their basic skills in a more traditional
classroom environment.
Students at the next skill level enter our GED Studio which is a
hybrid approach as students attend instructor lead classes as well as
do course work on an online GED program. By providing the additional
online resource, students will be able to accelerate through the
program as well as develop their computer skills.
The final step is our GED XL, an accelerated course that will
incorporate an instructor, online GED program as well as individualized
tutoring. The GED XL course will also offer the opportunity for
students to work on their next steps upon receipt of their GED
Certificate. Students will take the WorkKeys assessment, a nationally
recognized workforce skills assessment. This also provides students the
ability to obtain a National Career Readiness Certificate. Students
then meet one-on-one with a coach to discuss career interests and
options. We introduce them to an online tool that helps them build a
resume; search jobs and provides information on local wages and
forecasted job openings.
As you are making decisions on how to direct available funds please
place Adult Education on the priority list. We are overwhelmed with the
need to improve basic skills for a large part of our workforce; over
17% of the Clark County workforce does not have a high school diploma.
These new approaches need initial funding to develop curriculum and
purchase technology, however, they serve students better, accelerate
learning and provide employers with a higher skill employee.
We are excited about these programs and we are committed to the
students that work so hard to improve their lives with educational
attainment. We will continue to research, design and implement
workforce programs that will take them from basic skills achievement
through opportunities to start careers with technical skills training.
It is with the technical skills training that it seems to be most
difficult to work with WIA funds, even though that training is where
job opportunities are connected.
We decided to target our program development around the job gaps in
the workforce rather than chasing funding trends. For example, while
funding was available for ``green jobs'' training, there were no job
openings in the local area. However, there were jobs for dialysis
patient care technicians but no dialysis training programs in Nevada
outside of internal company programs. The Patient Care Technician
training program was designed so students receive instruction in the
Workforce Division and through a partnership with a local dialysis
clinic the students also receive 220 hours of clinical experience.
Students who successfully complete this program are prepared for the
national Patient Care Technician exam and to work in a dialysis clinic.
The program was started with the donation of refurbished equipment and
reserve funds were utilized for curriculum and for new equipment.
We've been able to first pilot and then run two additional classes,
however we are limited to 10-12 students at a time due to lack of space
for more students and dialysis equipment. Since the training started 24
students have completed the program. Twenty-three of the 24 students
were unemployed. Currently nineteen (79%) are now employed as Patient
Care Technicians in dialysis clinics in Nevada and surrounding states.
Students must pass a national certification exam and to date, 83 % of
students taking the exam have successfully passed the exam on their
first attempt. The classes are filled on a first-come, first-serve
basis. In preparation for our current class an orientation had 40
potential students attending and yet we are only able to enroll 12. The
demand for these students continues to grow as local dialysis clinics
have discontinued their own training programs and look to students from
our training program to fill available positions.
Where could WIA funding help? This course could be offered more
often or we could increase the number of students if we had additional
space and equipment. Creating a healthcare lab would actually impact
many of our healthcare programs allowing increased enrollments and more
hands-on training.
Many of these students are interested in continuing their education
to more advanced healthcare roles, something we need locally and
nationally. We encourage you to add WIA funding for advanced
certifications and degree attainment through the community colleges.
The opportunity to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act is a
call for action. Allocating investment in the community colleges allows
greater reach to more of the workforce and the ability to train the
workforce with technology needed to compete globally. Funding decisions
need to be tied to education programs that demonstrate industry
required knowledge, skills and abilities to provide the best
opportunity for job attainment or job retention. Community college
workforce programs are well positioned to deliver a holistic approach.
Hold us accountable but have the accountability make sense to the needs
of the community and have measurements and outcomes that reflect true
progress based on the competencies needed by industry. Most of all
include higher education as a significant stakeholder in the decisions
on program investment and innovations for workforce development.
Again I want to thank you for this opportunity to testify during
this vital discussion regarding investing in our workforce. The College
of Southern Nevada truly appreciates the work and time you are
dedicating to helping us improve our workforce and our community.
______
Chairman Kline. Thank you very much, all three of you, for
your testimony.
As you saw earlier, we'll go through a series now of
questions to further explore some of your testimony. I very
much appreciate the recognition that Mr. Ball and Ms. Metty-
Burns gave to the importance of businesses, business leaders,
if you will, in making a connection and it makes sense as part
of the discussion we had with the last panel as we go forward.
We sense a fair amount of red tape out there and some
bureaucratic impediments that might be getting in the way as
well and we want to explore both of those things.
Mr. Guthrie, you have kind of a unique challenge here, and
you are stepping up, and really, really helping a challenged
part of the community, and let me start with you. In terms of
impediments that are coming from Washington that you would like
some help removing, call it red tape or unnecessary regulation,
or something like that.
Mr. Guthrie. Again, I would go back to the rehabilitation
services portion of the WIA reauthorization. I think that
there's certain things that people decide certain jobs are
better than other jobs because of social inclusion, or
something like that. My experience has been with people with
disabilities, especially some of the folks with intellectual
disabilities, if I can get them a job for eight, ten, $12.00 an
hour, they don't care if they are working with other people
with disabilities or whether they are working with people
without disabilities. What they really want is the same thing
you and I want. They want the most money they can get for their
efforts, and they want good benefits, if they can get them, to
go along with it. And where the job is and how the job is
positioned aren't really as important to them as it is to some
of the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.
Chairman Kline. Thank you.
Mr. Ball, you asked for flexibility. You would be surprised
to know that we are all for flexibility, as long as there is
some accountability out there because we want it to work.
That's the bottom line, we want this to work.
We shouldn't be spending a dime on these programs, if it
doesn't produce. So I was very much--I very much appreciated
your comments about the people here in Southern Nevada know
better than the people in Washington, D.C., or I think you said
Sacramento or Carson City, or something like that. It makes
perfect sense to me and we want to do that. I'd venture to say,
not speaking for my colleagues here, that we would be inclined
to support that.
Again, I want to get at the role of local business leaders
and how you are able to incorporate that because it seems to me
that if there isn't communication between the people who have
the jobs to offer and those that are getting potential
employees ready, it's never going to work. So can you again
just expand a little bit on that link between the business
leaders.
Mr. Ball. Yes, Mr. Chairman. As I say, a big part of our
program and the success of our board and our partners in the
region has been a constant outreach to the business and labor
community, and keep that conversation going all the time. We
have a series right now, a series of round tables with about
nine chambers of commerce across the region, sitting down with
about 100 at a time and it's working out, primarily it's small
business owners and having a back and forth dialogue for couple
of hours.
Chairman Kline. This is a formalized process or a regular
process.
Mr. Ball. It is something we started a few months ago, just
out of the box with it. It is totally an extemporaneous impulse
on our part. We are tying it to an aggressive approach of
moving from the traditional rapid response approach to business
failure, to the more aggressive layoff aversion approach where
we actually get with businesses, understand what's going on in
their sector ahead of time, and can design programs to help
them stay in business.
So that's an example of the process we use. I don't think
there's a better example of the result, Mr. Chairman, than I
mentioned before the Southern Nevada Medical Industry
Coalition. Over--I'm sure that Congressmen Heck is familiar,
probably all of his friends are members of that thing, and most
of the hospitals, clinics, professionals across the State.
So these sector strategies that we have been using for ten
or twelve years in some parts of the country really work and
the strategy that's been employed by that group over the last
five or eight years, fortunately, finally now includes an
employment portion, which it did not before.
But it gives that targeted sector and that is targeting not
just broadcasting our money, shotgun approach, but a rifle
approach on what the statisticians like Mr. Aguero tell us are
the key places where we can maximize the return on investment
in the public sector expenditure, forming these councils around
those sectors, and allowing the executives, the labor, and
others to come to the table and talk about--as partners, not as
competitors--how their industry can benefit from all the
private side investment and cross-fertilization, but also the
strategic investment of the relatively small public sector
funds that we have.
Chairman Kline. Thank you. I see our time has expired. Mr.
McKeon.
Mr. McKeon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also touched on that
local flexibility. As I mentioned earlier, when we start out to
write a bill into law, it generally doesn't end up, because of
all the things you have to go through to get it through. The
flexibility was one of our principles that we were trying to
have in the law.
I come from a local government background. I served on a
school board for a number of years, and the city council. So
when I talk local control, I'm talking local, not State, not
federal, not even county. Right now, whether that may be a
county, a city, it may be a community.
What, flexibility, what would you do to change the law
right now to provide flexibility.
Mr. Ball. Mr. Chairman and Congressmen, my request for you,
my hope would be that every, at every point in your process
that you have a choice between flexibility and dictation from a
higher level, you would choose flexibility specifically, that
you will always lean forward in that direction because it
crosses almost everything that's going to be in your bill.
Somebody at the State, regional, and federal level is going to
have a perfectly well-founded opinion about.
I would ask you to demur from that and accept the local
wisdom that makes these operations work. There are a lot of
examples and it would be everything from who sits on a local
board, do we really need somebody in a back room in Washington,
D.C. saying this position in this agency in Southern Nevada
should hold this seat on this board? That person in this labor
market might not, by virtue of how their organizations are
organized under State government, might not be plugged into the
labor market at all. You have sat on city councils that----
Mr. McKeon. One thing we did is require there be a majority
of business people.
Mr. Ball. That's right.
Mr. McKeon. Because we don't have, we found that if you get
everybody else, without the business community you couldn't
really connect with the jobs and prepare people for jobs if you
don't know what they are.
Mr. Ball. Yes. And my earlier remarks said that's the key.
Mr. McKeon. What is the problem? For years we have been
working on this, and I would talk to Senator Kennedy, and say
let's get this done; to George Miller, let's get this done.
They were held up on their side by unions. What is the problem?
Mr. Ball. Well, I think you heard in the previous panel
some of the concerns that some of the organized labor has. Some
of that is valid concern. But, you know, as we say that in our
view, the answer to the problems of democracy is more
democracy.
The answer to the problems of how these local boards work
is to go to the strengths of the model and that is that local
flexibility and the business-labor partnership that should be
brought to bear in working on these problems. You can't fix
that by decree out of Washington, D.C. You have to have leaves
at the local community.
So I think of it as we do, spending a lot of time nurturing
those relationships, building, once again the medical industry
is a great example.
Mr. McKeon. You already do that here. But the labor leaders
in Washington were telling them that for whatever reason you
can't reauthorize this bill because maybe they didn't like the
majority of business. I don't know what it is.
Mr. Ball. Well, please keep in mind also the community
colleges have interests, the workforce boards have lobbying
organizations that have their interests, labor does at the
national level, the chambers of commerce. Everyone has that
point of view at the national level.
My point to you, please try to remember, that is none of
those allow for the idiosyncrasies of 550 service delivery
areas in the country. So I'm making the point that every time
you go for a national one-size-fits-all set of wording about
how this thing needs to work in Timbuktu and in Tucson, you are
giving up the basic strength of the model, which is the
innovation and creativity of the local knowledge, based on a
belly-to-belly of information source at the labor market that
allows us to tune programs on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.
You don't get that.
Mr. McKeon. I have a bill that I've introduced. It's on the
web. If you could go to it, if you see places where we could
fix where we are not being flexible, I would just appreciate
anything that you could send to me on that. Because, again, my
district, I go from L.A. County, which is huge, L.A. city, to
Bridgeport County, the county seat has 500 people. So I mean
tremendous differentiation, in one Congressional district, out
of 435. And we try to solve all of that out of Washington, and
it doesn't make sense.
So I would really like to, any comments that you have,
anything that you could tell us where we are stepping over,
because we don't want to do that.
Mr. Ball. We would be happy to do that.
Mr. McKeon. Thank you. The gentleman's time has expired.
Dr. Heck.
Mr. Heck. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Metty-Burns, what's the interaction between the College
of Southern Nevada and the Workforce Investment Board? What's
the relationship that you have? Are there federal obstacles--
you talked about several obstacles that you face. Are there
obstacles in that relationship that need to be addressed.
Ms. Metty-Burns. I think a lot of the obstacles come from
the dialogue that's just been occurring with the flexibility. A
lot of what we want to do is go in and make sure we are looking
at the educational program design, reach out to business
leaders to do that, to make sure that those are matching up.
The limitations without funding may mean that there's case
management that has to be involved and that's over here in
another sector, and it may not allow us to actually make use of
those fundings the way that the businesses said we would like
you to match this educational program up. So I think that's
been one of the challenges, is trying to work with whatever the
parameters are in place that they have to answer to, and we
certainly have other parameters we have to answer to as well.
Sometimes they are not matching up.
Mr. Heck. Mr. Ball, any comments.
Mr. Ball. If I could, we have a couple of great examples of
success stories with the college, and one notable place where
we could not get together, just last year we allocated $600,000
to the college for services in a rural county and the
restrictions of our business model and the regulations we have
to meet literally made it impossible for the college to design
that program and operate it within their policies of the
college. So they ended up returning, or not being able to
utilize those funds.
Mr. Heck. Was that a regulation or an issue on a federal
level, or issues within the community college, the College of
Southern Nevada, within the college system and the workforce
connection system, or was it Washington.
Mr. Ball. Congressman, I don't think there's a single part
of that issue that we could not have worked out. There are some
realities about the business models that are--that don't fit.
Mr. Heck. Thank you. I appreciate that. Mr. Ball, I've got
to ask, because your impressive statistics beg the question:
How did you achieve that level of success? What's your best
practice model?
Mr. Ball. Well, a piece of it is moving to sector councils
from broadcast funding to targeting the places where the jobs
are. The other is a very close connection with the business and
labor so we know what the training is going to take to actually
make the placement, and finally it is, I think, Southern
Nevada, given the crash of our business model, for 20 years
people didn't have to worry about workforce development here,
but in the last three or four, they have started paying
attention to what it takes for the community to come together
and build the kinds of coalitions that the medical industry and
the green economy are building now, and focus on outcomes, and
not just on activities.
Mr. Heck. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I'll yield back the
balance of my time.
Chairman Kline. Thank you, gentlemen. I see we are nearing
the end of the allotted time. Mr. McKeon, did you have another
question you would like to get in.
Mr. McKeon. A comment, or question.
Chairman Kline. The gentleman is recognized.
Mr. McKeon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The thing we see
sometimes in the education committee is rivalries between
traditional colleges, community colleges, for-profit colleges,
organizations, and it seems like the traditional schools kind
of look down on the proprietary schools and the community
colleges, and I find that the proprietary colleges and
community colleges many times can be much more responsive. They
are more interested in jobs.
The major traditional universities seem like they are
interested in an education. If that leads to a job, you know,
so be it.
I think there's room for all of them, and I try to tell
them why we are fighting each other. Our competition should be
China, India, other places around the world, not ourselves,
because there's room for everybody. We're turning away students
every year.
The proprietary schools have really grown in the last three
years and they are providing an edge and they are not taking
away students from traditional schools, none of them that I
know of are hurting. They are not looking for students, they
are turning away students.
So I don't know if you want to comment on that or how you
see that affecting getting people into the job market. I'm
interested in your comment.
Ms. Metty-Burns. Well, I think certainly competition in any
area is a good thing. Everybody can bring something else to
that. Really, the division that I have as part of the college
is to answer to that immediate need of industry so that we can
pull the best of programs and deliver customized training to
businesses and industry, similar to answering any questions
about where can we educate for jobs.
I also think there is a lot of programs being looked at
very hard about how are we delivering education overall in the
colleges and universities to get the jobs when they are done,
and I think that's a major topic of discussion at this point,
and certainly as we are working very hard to bring basic skill
levels up, because if you can't get people placed in the jobs
until they have some basic skill levels that allow them to get
the technical training, and all of those are convergent.
There is plenty for everyone to do, quite honestly. There's
plenty for all of us to do.
Mr. Ball. Mr. Chairman, if I might just very briefly, one
area where we would call on all the educational institutions to
take a look, and I think we share these concerns with organized
labor and industry, is that in our dislocated workers programs,
the academic calendar, the class scheduling, under the current
established traditions of those institutions does not match the
needs of dislocated workers.
We need to look at a radically changed schedule which goes
for full day, classroom scheduling full week, and get
dislocated workers retrained into the jobs we know are out
there. There are a lot of vacancies that just need skill
adjustment and get them out the door, instead of having to wait
two or three quarters or semesters to get the sequencing in our
traditional system.
You asked the question earlier about the construction
workers. I just want to give you an example out of the Pacific
Northwest. When we converted from a timber economy and
construction economy up there, I worked with high tech leaders
from the Silicon Valley to Seoul, Korea, changed the State tax
laws, created incentives around investment and a new plan, and
cross-trained a generation of timber fallers and mill workers
into what are now high tech fab plants. Intel alone, 15,000
jobs in Washington County in the Silicon forest. The average
wage in those jobs is $110,000 a year.
Now, it was challenging to get the guys that were used to
shuffling trees and limbs around to a plate of silicon, and
understanding that if they dropped it, it didn't just bounce,
but $200,000 of investment went down the tube.
But it worked and it was because the educational
institutions worked with us and with the employers to target
that training to get the workers in there, get them skilled and
in the plant.
Chairman Kline. Thank you very much. I want to thank the
witnesses for your testimony, and for a really engaging
conversation, I think it is very helpful.
Clearly, Mr. Ball, we talked about flexibility. There's a
lot of flexibility here. We are looking for flexibility in
educational institutions; we're looking for flexibility from
the federal government in how the boards are formed because we
want it to work.
If, at the end of this process, we have reauthorized a bill
and it is not working, we are not getting people the training
they need for the jobs that are available, we clearly will have
failed.
So I very much appreciate the information we gathered today
from both panels. I want to thank the witnesses again for your
engagement.
There being no further business, the committee stands
adjourned.
[Additional submission of Mr. Kline follows:]
Prepared Statement of Danielle Milam, Development Director,
Las Vegas-Clark County Library District
My name is Danielle Milam, and I serve as Development Director for
the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District. On behalf of the Board of
Trustees and leadership of the Library District, I welcome Chairman
Kline and other distinguished guests to Las Vegas. We would like to
express our appreciation to you and our Congressman Joe Heck, for your
leadership in addressing the question we are most interested in here in
this region: how can we get Americans back to work quickly, with the
21st Century skills that will ensure employability, productivity, and
economic security in the long term?
Public libraries today embody the spirit of American
entrepreneurial innovation, self-discovery and self-improvement. In our
Library District's service area of 1.5 million people, over 656,000
residents are active library users. Last year people checked out 12.6
million items. We hosted 6.5 million visits and 1.4 million computer
sessions, making us one of the busiest urban public libraries in the
nation. Of the 13 branches here in the metro Vegas Valley, five
branches circulate over a million items a year. Our newest facility,
which opened in May this year, is circulating over 100,000 items per
month and kids pour in from neighboring schools at 2:30 to get on the
computers. In some of our 12 rural locations in remote Clark County, we
are the only source of community internet access.
These statistics illustrate what has been happening in libraries
since the beginning of the local recession in spring 2009. Despite a
30% drop in local tax revenues (property and sales), the Library
District has maintained seven-day-a-week, 60 hour-a-week service, for
the reasons you have heard today--in our region, a great number of
people need to find jobs, keep their homes, get on the internet and
access information for school, health or business.
Since early 2009, the Library District has seen demand soar for
programs that support employment search and placement: resume
preparation and job readiness classes; career research, assessments,
and self-study certifications; computer training and English language
instruction. We have experienced a boom in volunteers, with close to
80,000 hours contributed last year by people who are in between jobs,
looking for jobs, or trying to build employment resumes. We have seen
more people showing up in our branches with their laptops to take
advantage of free public Wifi, as households cut expenses, including
their monthly internet connection.
The Library District is actively and successfully building stronger
working relationships with schools, colleges, universities, and a wide
variety of strong local agencies like Opportunity Village, SCORE, RSVP,
AARP, Vegas PBS, KNPR, Three Square, and Catholic Charities. In that
context, we are defining our role, and realigning our resources and
strategies for adult learning to respond to local residents' need to
search for jobs and prepare for job interviews, retool workforce skills
with new digital literacies, reinvent or expand their small businesses,
or do business with employers or government agencies which are
increasingly only accessible online.
One of our most successful new programs is E.A.S.E. (Educational
Assistance to Sustain Employment). This prototype program, funded
jointly by the Library District and Department of Education, leveraged
federal funding with our considerable expertise in providing adult
literacy, citizenship, and English language instruction, and our
knowledge of how to improve the reading, writing, and verbal skills
essential to attaining and retaining employment. Another initiative in
development, the Youth Digilab Design Studio, will provide youth with
technology and training to produce digital products ranging from videos
to powerpoint presentations to publications. We know that the result of
this program will be youth who are ready for 21st Century employment
environments.
We have also tuned up our portfolio of online resources which are
available to job-seekers 24/7. Our website, which was accessed 3.8
million times last year, has prominent links to resources at the
Department of Labor--Employment and Training Administration, the Nevada
Career Information System, and private vendors like Resume Maker,
BrainFuse (an online homework help and tutor service) and
LearningExpress (which provides free online practice tests such as
courses for realtors and civil service, or tests, such as the GED, SAT
and others). Our cardholders enjoy 24/7 access to a variety of local,
regional and national newspapers and business research databases, such
as Business Source Elite and Reference USA. We have strong ties to
local employers and support their employment recruitment efforts with
links to Gaming Work Permits, for example, and local employer job
posting sites.
When thinking about improving the employment pipelines of the U.S.,
it would be remiss not to mention the most critical role played by
public libraries: promoting reading and school support. Every week our
Library District holds hundreds of reading programs for families with
young children, provides homework support for school-age youth, and
information or instructional programs for people transitioning from
school to work or work to school. Current research points to reading
and new digital literacies as critical foundations for education,
employment and entrepreneurial success.
Industrialist Andrew Carnegie called libraries ``People's
Universities'' because they support career and workforce development,
support people who want to better their lives, their employment
opportunities, and their ability to thrive in increasingly complex
business environments.
Today's public libraries are models for digital skill diffusion and
workforce development. Every day over 300,000 Americans get job-seeking
help in public libraries. The number of libraries with free public WiFi
outnumbers and augments the access provided by private enterprises,
like Starbucks.
We are reducing the digital divide. Our Library District is one of
5,400 libraries nationally that offer free technology classes for those
who need to retool quickly with new digital skills. We also are one of
13,000 U.S. public libraries that offer career assistance, available
many more hours a week than the Department of Labor's 3,000 One-stop
career centers.
As we all learn to maximize diminishing public resources and
increase the return on our public investments, this is a good time to
look at the public libraries which are already built, staffed, and
outfitted with internet access, public Wifi, technology, trainers and
specialty programs provided in collaboration with community partners in
all sectors.
Today's situation is urgent. It is time to consider new workforce
development models that are scalable to the high levels of
unemployment, that can quickly mobilize resources to those in need,
where they are, fueled by their inspirations and inquiries.
The motto of many libraries today is ``Start Here. Go Anywhere.''
It reflects the free choice way people use library resources in times
of transitions. We urge you to include public library roles and
resources in the design of strategies to get many people to work,
quickly, with relevant and current workforce skills.
Again, many thanks for your attention and leadership on this issue.
Many thanks to our host today, Opportunity Village.
______
[Additional submissions of Mr. Heck follow:]
Department of Education,
700 E. Fifth Street,
Carson City, NV, September 6, 2011.
Congressman Joe Heck, D.O.,
Nevada, 3rd District, 132 Cannon Building, Washington, DC 20515.
Dear Congressman Heck: I would like to officially thank you for
hosting the recent U.S. Congressional Hearing ``Examining Local
Solutions to Strengthen Federal Job Training programs.'' I submit this
follow-up testimony as a way to inform and educate about the tremendous
need we have in Las Vegas and across Nevada for basic skills training,
GED preparation, transitions to postsecondary and Career Pathways
programming, and to demonstrate how they are tied directly to workforce
and economic development.
Over 18% of the U.S. population aged 16 and older do not have a
high school credential and are not currently enrolled in an education
program. Nearly 70% of jobs in the near future will require some
postsecondary education or training. To close this gap it is imperative
improve the basic education and skills training of our existing
workforce.
On August 5th, 2011, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released data
that showed the unemployment rate rose for high school dropouts (15%
nationally) while it simultaneously fell for high school graduates
(9.3%) and college graduates (4.3%).
As you know, we have one of the highest dropout rates in the nation
right here in Nevada. The number of 16 to 19 year olds not enrolled in
school and without a high school diploma ranks us 52nd in the United
States, behind Puerto Rico.
There are 160,000 students on adult education waiting lists across
the country. We have people lined up around the block in Las Vegas,
waiting to access adult education programs that they know will help
them build their skills and re-enter the workforce.
Approximately 50% of the nation's unemployed youth age 16-21 are
functionally illiterate. The average income for a high school dropout
is approximately $11,000. The average income for a high school graduate
or GED recipient is approximately $23,000. For someone with an
Associate's degree it is approximately $35,000, and for a Bachelor's
degree it is roughly $50,000.
This is critical in a state like Nevada where we have no state
income tax. Consumer spending is crucial to our state and local
economies. High school dropouts making $11,000 a year are not the
solution to an economic recovery.
Three out of four food stamp recipients score in the lowest two
literacy levels. 75% of state prisoners lack a high school diploma, and
60% of state prisoners are functionally illiterate. It costs
approximately $23,500 to incarcerate an individual in the state of
Nevada. On the other hand, Nevada WIA Title II programs' cost per
student is $531. Our programs help build Nevada adults' basic skills,
get them into college, get them out of the costly social service
system, and get them a job. Adult Education is one part of the solution
to turning around the economy and getting Americans off the
unemployment line.
Moody's Analytics recently released their Economic Outlook for Las
Vegas. One of the three listed weaknesses was ``Low Educational
Attainment.'' According to a 2009 NevadaWorks study, Northern Nevada's
largest challenge to economic recovery is a ``Shortage of Highly
Skilled Workers.''
Nevada Adult Education is already collaborating with local
businesses to provide on-the-job skills training. The College of
Southern Nevada has adult education programs in place with the MGM
Grand, the Aria, and the Four Seasons, to name a few. CSN helped design
a customer service training program for non-native English speakers
working for the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas, and according to
management the program helped them obtain the AAA Five Diamond Award
rating, resulting in a tremendous positive economic impact for the
business.
The Office of Management and Budget under the Bush Administration
rated Adult Education as ``Effective,'' which is its highest rating.
WIA Title II programs are extremely cost effective, at an average cost
per student of only $531 in Nevada. In fiscal year 2010 we served over
9,000 Nevada adults, and in the height of the recession and in the
toughest job market in the country 54% of our students seeking
employment found it, and 83% of our students wanting to retain or
improve their employment did so.
Here in Nevada and across the country, the jobs crisis is an
education crisis. Adult Education programs are cost-effective, deliver
great return on investment, and enable Nevadans to re-enter the
workforce. We appreciate your support and are working hard to get
Nevada back on track.
Sincerely,
Brad Deeds, Adult Education Coordinator,
Nevada State GED Administrator.
______
Prepared Statement of John Kelly, NISH
Dear Chairman Kline and Members of the Committee: Thank you for
taking time to focus on strengthening federal job programs, including
the critical issue of employment of people with disabilities. As a
national nonprofit agency facilitating the employment of tens of
thousands of individuals with significant disabilities through the
AbilityOne Program, NISH is pleased to share our insights and
recommendation on this important issue.
As former NISH Board Chairman Ed Guthrie noted in his hearing
testimony we do not believe that effective job training programs can be
achieved with a ``one size fits all'' approach. People with
disabilities must be afforded a range of opportunities and a variety of
options which will enable them to highlight their strengths and
accommodate individual interests and needs.
The AbilityOne Program is the largest source of employment of
people who are blind or have significant disabilities in the United
States. Nearly every American has benefited from the AbilityOne
Program. Visit the Statue of Liberty, the Library of Congress, the
Washington Monument, the Kennedy Center, or any of the Presidential
Libraries, and it is likely that you have benefited from the hard work
of AbilityOne employees. If you call the IRS customer service line,
chances are good that you will be speaking with a person with a
significant disability. American soldiers in their uniforms are likely
wearing garments made by people with significant disabilities through
the AbilityOne Program; and, more and more of those employed through
the AbilityOne Program are, themselves, returning servicemen and women.
As the Committee examines local solutions to strengthen federal job
training programs and evaluates what works and what doesn't work in
providing job training and employment opportunities for Americans with
disabilities, NISH and the AbilityOne Program are proud to share a
strong record of achievement and to talk about our current successes in
providing employment to tens of thousands of Americans. For our
employees--and their friends and family members--the AbilityOne Program
plays a vital, irreplaceable role in their lives.
Currently, the AbilityOne Program employs more than 47,000
Americans who are blind or have significant disabilities through
government purchases of products and services provided by nonprofit
agencies. In 2010, NISH/AbilityOne nonprofit agencies employed 42,500
employees who earned an average hourly wage of $11.23. The Program
enabled these agencies to further employ another 81,500 individuals
with significant disabilities outside of the Program.
NISH is the national nonprofit agency designated by the US
AbilityOne Commission, an independent Federal Agency, to support local
nonprofit agencies that participate in the AbilityOne Program and
provide employment opportunities for people with significant
disabilities through federal contracts for services and products. NISH
supports the NPA network as well as federal customers by providing
business development and contract management assistance, engineering
and technical advice, legislative and regulatory guidance, professional
training and communications assistance.
Through the AbilityOne Program, the federal government leverages
procurement policies that support the important societal goal of
providing employment to people who are blind or have significant
disabilities while demonstrating integrity and good stewardship of
federal contracting dollars. The Program is a cost-effective way to
help people who are blind or have significant disabilities achieve
greater independence as it enables many individuals to reduce
dependence on government cash assistance and join the ranks of
taxpayers.
As a priority source of supply, the AbilityOne Program partners
with federal customers to fulfill its mission through the delivery of
quality products and services. The Program advances several lines of
business that offer varying levels of skills requirements ensuring that
AbilityOne employees have jobs that meet their needs today and upward
mobility for tomorrow. These areas include:
Call Center Support
Contract Closeout
Custodial Services
Dining Facility
Fleet Management
Food Service Management
Grounds Maintenance
Housekeeping Services
Laundry Services
Military Products
Total Facilities Management
AbilityOne employees do more than deliver high quality products and
services at a fair market price; they also return value to the American
taxpayer. A recent independent study revealed that employment in key
AbilityOne business lines reduced AbilityOne employees' use of
government entitlements. These studies also identified a substantial
return on taxpayer investment in the AbilityOne Program.
Employment opportunities created through the AbilityOne Program
have increased substantially over the last two decades. During this
same time period, employment for people with significant disabilities
in the commercial sector has remained flat or decreased slightly, and
employment for people with significant disabilities in the federal
government remains low. AbilityOne has been a critical source of
employment for individuals with significant disabilities at a time when
alternative options are diminishing or not available.
AbilityOne and NISH have crafted dynamic strategic plans to address
these growing employment needs. These plans include tactics that
leverage state-of-the-art technologies and cutting-edge rehabilitation
supports leading to upward mobility and independent community living
goals for people with significant disabilities in the AbilityOne
Program.
An example is the Quality Work Environment (QWE) initiative which
provides a program-wide framework to implement AbilityOne Employer best
practices to optimize earnings for people with significant disabilities
and capitalize on career advancement and community-based employment
consistent with the individual's informed choice. QWE is a continuous
improvement process that can be tailored to the needs of each
AbilityOne agency and its employees. A QWE clearinghouse is now under
active development for nonprofit agencies to exchange and share these
best practices.
Additionally, since 2003 AbilityOne Program has had a Memorandum of
Understanding with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Compensated
Work Therapy (CWT) Program. The partnership agreement promotes local
relationships between AbilityOne nonprofit agencies and Veteran Affairs
CWT offices. This allows VA to pre-screen veterans to match AbilityOne
job requirements and to refer qualified veterans with significantly
disabilities to participate in AbilityOne job coaching programs.
Approximately 2,100 veterans with disabilities have been employed since
partnership inception.
Lastly through our Institute for Economic Empowerment, NISH is
pursuing a major research and development activity: Expanding Choice
for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
Through this initiative we seek to expand supported employment
opportunities for employees (including those currently working in
facility-based settings) and clients (e.g., day habilitation) of
community rehabilitation programs and transition-age youth with
significant disabilities. We also seek to ensure that these individuals
have the information and experience necessary to make an informed
choice among real employment alternatives that include community-based,
integrated employment.
NISH looks forward to continuing to work with Congress, the
Administration, and the disability community to find solutions through
a variety of strategies--including the AbilityOne Program--to the
unacceptably low rate of employment for people with significant
disabilities.
Thank you for considering our statement. Please contact John Kelly
at [email protected] or (571) 226-4691 if you have any questions.
______
Prepared Statement of Brian Patchett, President and CEO,
Easter Seals Southern Nevada
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: My name is Brian
Patchett and I serve as President and CEO of Easter Seals Southern
Nevada (ESSN), a non-profit organization that helps children and adults
with disabilities in the Las Vegas region live independently and
succeed in the community. I am pleased to provide local perspective on
how Easter Seals Southern Nevada teams with businesses and other
workforce and community partners to train and find jobs for Nevada
residents, including those with disabilities.
While I will concentrate my testimony on local solutions and
services, I did want to briefly highlight Easter Seals' national
commitment to employing people with disabilities. Individuals with
disabilities are underrepresented in the workplace despite their
enormous talent and ability. Easter Seals and its nationwide affiliate
network believe individuals with disabilities should be empowered and
supported to find jobs in their communities that match their personal
interests and abilities. Fifty Easter Seals affiliates across the
country help people with disabilities find and retain jobs through
individualized, person-centered employment services, including
employment planning, skills training, job search and development, and
job placement. Easter Seals does not support the one-size-fits-all
approach to employment services that limits choice for individuals with
disabilities. Easter Seals and its national affiliate network support
the decisions and choices of consumers and their families.
Easter Seals Southern Nevada
For three decades, Easter Seals Southern Nevada has helped people
with disabilities become self-sufficient by providing education and
direct services. ESSN professional staff can be found throughout the
region helping individuals with disabilities of all ages live, learn,
work and play in their communities. For example, an ESSN early
intervention therapist facilitates a social skill groups for children
to help them meet developmental targets through physical and
occupational therapy strategies. A trained ESSN professional organizes
a community outing for seniors with disabilities who participate in our
adult day program. An ESSN staff specialist helps a young adult learn
to cook, ride a bus and balance a checkbook through our supported
living program. Since becoming CEO in 2004, Easter Seals Southern
Nevada has nearly doubled in program and staff size to help serve more
individuals with disabilities throughout our region. Last year, we
provided essential community services to more than 6,000 Nevadans.
Employment Services at Easter Seals Southern Nevada
I would like to focus the remainder of my testimony on our job
training and employment services. Nevada has the highest unemployment
rate in the country.\1\ The unemployment rate among individuals with
disabilities nationwide is even higher.\2\ Easter Seals Southern Nevada
is working with local, state and federal partners to help address high
unemployment by providing Nevada job seekers (including those with
disabilities) with the tools and skills needed to succeed in the
workforce. We partner with area businesses, local and state workforce
investment boards, and federal agencies to respond to immediate
workforce needs by providing innovative and effective employment
services. Easter Seals Southern Nevada employment specialists assist
jobseekers by assessing their work interests and abilities, building
strong resumes and interview skills, providing skills training,
assisting in job search and development, and offering on-the-job
training and follow-along supports. For example, Easter Seals Southern
Nevada received Workforce Investment Act (WIA) adult and dislocated
workers funding through our local workforce investment board, Nevada
Workforce Connections, to help find and train workers for a furniture
manufacturing plant that opened in 2010. We partnered with the employer
and held a large job fair on campus to recruit skilled candidates. An
example would be an experienced and certified forklift driver who has a
physical disability and is hearing impaired. The employer accommodated
by using a laser light for the candidate to guide safely which enhanced
the audible back up alarm and horn for maneuvering. In addition, we
partnered with the Nevada Housing Division to provide jobseekers with
basic weatherization and green energy training. Several skilled trades,
such as unemployed construction workers, flocked to this opportunity to
expand their credentials to enter the green market. Nevadans with
varying disabilities, low-income persons, seniors, and veterans were in
this pool of candidates. These are great examples of how federal
programs are utilized by states and communities to address local
challenges and opportunities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, July,
2011, http://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm.
\2\ U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, July,
2011, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t06.htm.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our primary employment mission is to help jobseekers with
disabilities learn skills to successfully enter the workforce or to
return to work after an illness or injury. We utilize vocational
rehabilitation (VR) funding authorized through Title IV (Rehabilitation
Act) of the Workforce Investment Act. The Nevada Bureau of Vocational
Rehabilitation (BVR) refers Nevadans with disabilities to Easter Seals
Southern Nevada for employment services, including assessment,
training, and placement. Easter Seals Southern Nevada also provides
assistive technology evaluations, workplace assessments and training
and other tools to help individuals referred to us by BVR succeed in
the workplace through simple technology accommodations. Individuals
with disabilities can also work in our warehouse facility or at one of
our community worksites, doing real work and earning a paycheck which
furthers their ultimate goal of independence. Easter Seals Southern
Nevada specializes in training and employment in culinary and food
service, plant care and horticulture, janitorial and grounds keeping,
and fulfillment and inventory control.
Recommendations for Improving Vocational Rehabilitation
The vocational rehabilitation program continues to be the principal
federal program for helping people with disabilities find work. I would
like to offer recommendations for improving the VR program from the
vantage point of both a VR consumer and professional. At age seven, I
became legally blind when blood vessels burst across the macula leaving
a residue of scar tissue that impaired my vision. When I turned 18, I
had my first experience with vocational rehabilitation services--as a
VR client. In addition, my educational and professional careers have
intersected the vocational rehabilitation system. I earned Masters'
Degrees in Rehabilitation Counseling and Public Administration from
Syracuse University and have dedicated my entire career working to help
increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities, first
as a certified rehabilitation counselor and now as president and CEO of
a major provider of vocational rehabilitation services. I have worked
with vocational rehabilitation programs in several states. I have
watched the evolution of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to today. My
recommendations are based on my personal and professional experiences
with the vocational rehabilitation system.
I. School to Work Transition: Preparing high school students with
disabilities for the world of work has been one of the great challenges
for the vocational rehabilitation system. My experience as a consumer
of VR services and as a program partner in several states, including
here in Nevada, has led me to conclude that few states provide this
service in any meaningful way. To increase transition success, students
with disabilities, beginning at age 14, should have access to
transition services, including: career exploration, career counseling,
assistive technology, job shadowing, summer employment, mobility
training (i.e. access to buses), resume building, college exploration
and employment. The vocational rehabilitation system must include a
greater focus on the transition of students through better coordination
with schools and increased access to transition and employment
services.
II. Access to Assistive Technology: Assistive technology (AT) is a
device or service which helps a person to access some part of life.
Assistive technology may be an adapted keyboard for someone who has
difficultly typing, software that enlarges characters and images on a
screen for an individual who is visually impaired, or adjustable desks
for persons using mobility devices such as a wheelchair. Assistive
technology tools help individuals with disabilities to successfully
perform the essential functions of a job. Unfortunately, Nevadans with
disabilities who qualify for VR services often do not receive adequate
assistive technology services and devices. Lack of AT services was
common in VR systems I worked with in other states. An assistive
technology evaluation should be offered in an individual's employment
plan. In addition, individuals must receive training on the technology
to increase their success on the job.
III. Supported Employment: From my experience, an individualized
plan for employment developed by a state vocational rehabilitation
counselor does not always provide access to the supports an individual
needs to be successful in the workplace. Job coaching and especially
assistive technology are areas that are usually lacking in this
process--both of which are critical components of job maintenance. The
vocational rehabilitation system must improve access to employment
supports, including group supported employment, to increase employment
of people with the most significant disabilities.
Conclusion
Vocational rehabilitation and other federal job programs that allow
state and community partners to address local employment needs must be
strengthened in the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act/
Rehabilitation Act. Easter Seals Southern Nevada has a demonstrated
record of success in developing employment solutions for local
workforce needs. We welcome the opportunity to continue our work with
local, state and federal partners through critical federal training
programs within WIA. Thank you for the opportunity to share with you
some local examples of how Easter Seals Southern Nevada utilizes
federal workforce training programs to help businesses and jobseekers
in Nevada. Thank you.
______
[Additional submission of Mr. Aguero follows:]
------
[Additional submissions of Mr. Guthrie follow:]
ACCSES,
June 20, 2011.
Senator Tom Harkin, Chair,
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, 428 Dirksen
Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510.
Senator Mike Enzi, Ranking Member,
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, 835 Hart Senate
Office Building, Washington, DC 20510.
Senator Patty Murray, Chair,
Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety, 143 Hart Senate Office
Building, Washington, DC 20510.
Senator Johnny Isakson, Ranking Member,
Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety, 131 Russell Senate
Office Building, Washington, DC 20510.
RE: Comments Regarding Proposed Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act
Included in Title V of the Staff Discussion Draft of the Workforce
Investment Act of 2011
Dear Senators: Thank you for the opportunity to review the Staff
Discussion Draft regarding amendments to the Rehabilitation Act
included in Title V of the Workforce Investment Act of 2011. ACCSES
applauds your efforts to work on a bipartisan basis to expand and
improve employment opportunities for all individuals with disabilities,
including individuals with the most significant disabilities. ACCSES
represents more than 80 partner organizations that work to promote and
enhance community-based solutions that maximize employment and
independent living opportunities for people with disabilities through
collaboration with government and other stakeholders.
Below are our major recommendations for improving the draft bill.
community rehabilitation program (definition)
Current law defines the term ``community rehabilitation program''
to mean a program that enables an individual with a disability to
maximize opportunities for employment, including career advancement.
The bill [page 7, lines 14-17] strikes ``employment and career
advancement'' and inserts ``for competitive integrated employment and
for career advancement.''
Recommendation: Strike page 7, lines 14-17, thereby returning to
current law.
Rationale: This is a definition and thus should accurately reflect
the breadth and depth of the services and supports provided by
community rehabilitation programs. It is perfectly appropriate for the
substantive provisions of the bill to prescribe the specific role of
community rehabilitation programs under the Rehabilitation Act i.e.,
maximize opportunities for competitive integrated employment and career
advancement. In fact, many of the other amendments to the bill
accomplish this objective.
COMPETITIVE INTEGRATED EMPLOYMENT (DEFINITION)
Under the current regulations implementing the Rehabilitation Act,
the term ``competitive employment'' means work in the competitive labor
market that is performed on a full-time or part-time basis in an
integrated setting and for which an individual is compensated at or
above minimum wage, but not less than the customary wage and level of
benefits paid by the employer for the same or similar work performed by
individuals who are not disabled. [34 CFR 361.5(b)(11)]
Under the current regulations [34 CFR 361.(33)], the term
``integrated setting'' with respect to the provision of services, means
a setting typically found in the community in which applicants or
eligible individuals interact with non-disabled individuals other than
non-disabled individuals who are providing services to those applicants
or eligible individuals. With respect to an employment outcome, the
term ``integrated setting'' means a setting typically found in the
community in which applicants or eligible individuals interact with
non-disabled individuals, other than non-disabled individuals who are
providing services to those applicants or eligible individuals, to the
same extent that non-disabled individuals in comparable positions
interact with other persons.
The definition in the bill [page 8, lines 6-24 thru page 9, lines
1-15] includes new terminology that does not add clarity but rather
adds confusion. For example, what does ``* * * similar training,
experience and skills'' mean for someone in supported or customized
employment and who needs ongoing services and supports'' In the phrase
``receives health and employment benefits comparable to those of other
employees,'' which other employees are being referred to: Finally, what
is the meaning of ``at a location where the employee interacts
frequently with other employees who are not individuals with
disabilities (not including supervisory personnel)''?
Recommendation: Strike page 8, lines 6-24 thru page 9, lines 1-15
and insert:
``(5) COMPETITIVE INTEGRATED EMPLOYMENT.----
(A) IN GENERAL.--The term ``competitive integrated employment''
means work in the competitive labor market that is performed on a full-
time or part-time basis in an integrated setting and for which an
individual is compensated at or above minimum wage, but not less than
the customary wage and level of benefits paid by the employer for the
same or similar work performed by individuals who are not disabled. An
``integrated setting'' means a setting typically found in the community
in which individuals with disabilities interact with non-disabled
individuals, other than non-disabled individuals who are providing
services to those applicants or eligible individuals, to the same
extent that non-disabled individuals in comparable positions interact
with other persons.
Rationale: We support adding a definition to the statute but the
definition should add clarity, not confusion.
SUPPORTED EMPLOYMENT (DEFINITION)
Under current law, the term ``supported employment'' means
competitive work in integrated work settings, or employment in
integrated work settings in which individuals are working toward
competitive work. The bill deletes the phrase ``or employment in
integrated work settings in which individuals are working toward
competitive work.'' Current law also includes a reference to the need
for extended services. This reference is deleted in the bill [page 17,
lines 19-24 thru page 18, lines 1-8]
Recommendation:
Strike page 17, lines 19-21 and insert the following:
``(38) SUPPORTED EMPLOYMENT.--The term `supported employment' means
competitive integrated employment or employment in integrated work
settings in which individuals are working toward competitive work,
individualized and customized''
On page 18, line 8, after the word ``services'' insert the
following
``for the period, and any extension described in paragraph 39(C)
and extended services after the transition described in paragraph 13(C)
in order to perform such work.''
Rationale: Deletions of flexibility in current law will result in
diminished employment opportunities for persons with the most
significant disabilities.
TRANSITION SERVICES
The bill makes numerous references to ``transition services''
(which is defined in current law) but on page 12, line 21 strikes the
definition.
Recommendation: Strike page 12, line 21.
Rationale; The phrase is used frequently throughout the bill and
thus should be defined. The current definition is appropriate.
transition set aside and pre-employment transition services
The bill (Section 519(b)) adds a new Section 110(b) to the
Rehabilitation Act specifying that from any state allotment the state
must reserve 10 percent of the allotted funds for the provision of
transition services to assist students with disabilities and youth with
disabilities in transitioning from education to employment, which
includes pre-employment transition services under section 114. [pages
79-80 of the bill]
The bill (Section 522 of WIA), adds Section 114 to the
Rehabilitation Act. The new provision specifies that from funds
reserved under Section 110(d) and from other sources each state shall
ensure that the designated state unit shall provide, or arrange for the
provision of, pre-employment transition services for all students with
disabilities who are in need of such services. Each local office of a
designated state unit must designate at least one staff person to carry
out the responsibilities of a local Pre-Employment Transition
Coordinator. The Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Labor
shall each designate a lead staff person to fulfill the
responsibilities of a National Pre-Employment Transition Coordinator.
These persons may be assigned additional responsibilities. [pages 88-89
of the bill]
Recommendation: Please clarify: does this provision establish a new
``entitlement'' for ``all'' students to receive pre-employment
transition services, regardless of the amount reserved for transition
services under a state's allotment or is the obligation subject to the
level of appropriations? Also please clarify how this provision works
in the context of the ``order of selection'' provision, i.e., are all
students entitled to these services or only those who are determined to
be individuals with the ``most significant disabilities''?
RESERVATION FOR WORKFORCE INNOVATION FUND
The bill (Section 519(c)) specifies that if appropriations for
Title I of the Rehabilitation Act exceed a specified amount, the
Commissioner shall reserve a specified amount, not to exceed $50
million for Workforce Innovation Funds under Section 142 of WIA [Pages
80-81 of the bill]
Recommendation: Strike page 80, lines 3-25 thru page 81, lines 1-6
or in the alternative amend Section 142 of WIA as follows:
Add the following language to Sec. 142(b)(3):
(D) Community-based organizations, consortia, or intermediaries.--
To be identified as a community-based organization, consortia, or
intermediary shall demonstrate that
(i) the application has been developed in consultation other state
or local stakeholders; and
(ii) leverages and aligns resources of the local organizations and
stakeholders to,
(I) improve employment prospects and outcomes for people with
employment barriers, including individuals with disabilities, or lack
skills needed to find jobs and advance in careers.
Change Sec. 142(b)(5) as follows:
(I) AMOUNT.--The amount of the matching share under this subsection
for a program year may not be less than 50 percent 25 percent of the
costs of the programs and activities that are carried out under the
grant.
Rationale: ACCSES supports ``innovative new strategies and
activities, or the replication and expansion of effective evidence-
based strategies and activities that are designed to align programs and
strengthen the workforce development system * * *'' However, ACCSES is
concerned with the ``reservation'' that will divert critical funds
targeted individuals with the most significant disabilities served
under Title I of the Rehabilitation Act.
We are also concerned that the discussion draft would not allow
innovative community-based organizations (CBOs) to apply for Workforce
Innovation and Replication grants. While CBOs could be included in
applications if included in an application from a state partnership or
regional entity, innovative activities and partnerships initiated by
CBOs, especially in states or regions that are less receptive to
change, would be unlikely to benefit from this new source of funds.
ACCSES believes that innovative CBOs should be eligible to compete for
these funds.
If CBOs were eligible to compete directly for Workforce Innovation
and Replication Funds, ACCSES is concerned that the matching funds
required under the discussion draft would present a significant
challenge for many innovative CBOs and local partnerships. Fragmented
and shifting funding sources already present a challenge to
implementing and sustaining innovative and promising strategies.
national transition initiative for youth with significant disabilities
The purpose of this new initiative is to demonstrate and increase
systemic reforms necessary for promoting the effective transition of
covered students from secondary school to competitive integrated
employment settings and opportunities and ultimately to create enduring
systems of service delivery and training within states that facilitate
the transition of covered students from school to post-secondary life
with the emphasis on achieving the outcome of competitive integrated
employment. [page 129] Covered students are (1) individuals within a
specified age range for whom, without an alternative intervention, the
anticipated outcome would likely be placement in a segregated facility-
based day habilitation program or a vocational or employment program
where the individual is paid less than minimum wage, or a lack of
further training and assistance and (2) individuals with an
intellectual disability, individuals with a developmental disability or
individuals with mental illness. [page 130]
Awards may be made to eligible entities to carryout activities
aimed at creating systemic reform focused on the improvement of
employment outcomes in integrated settings at minimum wage or higher
with commensurate benefits for covered students. Eligible entities
include a consortium that is managed by a multidisciplinary team to
include the State Department of Education, the State VR agency and
either the State DD agency or the State Department of Mental Health
Services, or both; includes representatives from the developmental
disability community and mental health services community as well as
individuals with disabilities; and additional public and private
entities with demonstrated expertise in providing supported employment
services in integrated settings at minimum wage or higher with
commensurate benefits and that have a proven track record in
successfully running supported employment programs, provide employment
services that are exclusively integrated community-based supported
employment services resulting in jobs at minimum wage or higher with
commensurate benefits and other expertise * * * [page 132-133] Also,
under the bill an eligible entity that receives a grant shall not use
any funding on activities that result in individuals being placed in
center-based services (including sheltered workshops, day habilitation,
and similar settings) as an employment or postsecondary outcome. [page
138]
Recommendation: ACCSES supports the purpose of this new initiative,
but opposes several provisions included in the bill. If these
problematic provisions are not revised, ACCSES opposes the inclusion of
this provision.
(1) On page 129, line 25, delete the word ``segregated''.
(2) On page 132, line 22, delete the word ``exclusively''.
(3) Delete lines 4-10 on page 138.
Rationale:
The use of the word ``segregated'' is pejorative in the context of
the bill and the deletion of the term does not affect the substance of
the provision.
Limiting entities that can participle in the initiative to those
who provide services that are ``exclusively'' integrated community-
based supported employment services would exclude numerous qualified
CRPs who provide supported employment, customized employment as well as
center-based employment. This limitation in the bill is of particular
concern in rural areas in which only one provider may exist.
The ``prohibited activities'' provision is a gratuitous statement
directed against center-based programs that play a key role in
enhancing employment opportunities for significant numbers of persons
with the most significant disabilities. The focus and purpose of the
initiative is crystal clear without this provision.
EMPLOYMENT OF INDIVIDUALS WITH SIGNFICANT DISABIILITIES AT A SUBMINIMUM
WAGE
The bill (Section 559) adds Section 511 to the Rehabilitation Act--
Employment of Individuals with Significant Disabilities at a Subminimum
Wage. [page 163-170 of the bill]
The provision specifies, among other things, that an entity may not
employ an individual at a special wage under Section 14(c) of FLSA,
unless the entity has complied with the following--the individual,
regardless of age, is receiving work readiness or job training services
provided by a certificate holder, as part of the individual's
preparation for competitive employment for a period of not more than 6
months or a longer period, if the individual wishes to continue to
receive such services after an initial 6-month period and is reassessed
by the agency referring the individual for such services, or an
appropriate entity, not less often than every 6 months, to determine
the individual's ability to transition to competitive employment. The
bill also specifies that nothing shall be construed to prohibit a VR
agency from allowing an individual to receive work readiness or job
training services provided by a certificate holder, for a period of not
more than 6 months.
Recommendation:
Strike page 165, lines 23-25 and page 166, lines 1-17 and insert
after line 3 on page 171 the following:
``(c) Nothing in Section 511 of the Rehabilitation shall be
construed to prohibit a designated State unit from allowing an
individual to receive work readiness or job training services provided
by a certificate holder for a period determined by such designated
State unit under Section 101(a)(14) of the Rehabilitation Act relating
to extended employment or other employment under special certificate
provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.''
Rationale: We are proposing a technical and conforming amendment in
lieu of the text in the bill. The policy objectives of including the
provisions described above are appropriate but the drafting and
placement of the provision are confusing. The provisions in the staff
discussion draft are confusing because they focus on the ongoing
authority of the designated state unit whereas the other three
conditions in the bill (pages 163-165) relate to the characteristics of
the individuals to be served.
SUPPORTED EMPLOYMENT
Section 563 of the bill replaces current Title VI B of the
Rehabilitation Act) [page 173-181 of the bill] Most of the provisions
in the bill are consistent with current law, including the submission
of a state plan supplement for providing supported employment. One
proposed modification in the draft bill relates to the contents of the
state plan--supported employment services will include placement in an
integrated setting based on the unique strengths, resources,
priorities, concerns, abilities, capabilities, interests, and informed
choice of individuals with the most significant disabilities. Current
law specifies that ``supported employment will include placement in an
integrated setting for the maximum number of hours possible based on
the unique strengths. * * *''
Recommendation:
On page 180, strike lines 14-19 and insert the following:
``(G) supported employment services will include placement in an
integrated setting for the maximum number of hours possible based on
the unique strengths, resources, priorities, concerns, abilities,
capabilities, interests, and informed choice of individuals with the
most significant disabilities.''
Rationale: The inclusion language from current law conforms this
provision to language used elsewhere in the bill (see page 14, line
13).
ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON INCREASING COMPETITIVE INTEGRATED EMPLOYMENT FOR
INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES
Section 802 of the bill (pages 227-232) directs the Secretary of
Labor to establish an Advisory Committee on Increasing Competitive
Integrated Employment for Individuals with Disabilities. In addition to
the appointment of specified agency representatives, the bill directs
the Secretary of Labor to appoint specified nonagency representatives
including at least 2 self-advocates;
2 providers that employ individuals with intellectual disabilities
or developmental disabilities in competitive integrated employment and
are not using a certificate issued under 14(c); 2 providers of
employment services that employ individuals with intellectual
disabilities in competitive employment and previously employed such
individuals under certificates issued under section 14(c) but are not
currently using such a certificate; 2 representatives of a national
disability advocacy organization representing adults with intellectual
disabilities or developmental disabilities; 2 experts with a background
in academia or research and expertise in employment and wage policy
issues; 2 representatives from the employer community or a national
employer organization.
The bill directs The Committee to study and prepare findings,
conclusions, and recommendations for the Secretary on ways to reduce
reliance on the use of the 14(c) certificate program except in limited
circumstances or for training purposes, increase employment
opportunities for individuals in competitive integrated employment, and
increase oversight of and accountability for the use of 14(c)
certificates.
Recommendation:
Delete page 227 thru page 232.
Rationale:
The bill includes numerous changes to enhance the outcome of
competitive integrated employment, including policy directives,
comprehensive initiatives (particularly for youth), studies, and
authority to the Office of Disability Employment to, among other
things, increase employment opportunities for individuals with
significant disabilities in competitive integrated employment (See page
226, lines 9-11). The bill also includes numerous data collection and
reporting provisions to document the impact of these initiatives. We
need to understand the impact of these initiatives so that policymakers
in the legislative and executive branches can make informed
recommendations. Further, the phrasing of the first duty goes well
beyond ``reducing reliance on the use of 14 (c)'', which was agreed to
during the Harkin Retreat. Finally, the selection of non-agency
participants excludes many of the key experts in the employment of
persons with the most significant disabilities. Query: would it be
appropriate to preclude the involvement of farm-state policy experts in
a discussion about farm-subsidies?
If you have any questions, please contact me at 202.349.4259 or
[email protected].
Sincerely,
Terry Farmer,
Chief Executive Officer.
______
[The 2010 Community Impact Assessment of Las Vegas'
Opportunity Village may be accessed at the following Internet
address:]
http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Session/76th2011/Exhibits/Senate/HHS/
SHHS653D.pdf
______
[Whereupon, at 1:00 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]