It doesn’t look like a revised House continuing resolution (CR) will include a Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) reauthorization bill, which has language to codify the Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants (SCCTG) Program.
House GOP leaders on Thursday scrambled to draft a slimmed-down CR (116 pages compared to the initial 1,500 pages) after President-elect Donald Trump derailed the spending stopgap plan when he demanded that the measure raise the debt ceiling. As a result, Republicans crafted a “clean” CR that raised the debt ceiling and stripped most of the bills that were attached to the initial bipartisan CR, including the A Stronger Workforce for America Act, which would reauthorize WIOA.
But in another spin on Thursday night, lawmakers resoundingly and vocally defeated the CR bill by a 174 to 235 vote, with several Republicans joining Democrats in opposition. The current CR expires at midnight on December 20, leaving a very small window for negotiators to craft another CR before a potential federal government shutdown.
Community college advocates initially felt good about WIOA and the SCCTG language being included in the CR. But that optimism has dimmed, though it’s still possible that some of the dropped add-ons may be reattached to a CR to secure votes. Meanwhile, workforce development supporters are concerned that funding for WIOA, whose authorization expired in 2020, could be a target for a Trump commission looking to recommend ways to trim federal regulations and spending.
