Both the House and the Senate are considering major employment and training bills that would replace programs administered by the Department of Labor under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (ceta).
One bipartisan measure, outlining a job-training effort that could also involve vocational-education programs, was expected to be introduced in the Senate early this week by Senators Dan Quayle, Republican of Indiana, Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah.
The Administration has terminated the public-service portion of the current ceta legislation--which was originally intended to provide job training for young people and retraining, often in public-sector positions, for older workers--and reduced its budget for fiscal 1982 by one-third, to about $8 billion.
The objective of providing economically disadvantaged youths with on-the-job training is retained in proposed legislation, aides say.
The Senate bill, “Training for Jobs,” was to be introduced in the wake of President Reagan’s announcement of a package of sweeping reforms for federal programs, including a lessened federal involvement in vocational education.
The Quayle proposal would provide $3.5 billion in fiscal 1983 for employment and training programs, and would give state governors discretion over many of the programs’ provisions.
The measure departs from the existing ceta legislation in shifting the administrative control of ceta programs from local governments to councils composed of private business and labor groups. The Department of Labor would oversee the programs and would provide some of the money needed to operate the councils.
Robert Guttman, a legislative aide to Senator Quayle, said the “Training for Jobs” bill has been undergoing some revisions at the request of Senator Kennedy.
One of the revisions involves the method for determining which localities will receive funding under the program--the so\called “service delivery area” provision. The existing ceta legislation requires that local jurisdictions have a population of at least 100,000 in order to qualify as a “service delivery area.” Senator Quayle’s bill makes no such stipulation, but instead gives state governors the authority to make the designation.
The “Training for Jobs” bill calls for the governors to establish private-industry councils to prepare the training programs. But, according to Senator Quayle’s proposal, the council also could plan for, and serve in an advisory capacity to, vocational-education programs.
A House bill, known as the “Community Partnership for Employment Training Act,” introduced on Jan. 25 by Representative Augustus F. Hawkins, Democrat of California, would retain much of ceta’s present administrative structure and would authorize $5 billion for the program in 1983, according to a spokesman for the Congressman.
