Congress taking aim at Labor oversight of Job Corps

An amendment to the Senate fiscal 2006 emergency supplemental bill probably will prompt conferees to consider an overhaul of a Labor Department job training program.

The amendment offered by Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., calls for placing the Job Corps program -- a work training program for at-risk 16- to 24-year olds -- in the Labor secretary's office.

While the House version does not include similar language, House Republicans expect that a Job Corps overhaul would be included in the conference report. "There are some real problems that are going to get changed," House Education and the Workforce Chairman Howard McKeon, R-Calif., said, adding, "The [Labor] department has been resisting this for a long time."

The Specter amendment is a second attempt at placing the Job Corps program directly before the secretary's eye. Conferees included a similar measure in the fiscal 2006 Labor-HHS appropriations bill in reaction to what they considered abuses in contracting. Field employees were hiring workers and signing contracts without oversight, lawmakers say.

With no extra staff or money for the oversight role ordered in the fiscal 2006 measure, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao delegated responsibility for that function to four assistant secretaries, much to the disapproval of lawmakers. Specter is now answering back with his amendment to return the program to the secretary's office.

"The secretary cannot ignore what's in the law," said House Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ralph Regula, R-Ohio. Regula floated, as a possible solution, designating a deputy secretary under Chao to regulate the program. "I just want to see it restructured in a way that it will succeed," he said. House Appropriations ranking member David Obey, D-Wis., also supported tightening the oversight structure.

Scott Lilly, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, called the Job Corps program a "bipartisan concern." Lilly, who testified on the issue in March before the House Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, said Chao's move to spread the program's oversight over four assistants was "absolutely catastrophic." Acting Office of Management and Budget Director Clay Johnson sent a letter last week urging House and Senate appropriators to oppose the amendment.

The Senate has announced its conferees for the emergency supplemental, but the House has not.