Let me start this morning by welcoming our distinguished guest today, the Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. I’d also like to welcome my counterpart, the gentleman from California, Mr. Miller, and the other members of our committee.

During his State of the Union Address, President Bush laid out a comprehensive plan to speed our economic recovery and promote long-term job growth and investment. His plan also provides specific assistance -- in the form of personal re-employment accounts -- to help unemployed Americans who are struggling to return to work.

At a time when the economy is struggling but also improving, it is important that we focus on giving the unemployed more flexibility and choices in their employment search. Even though the most recent Labor Department statistics reveal that unemployment is down to 5.7 percent this month, we still need to examine new ways to help working families across this country during the time when they need it the most.

On January 29, Congressmen Jon Porter, Buck McKeon, Todd Tiahrt and others introduced the Back to Work Incentive Act, which reflects the president’s plan to create these accounts and aid unemployed workers who need the most help getting back to work. I am pleased to be a cosponsor of this important measure.

The Back to Work Incentive Act represents a new and innovative approach to helping the unemployed get back on their feet.  As President Bush has said, one worker out of work is one too many, and his plan will help working families in times when they need it the most. 

Workers can use their Back to Work accounts for a variety of different services to help them find a good job, including job training, child care, transportation, housing assistance, and other expenses to help in finding a new job. Recipients will be able to keep the balance of their $3,000 Back to Work account as a cash reemployment bonus if they become reemployed within 13 weeks, creating an important incentive to return to work quickly. The more quickly a job is obtained, the larger the reemployment bonus will be.

States such as Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Washington have experimented with personal re-employment accounts and the results have been very positive.

One of the exciting aspects of the new Back to Work accounts is that they empower individual recipients to make choices appropriate for their own circumstances. Recipients will be able to create re-employment plans that help them navigate all the options available -- such as career counseling or training for a new profession in which they can become employed. By providing choice and flexibility, we can get people back into steady, good-paying jobs.

This new benefit supplements and enhances the services that are already available for those who are most likely to face obstacles in finding and keeping new employment. These Back to Work accounts will not only provide the unemployed with another important benefit to help them find a new job, but will be efficiently administered through the easily accessible One Stop Career Center system, established through the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA).

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and the one-stop delivery system it created represent the nation’s primary investment in workforce development. WIA assistance is vital to helping workers find new or better jobs in this time of economic recovery. Through the one-stop delivery system, job seekers have access to labor market information, job counseling, and job training to help them get back on their feet. In addition, they have access to numerous other federal programs that provide services for job seekers. These Back to Work accounts will be an important new benefit that will be offered seamlessly and efficiently through the WIA delivery system.

The 21st Century Competitiveness Subcommittee, chaired by Congressman Buck McKeon (R-CA), will lead the Committee’s efforts to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act this year, and will focus on improving the system to help achieve the original vision of the law when it was enacted in 1998, which was to create a seamless workforce development system for workers and employers.

While we expect to move the Back to Work Incentive Act as a stand-alone bill, we also expect to address the President’s proposal as part of our efforts to reauthorize WIA. Particularly during a sluggish economy, WIA programs can play a key role in helping Americans get back to work or retrain for new jobs.

I look forward to working with President Bush, Subcommittee Chairman McKeon, and Congressman Porter to move this proposal quickly and make this innovative plan a reality for working families who need the help the most.

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