Testimony of Ardell Galbreth
Deputy Board Manager, Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board

U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce

Field Hearing on "H.R. 444, Back to Work Incentive Act"

February 18, 2003

Now with regards to dislocated workers of which, many have been unemployed for over a year; the view looks just as grim. House Resolution 444, introduced by our own Congressman Jon Porter is a step in the right direction to get people quickly back to work, but the maximum benefit of $3,000 may not go very far for those living in some of our depressed areas of the country. In addition to establishing Personal Reemployment Accounts, Congress needs to focus its attention on increasing the funding for adults and dislocated programs under the Workforce Investment Act.

Regardless of the amount of supportive services reemployment accounts may offer, if jobs are not available, people will not be reemployed quickly. Congress is preparing to cut significant funds out of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) adult and dislocated worker programs. Right now, in our sluggish economy, WIA programs are our only hope to offer people the opportunity to acquire new skills by retraining into demand occupations. With adequate WIA funding levels, along with the new Personal Reemployment Accounts, jobseekers will be able to effectively tailor their reemployment plans to local area industries demands and match their skills with employers’ needs for prompt reemployment. For example, let’s take here in Las Vegas—which was the corporate headquarters for the now defunct National Airlines. Through Nevada’s JobConnect System, using our National Emergency Grant for dislocated workers, we were able to offer training services to hundreds of laid off workers to allow them to get the proper training and get back to work. In many cases, airline pilots only needed a new type rating certification to allow them to sign on with another airline or a corporate aviation agency. In some cases, pilots increased their annual income because of this new training.

The bottom line of my testimony is that if our intent is to return people back to work quickly, we need to earmark workforce funding levels to allow for adequate training to upgrade jobseekers skills to match new employment demands. Our National Airlines project is a fine example of how adequate training can quickly get people back to work.

I recommend that Congress view H.R. 444 as a supplement to the Workforce Investment Act and not a one-time reemployment stop-gap. It is important that Congress in both houses work to keep WIA as our nation’s primary vehicle to deliver effective employment and training services to both jobseekers and employers by appropriating adequate funding to do the job right.

Again, gentlemen, thank you so much for this opportunity and I hope that you will be able to use my testimony to support necessary legislation to help get people back to work and keep the there. Thank you.