A Stronger Workforce for America Act (ASWA) Hotline Process

Dec. 11, 2024 — As you are aware, a bipartisan, bicameral agreement, known as A Stronger Workforce for America Act (ASWA), was announced by Congressional leaders just before Thanksgiving. We have previously highlighted that while there are elements of this legislation that are aligned with NAWB’s vision for the public workforce system, our members continue to raise serious concerns regarding specific aspects of this agreement. These concerns continue to be centered around ASWA’s proposed training mandate, increased allowance for state-level Title I reservations, and the wider process for redesignation of local workforce areas—areas of the legislation we highlighted explicitly last week.

At the time of this writing, ASWA is still being considered by the Senate via a “hotline” process which requires the consent of all 100 Senators. There remain several holds on this hotline process, from both Democrats and Republicans, on a range of issues including the concerns raised by NAWB and its members. This process is still ongoing and remains extremely fluid.

Another possible path forward for ASWA is attaching it to another “must pass” piece of legislation under consideration in the current Congress. While these options are limited and have other associated challenges outside of the current hotline process, the need to fund the federal government beyond December 20, 2024 via an extension of current federal funding (known as Continuing Resolution, or “CR”) remains a key outstanding issue that lawmakers must address by next week.

While it remains unclear whether ASWA can be advanced via either of these paths in the coming days ahead, we are continuing to reiterate these concerns directly to lawmakers. Concessions have been made already in certain areas; we remain hopeful that additional improvements to the legislation can be made at this late stage in the reauthorization process.