Last Week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies released its FY27 funding bill, which proposes to cut the U.S. Department of Labor’s budget to $9.8 billion–a reduction of $3.7 billion or 27 percent below the currently enacted level.
The deepest proposed cuts would impact the public workforce system. WIOA Title I formula grants would receive a 62 percent cut under the House Subcommittee’s FY27 proposal. The bill eliminates the WIOA Adult program almost entirely through a proposed rescission of funding later this fall and eliminates the WIOA Youth program entirely, leaving the Dislocated Worker program as the only one of the three core WIOA Title I formula streams left largely intact. Programs overseen by DOL’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) overall would be reduced to $7 billion, down $3.3 billion, or 32 percent reflecting other significant proposed disinvestments in the American workforce.
Markup
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor-HHS approved its bill on a party-line vote of 11-7. The full committee is expected to consider the bill on Tuesday, June 9.
NAWB’s Position
NAWB strenuously opposes these cuts. NAWB will continue to engage members of Congress throughout the FY27 process to ensure these reductions are not enacted. These cuts come at a time when demand for workforce services is rising, not falling. Additional pressures—including expanded work requirements in safety-net programs and the rapid pace of technological change—mean more individuals will rely on the public workforce system for reskilling and career transitions.
For these reasons, NAWB has asked Congress to fund the WIOA Title I Adult program at $1.5 billion in FY27. Federal workforce investment has declined dramatically over the past several decades, even as the labor force has grown and other nations have increased their commitments. The FY27 proposal would move the United States further away from meeting current and future workforce demands.
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