In Attendance
Sheila Walsh-McDonald, Salt Lake Community Action Program (SL CAP)
Garth Mangum, private author, L.D.S. Employment Center
Pat Nielson, SL League of Women Voters
Bob Haywood, Department of Human Services (DHS)
Mary Beth Vogel-Fergeson, Social Research Institute, U of U
Don Uchida, Vocational Rehabilitation
Lois Kelson, Provo Community Services
Marty Blair, Center for Persons with Disabilities, USU
Shirley Weathers, Walsh & Weathers Research and Policy Studies (WWRPS), UREAP staff
Bill Walsh, WWRPS, UREAP staff

Welcome
Introductions were done and Bill Walsh welcomed everyone to UREAP III. Shirley Weathers acknowledged that Episcopal Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish had contributed $10,000 to help continue UREAP now that the 109th Congress is in session. Applications for funding have also been written to the Public Welfare Foundation and a Utah foundation. Salt Lake Community Action Program will continue to sponsor UREAP III and host the web site.

WIA
Don Uchida led off explaining that HR 27, the "Job Training Improvement Act of 2005," is the Workforce Investment Act reauthorization bill of the 109th Congress. It mirrors the 108th Congress's HR 1267, which passed the House and Senate but was died without being conferenced. HR 27 includes the same negative provision was in HR 1267: authorizing State Governors to take partner program administrative funding to fund the infrastructure of One-Stop Centers. Additionally, Vocational Rehabilitation is being directed to help with "transition kids" (children with disabilities leaving the public school system) without additional funding. This is an unfunded mandate. Bill pointed out that HR 27 also contained provisions from HR 1267 opposed by UREAP: Personal Re-employment Accounts to be funded by diverting funding from other programs, block granting WIA Adult, Dislocated Worker, and Wagner-Peyser funding streams, placing a 30% cap on spending for in-school youth, elimination of a seat on State Workforce Investment Boards (SWIBs) for community-based organizations, elimination of Youth Councils, elimination of public sector representation from Local Workforce Investment Boards (LWIBs). He said UREAP will continue to press for stipends during training.
 
The Bush Administration is attempting to add the "WIA Plus Consolidated Grant Program," first through an amendment during mark-up in the House Education and Workforce Committee in February.  "WIA Plus" includes an enhanced "Superwaiver" and allows states to consolidated far beyond the block grant currently in the bill, to include Adult Education Basic Grants to States, Voc Rehab, Independent Living, Food Stamp Employment and Training, Trade Adjustment Assistance, Veterans Employment and Workforce Investment Programs, and the Homeless Veterans Program. Opposition against WIA Plus is intense from various quarters. That was unsuccessful, but it could be offered as an amendment on the House Floor.

Shirley reported that the President's FY 2006 Budget Proposal jeopardizes adult basic education, remediation, literacy, English as a Second Language programs and other programs needed to help adults catch up and prepare for employment at sustainable wages. It cuts Adult Education and Literacy by 63%, at the same time as $250 million designated for Community-Based Job Training can only be accessed by "community colleges." She said an institution like Horizonte would not be eligible. Garth Mangum asked if Applied Technology Centers (ATCs) were considered community colleges, but no one knew the answer. Staff will try to get these terms defined and entrance standards for these schools. Don said that basic education and training for lower skilled populations is becoming more difficult to find. Marty Blair said that Assistive Technology was also zeroed out in the President's budget.

UREAP staff sent comments to House members on both WIA Plus and HR 27 which are on the web site.

S. 9, the "Lifelong Education Opportunities Act of 2005," is the WIA reauthorization bill in the Senate and mirrors last year's S. 1627. Garth related that Senator Hatch championed job training bills earlier in his career and he now sits on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Matthew Sandgren is Senator Hatch's D.C. staff for WIA and he is very responsive. Don said the Senate bill is preferable to the House bill in Voc Rehab's estimation. Shirley passed around a spreadsheet prepared by The Workforce Alliance showing various cuts proposed by the President. UREAP will necessarily get involved with certain federal budget issues because welfare reform and WIA programs carry budgets that determine levels of services.

TANF
Shirley said that this is the third Congress to take up TANF Reauthorization. The bipartisan Senate Finance Committee WORK Act (never debated on the Senate Floor in 2002) was a fairly positive bill, but provisions supported by UREAP were pared back in the 108th Congress and challenges will probably be greater still in the 109th. In 2003, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley drafted the Personal Responsibility and Individual Development for Everyone (PRIDE) Act, passed it out of his committee along partisan lines, but the bill was not debated on the Senate Floor. The Full Senate did vote in March 2004 for an additional $5.5 billion in child care funding beyond what was in the bill, but Senate Democrats then filibustered for a Minimum Wage amendment and bill was pulled from the Floor. This year, S. 6, "The Family and Communty Protection Act," bundles several priority issues with Title II, identically named and nearly identically framed, starts the discussion in the 109th Congress. S. 6 allows six months of barrier removal, retains 12 months of countable vocational education and training activities in the current law (its counterpart in the House limits E & T to 3 months), raises state participation rates to 70% over 5 years, increases family work participation requirments from the current 30 to 34, and replaces the caseload reduction credit with an employment credit that rewards states for placing families in jobs with higher wages and gives credit for partial, as well as full, hours of participation. Title I of S. 6 include provisions making certain tax cuts permanent, and Title II includes the CARE (Charity, Aid, Recovery, Empowerment) Act, which passed the House and Senate last year but was not conferenced and died, and provides funding for the Social Security Block Grant.

Shirley reviewed the working relationship with Senator Hatch's staff over the last three sessions: Becky Shipp, now Senator Grassley's lead staff on welfare reform; Jace Johnson, now Senator Hatch's Legislative Director; and presently, Jenny George who seems responsive and forthcoming. Jenny has said that the PRIDE Act mark-up is expected in mid-March.

Staff will monitor TANF and WIA and use the email list and website to get out information and alerts. They will also maintain communications with our Congressional Delegation. They will do their best to seek feedback on comments, but TANF and WIA might be fast-tracked and that would cut down on the opportunity to do that. Shirley urged people to contact them with concerns, ideas, etc. She noted that they have forwarded or excerpted a few, selected information pieces from allied agencies to maximize efficiency in this time of fast action and asked if the group thought there had been too much "UREAP News" in recent weeks. The consensus seemed to be that the information is useful and there should not be concern about sending what staff believe is of value.

Bill asked the group to think about organizations to approach about becoming official, signing members of UREAP. It will be an intense year for UREAP and more members would help reflect the level of concern about these issues.

Future meetings will include conference calls with congressional staff and others and possible visits from national advocates. It will be an intense year for UREAP.

Next meeting
The next meeting will be Tuesday, March 22, 2:30 - 4:00, at Horizonte.