Bill Text: IL HR0723 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urges the Congress of the United States to enact legislation that maintains funding for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), and for President Joe Biden to sign that legislation into law.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2024-05-24 - Resolution Adopted [HR0723 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HR0723-Introduced.html

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HR0723 LRB103 40401 ECR 72705 r
HOUSE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The Congress of the United States of America has
proposed budget cuts that would decrease funding to the
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which
supports workforce development activities, adult education and
literacy, U.S. employment services, vocational services for
disabled workers, and numerous other programs that invest in
our workforce; and
WHEREAS, The WIOA has had a positive impact on the
livelihoods of millions of Americans, having provided job
training to 237,836 people nationwide in the midst of a global
pandemic in program year 2020; and
WHEREAS, Throughout Illinois, the program has grown
substantially in the last several years, having seen the
number of local workforce innovation area incumbent worker
training projects greatly increase from 64 to 378, the number
of businesses utilizing incumbent worker training increase
from 62 to 278, and an increase in the number of incumbent
workers able to receive training from 125 to 4,228; and
WHEREAS, These efforts and others like it have resulted in
a statewide unemployment rate of only 5.1%; and

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WHEREAS, Last year, the One-stop Operator in Champaign
County, a single location where all four core programs of the
WIOA are collocated, helped 362 visitors with resume,
interview, career fair, application, employment workshop, and
job search advice; it also connected 227 visitors to services,
including rent assistance, GED classes, printing, veterans'
services, and youth services; and
WHEREAS, Among those visitors, the East Central Illinois
Workforce Board provided career coaching and supportive
services to 262 low-income or skill-deficient adults as well
as 163 youth with barriers to employment; and
WHEREAS, The WIOA gives preference to veterans, low-income
individuals, individuals with disabilities, unhoused
individuals, youth who have been in the foster care system,
eligible migrants and seasonal farmworkers, single parents,
and long-term unemployed individuals; and
WHEREAS, Unfortunately, the East Central Illinois
Workforce Board was forced to turn away over 600 adults last
year who wanted to receive job training but who could not be
provided with services due to funding limitations; and
WHEREAS, Budget cuts like the ones proposed recently would
make it even more difficult for organizations enacting the

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provisions of the WIOA to render high-demand services to
underserved and underutilized members of the community;
therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
we urge the Congress of the United States to enact legislation
that maintains funding for the Workforce Innovation and
Opportunity Act (WIOA), and for President Joe Biden to sign
that legislation into law; and be it further