It’s only Tuesday, but it’s already shaping up to be a tough week for the Obama administration. Just after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported yesterday the 2012 budget deficit hit $1.17 trillion in August, major defense contractors confirmed they will send layoff notices to tens of thousands of workers this November as a result of the president’s own sequestration cuts. And now a... Read more »
Courtesy of the Committees on Ways and Means and Education and the Workforce. BACKGROUND: Sixteen years ago, a Republican-led Congress worked with a Democratic president to fix a broken welfare system. President Bill Clinton rallied the nation to “end welfare as we know it” and his call to action was well founded. Under the old system, 65 percent of families were dependent on welfare for an avera... Read more »
Dear Secretary Sebelius: The Head Start Act requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to ensure the designation renewal system (DRS) put in place in 2007 to increase program accountability is “fair, consistent, and transparent.” However, the department has refused to release any information, including basic facts and figures, during the implementation of the process, falling far ... Read more »
Dear Secretary Solis: We remain concerned about the policies and priorities of the Department of Labor's (the department) Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). Recently, OFCCP proposed a number of requirements relating to the collection of compensation data from federal contractors. At the same time OCFFP proposed these requirements, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) studie... Read more »
Dear Mr. Dodaro: The Promise Neighborhoods program aims to improve educational and developmental outcomes for students in some of the country's most distressed urban, rural, and tribal neighborhoods by providing cradle-to-career support services. In 2012, the first year of the grant, the Department of Education dedicated $10 million to this program through the Fund for the Improvement of Educatio... Read more »
Nonpartisan budget experts have warned the country could plunge into another recession if steps aren’t taken to prevent massive tax increases and restore spending discipline in Washington, D.C. House Republicans have taken action to stop looming tax hikes, reduce regulatory uncertainty, and help get our fiscal house in order. In stark contrast, President Obama and his Democrat allies continue to h... Read more »
Dear Secretary Duncan: On October 29, 2010, the Department of Education finalized its program integrity rules, which significantly expanded the department's authority to require institutions of higher education offering programs leading to gainful employment to obtain approval of new academic programs before awarding Title IV funds to students enrolled in those programs. Under the new regulations... Read more »
Dear Secretary Solis: The appropriate expenditure of taxpayer funds by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is of the utmost importance to the committee. This week, multiple news sources have reported that in September 2009 DOL spent $495,000 in so-called “stimulus” funding to hire a public relations firm, McNeely, Pigott, and Fox Public Relations, LLC (“MP&F”), to promote Job Corps’ “existing and ... Read more »
A study released today by the National Federation of Independent Business reveals that the cost of health insurance and economic uncertainty are the most significant problems facing small business owners. The concerns expressed by the nation’s leading job creators are hardly surprising. Small businesses have experienced a 103% rise in health insurance costs in the last decade, greatly diminishing ... Read more »
Dear Secretary Panetta: The FY 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 112-81) includes a provision (Section 532) to ensure "covered graduates" are given the same opportunity to enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces as traditional high school graduates, commonly called Tier I recruits. The law clearly defines covered graduates as any student who receives a diploma from a secondary school legally ... Read more »
