News Articles

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 »

Dear Secretary Solis: The appropriate expenditure of taxpayer funds by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is of the utmost important to the committee. Given the U.S. Government Accountability Office's (GAO) recent findings on duplication and overlap within federal programs, I respectfully request documents and communications relating to the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) participation in the Wh... Read more »

U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline (R-MN) issued the following statement after the Department of Labor released employment data for July: Forty-two straight months of unemployment above eight percent is a painful indictment of the president's failed policies. Whether it's implementing a government takeover of health care, rolling back successful welfare reforms... Read more »

How did you come up with that one? House Republicans want to know how and why President Obama's Labor Department decided that businesses do not need to give federal contractors 60 days' notice of the mass layoffs that are set to happen on Jan. 2 -- unless Congress does something to stop the automatic budget cuts (sequestration) that will take effect on that date. On Thursday, Rep. John Kline (R-M... Read more »

House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN), along with Workforce Protections Subcommittee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee Chairman Phil Roe, M.D. (R-TN) today sent a letter to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis requesting documents and communications related to the development of controversial guidance concerning sequestrati... Read more »

Dear Secretary Solis: We are greatly concerned the Employment and Training Administration’s (ETA) July 30, 2012, Training and Employment Guidance Letter (the guidance) is misleading and incomplete with respect to federal contractors’ obligations under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act) and the department’s role in enforcing the act. In short, the department creates th... Read more »

What if we knew how to reduce by half the number of Americans dependent on welfare? What if we could — at the same time — significantly reduce poverty among children and single mothers? If we had such an effective poverty-fighting formula in place, surely we’d try to expand it, not toss it aside. Yet that’s what the administration has just done with the successful welfare reform of 1996. On July ... Read more »

Dear Secretary Solis, We respectfully request information concerning the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs’ (OFCCP) December 9, 2011 notice of proposed rulemaking (the proposed rule) on federal contractors’ nondiscrimination and affirmative action requirements pertaining to individuals with disabilities under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 503). Specifically, ... Read more »

U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline (R-MN) issued the following statement after a federal court decision to block the Obama administration’s contraception mandate: Religious liberty is a fundamental human right protected by the First Amendment. Private employers should never be forced to pay for services that violate their moral beliefs. Today’s federal court de... Read more »

Dear Mr. Dodaro: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently reported the federal government spent more than $3 billion on more than 200 federally funded science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education programs across 13 federal agencies in fiscal year 2011. While it is important to have a prepared and appropriately targeted STEM workforce to enhance U.S. competitivenes... Read more »