President Barack Obama last month signed an executive order promising to "improve outcomes and advance educational opportunities for African Americans." The order instructs federal agencies to "promote, encourage, and undertake efforts" to increase "college access, college persistence and college attainment for African American students." Unfortunately, his administration remains opposed to the O... 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 »
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 »
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 »
Fresh on the heels of news that one in ten U.S. employers will soon drop health care coverage for workers as a result of the job-destroying health care law, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a new report illustrating ObamaCare’s devastating impact on American families and taxpayers. According to the report, the health care law that President Obama promised would lower costs will lead ... Read more »
In the coming days, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on the Preserving Work Requirements for Welfare Programs Act, legislation to rein in the president’s latest effort to change federal law without congressional consent. In preparation for the upcoming vote, the House Education and the Workforce Committee compiled the following materials to highlight this and other recent examples ... Read more »
On Thursday, President Obama, through the Department of Health and Human Services, quietly released an official policy directive. Utilizing an obscure legal device from the original Social Security Act, the administration claimed the right to waive the work requirements for able-bodied people that formed the backbone of a generation of welfare reform. This directive could very well allow the welf... Read more »
A federal judge has vacated several provisions of the controversial “gainful employment” rule, which the Department of Education issued last year in an effort to ensure that federal student-aid dollars flowing to vocational programs were good investments and helping prepare students for jobs that pay well. The decision, by Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Col... Read more »
For the nearly 13 million unemployed Americans, finding work is a full time job with little reward – but it doesn’t have to be this way. Decades ago, the federal government put in place a job training system designed to provide valuable services and support to struggling workers. Unfortunately, the system has become inefficient after years of neglect. On behalf of the nation’s workers, House Repub... Read more »
Today the U.S. Supreme Court released its much awaited ruling on the 2010 health care law. Unfortunately, the court’s decision leaves in place a costly and unworkable health care scheme that continues to hurt families, workers, and job creators. Employers play a central role in the nation’s health care system. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 58 percent of workers have health insurance t... Read more »
