Dear Secretary Geithner and Director Gotbaum: The Committee on Education and the Workforce remains committed to overseeing the federal government’s restructuring of the General Motors Company (GM), and its consequences for the pension benefits of workers at the Delphi Corporation, a former subsidiary of GM. Given recent media reports alleging conflicts of interest and efforts by the Treasury Depa... 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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
