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Archived News Release--Caution: information may be out of date.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

OPA Press Release: Labor Department Proposes Budget Increases to Address the Opportunity Gaps and Untapped Potential in the American Workforce and Improve Conditions for Working Families [02/07/2000]

For more information call: (202) 693-4650

Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman today proposed a fiscal year 2001 budget of $39.8 billion that would do more to help Americans who are not yet benefitting from today's strong economy.

She is asking for increases in programs to educate and train out-of-school youth, to provide skills training for dislocated workers, to improve pay and working conditions, and new initiatives to help fathers work and support their children.

"We will continue to build a strong, competitive workforce that can respond to a rapidly changing economic environment," Secretary Herman said, "and one way to do that is to bring into the workforce the people who have been struggling to get there. We have room in our economy for everyone."

The proposed budget addresses Secretary Herman's priorities to reach her goals for a prepared workforce, a secure workforce and quality workplaces.

A PREPARED WORKFORCE
Opportunity Gaps

• Youth Opportunity Grants: $375 million, an increase of $125 million, for competitive grants to provide training to out-of-school youth living in inner cities and high poverty areas to help them graduate from high school and get jobs. The FY 2001 level will fund 12-15 new grants in high-poverty areas and continue grants to 25-30 communities.
• Responsible Reintegration for Young Offenders: $75 million for an initiative to link young offenders under age 35 with essential services such as education, training, job placement, drug counseling and mentoring to reintegrate this population into the mainstream economy. This initiative will use competitive grants to establish partnerships between the criminal justice system and local workforce investment systems. This effort will be operated in conjunction with a similar program at the Department of Justice.
• Safe Schools/Healthy Students: $40 million for the Labor Department to join the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Justice in the next round of "Safe Schools/Healthy Students" grants to promote healthy childhood development and to prevent school violence and alcohol and drug abuse through a comprehensive, community-wide approach. With the Labor Department's participation, services will be expanded to include out-of-school youth.
• Youth Activities: $1.3 billion for Job Corps, an increase of $35 million, for continued improvements, and $1.022 billion for youth formula grants.
• Fathers Work/Families Win: $255 million in new competitive grants to state and local workforce boards to promote responsible fatherhood and support working families, building on the investments and partnerships begun under welfare-to-work. Of this amount, $125 million for "Father's Work" competitive grants to help 40,000 non-custodial parents (mostly fathers) obtain or retain employment, including upgrading their skills, so they can support and reconnect with their children. Another $120 million will be directed to the "Families Win" component, to provide competitive grants to help 40,000 low income parents stay in jobs, upgrade skills and get connected to critical work support such as child care, health care, food stamps and transportation. And $10 million will be set aside to provide grants to help Native American low-income families.

Universal Reemployment: $2 billion, an increase of $275 million, toward the second year of the president's effort to serve all dislocated workers who want and need assistance to train for or find new jobs. This initiative will expand and increase the quality of employment services now available to all job seekers through the One-Stop Career Centers.

Incumbent Worker Initiative: $30 million for a pilot effort to provide training assistance to incumbent workers to address major job losses in manufacturing. This proposal will complement the Universal Reemployment initiative.

Disabilities Initiative: $43 million to address barriers that keep adults with disabilities out of the workforce by establishing an Office of Disability Policy, Evaluation and Technical Assistance within the Labor Department and improving access for adults with disabilities to employment services offered through the one-stop system. The Presidential Task Force on the Employment of Adults with Disabilities recommended creation of the new office.

Homeless Veterans: $15 million for DOL's homeless veterans program to provide employment and training services to an estimated 15,000 homeless veterans, with expected job placements of 8,700. The program will be transferred from the department's Employment and Training Administration to the Veterans' Employment and Training Service.

A SECURE WORKFORCE

Pensions and Health Care: $108 million to protect the pension, health and other employee benefits of participants in private sector employee benefit plans. The Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration directly affects the livelihood of over 150 million people who participate in ERISA covered retirement plans. In FY 2001, funding is proposed to implement the Rapid ERISA Action Team initiative to preserve pension assets in employer bankruptcies.

QUALITY WORKPLACES

Putting a Human Face on Globalization

Elimination of Abusive Child Labor: $100 million to expand the administration's support for international efforts to eliminate abusive and exploitative child labor, an increase of $70 million. The United States ratified the treaty to ban abusive child labor last year and Congress approved $30 million in each of the last two budgets for programs to end abusive child labor practices around the world. The 2001 budget increases resources for this initiative to $45 million. These projects and $55 million proposed for helping countries with high levels of abusive child labor to enroll and retain these children in basic education, provide income producing alternatives for the families of these children and place the children in education of training programs.

• Core Labor Standards: $54 million to help developing countries implement core labor standards adopted by the International Labor Organization to improve conditions throughout the world, representing a $10 million increase for the department's bilateral technical assistance efforts. Other budget items for international work include $10 million to support health education for HIV prevention in the workplace and $4.3 million for the department's part in a joint project with the Environmental Protection Agency and the State Department to monitor labor and environmental concerns.

Living Our Values At Home

• Equal Pay: $17 million for the Labor Department's share of the president's proposed Equal Pay Initiative. The funding will be used to train women for nontraditional jobs, including in high-tech industries, and to help employers improve their pay policies, to provide nontraditional apprenticeships, and to implement industry partnerships.
• Making Family Leave More Affordable: $20 million to fund competitive planning grants for states and other entities to explore ways to make parental leave and other forms of family leave more affordable and accessible for American workers. The administration continues to support an expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act to reach workers in firms with more than 25 employees, extending coverage to 12 million more workers.
• Workplace Safety and Health: $668 million, an increase of $58 million, for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administration to support enforcement and compliance activities.

The Labor Department's 2001 budget proposal also includes $12.4 billion in discretionary spending, a net increase of $1.2 billion above the FY 2000 budget. The balance of the budget is made up of unemployment insurance, workers compensation and other mandatory programs.

Attachments:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
FY 2001 BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS
Incremental Increases in Millions of Dollars

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
FY 2001 BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS
(In Millions of Dollars)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
FY 2001 President's Budget
(BUDGET AUTHORITY IN MILLIONS)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Departmental FY 2001 Annual Performance Plan

Archived News Release--Caution: information may be out of date.