Category: Advocate

Today's youth need the skills and experience gained in part-time jobs to drive their future careers and our economy.

READ MORE from Tomorrow’s Economic Crisis Is Today’s Youth Unemployment Crisis

Last week, the GOP-led House of Representatives passed a budget resolution that would seem to balance the budget by gutting domestic discretionary spending, boosting military spending, cutting taxes for the wealthiest and raising them for working Americans. In fact, the Ryan Budget Resolution cuts discretionary programs more deeply than the continuation of sequestration would, by a whopping $791 billion.

READ MORE from For What It’s Worth—The House Budget Resolution

U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez compared programs that help people find family-sustaining careers to apps on a smartphone or tablet. Whether you are a person in need of a job or a community stakeholder who understands that work is an effective anti-poverty tool, there’s an app for that called Goodwill.

READ MORE from There’s an App for That

As spring blooms in Washington and the cherry blossoms come to life, Congress begins one of its busiest periods. The question is, are the hopes of spring to be realized with the passage of long delayed legislation like the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), benefits for the long-term unemployed and timely consideration of FY 2015 spending bills? Or, are we being set up for a Congressional April Fools’ joke?

READ MORE from Hope Springs Anew in D.C.—or Is It April Fools?

In the movie Casablanca, Louis the French gendarme played by Claude Rains is forced by the evil Nazis to shut down Rick’s Café American. Rick, played by Humphrey Bogart, is furious about the shutdown and demands to know on what grounds his café is being closed. Louis states, “I’m shocked, shocked, to find that gambling is going on in here!” Of course that Louis is the most prolific gambler of any of Rick’s customers is what makes the announcement so ironically funny. So, too, in Washington: I am amused when one side announces that the other side is playing politics with an issue. Really, politics? In Washington? I’m shocked!

READ MORE from Budget Politics Returns to Washington

Like it or not, advancing technology has and always will affect the labor market. What’s different (and its keeping me awake at night) is the astronomical and accelerating pace of modern advancement. That means it is critical for all workforce stakeholders – policy makers, businesses and employers, service providers and workers – to recognize that changes are soon imminent and to prepare to quickly adapt. Meanwhile, since it expired in 2003, Congress has been unable or unwilling to update the Workforce Investment Act, the primary law that authorizes and shapes the nation’s approach to job training.

READ MORE from Goodwill®, Partners Turn Labor Challenges into Opportunities

Piggy Bank with American FlagPresident Obama has said that 2014 is a “year of action,” and the Administration’s FY 2015 budget request proposes a host of initiatives aimed at employment and job training and represents a substantial commitment to helping people find and keep good jobs. Below, we highlight priorities of particular interest to Goodwill®. The GII public policy team will be hard at work on Capitol Hill in the upcoming weeks and months pressing for resources that will help our agencies perform their mission.

READ MORE from Goodwill® Public Policy Team Delves into Key FY2015 Budget Issues

Perhaps nowhere is the lack of action by Congress more acute than with its failure to extend unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed. Meanwhile, the families who stand to benefit from the extension struggle to pay for food, heat and other basics.

READ MORE from Congress on the Long-Term Unemployed — Let Them Eat Cake?

If the old adage that there is strength in numbers has any truth, then funding for job training programs could see a boost next year. Goodwill Industries International and Goodwill® members are joining hundreds of national and state organizations to make the case to Congress that it’s time to invest in America’s job training system.

READ MORE from Goodwill® Aligns with Hundreds of Groups to Boost Job Training Funding

I’ve written before about how this Congress seems to have started to move past the intensely bitter ideological battles that marked much of the past three years. Another sign of that came this week as the GOP-controlled House and the Democrat-led Senate approved a one-year extension of the nation’s borrowing authority, otherwise known at the debt limit. What made this event so newsworthy wasn’t the passage of the legislation, but rather what didn’t happen.

READ MORE from Congress Finds a Lost Art —The Possible

After years of wrangling capped by a surprise defeat last year in the House, Congress finally mustered the votes to clear a five-year reauthorization of the farm bill. The bill includes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. Under the bill, funding for SNAP would be cut by $8 billion over the next decade. The cuts are slightly higher than the $4 billion reduction in the original Senate farm bill but far less than the $40 billion reduction advocated by House Republicans.

READ MORE from Congress Passes Farm Bill – SNAP Cuts Minimized

The White House has referred to the theme of President Obama’s State of the Union (SOTU) as “Opportunity for All.”  While watching, I was able to identify a number of opportunities for Goodwill® advocates to advance efforts that support the people we serve. Depending on which news channel you follow and which papers you read,

READ MORE from What the President’s State of the Union Address Means for Goodwill® Advocates