Labor Takes Control of Education Department Job Training Funds

The US Labor Department will take over workforce development programs from the Department of Education, putting into action President Donald Trump’s plan to consolidate all federal training grants into a single “Make America Skilled Again” program.

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced Tuesday her agency had entered into “workforce development partnership” to operate certain adult education and career and technical education programs normally overseen by the Education Department.

“Our bloated federal bureaucracy has made it increasingly difficult to administer workforce development programs effectively, and our students and workers have been left behind as a result,” Chavez-DeRemer said.

The move is the first step in delivering the plan outlined in Trump’s budget request to combine all federal workforce development funding into a single grant program overseen by the DOL.

“The current structure with various federal agencies each managing pieces of the federal workforce portfolio is inefficient and duplicative,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a press release announcing the effort.

The agreement between the two agencies was initially signed on May 21, but was frozen by a Massachusetts federal judge as part of litigation challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to dissolve the Education Department.

The Supreme Court on Monday granted an emergency request by the Trump administration to lift the court order blocking the staffing cuts at the Education Department, freeing up the DOL to implement the new partnership and for the Education Department to resume layoffs.

The DOL’s new duties will include administering grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts, as well as monitoring grant recipients’ compliance with funds provided under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act. Those laws fund grants for literacy and post secondary education services for adults as well as career and technical education programs at high schools, community colleges, and other training facilities.

Because the DOL oversees the majority of federal workforce programs, the Trump administration said taking on these programs “will give states central points of contact in the federal government, reducing duplication of effort and conflicting directives from different agencies,” as well as ensure federal funds are spent on workforce training and not compliance costs.

Both agencies will provide guidance on the changes in the coming weeks.