Letter Supporting the U.S. Departments of Labor, Education, and Commerce’s “America’s Talent Strategy: Building the Workforce for the Golden Age”

Dear Members of the Education and Workforce Committee,

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce strongly supports the plan recently released by the U.S. Departments of Labor, Education, and Commerce, America’s Talent Strategy: Building the Workforce for the Golden Age.  We urge Congress to build on this forward-looking vision from the Administration to strengthen the American workforce and promote sustained economic growth.

Throughout the country, employers face persistent challenges finding skilled talent, even as millions of Americans remain unemployed or underemployed due to a mismatch between their skills and the demands of the modern labor market. Our current workforce training system is not meeting these evolving needs. Accountability measures are too often overlooked, and insufficient resources are directed toward high-quality training programs that prepare individuals for in-demand careers.

The Administration’s talent strategy offers a clear framework to meet these challenges. It prioritizes aligning fragmented workforce systems to better serve both workers and employers, strengthening accountability in training programs, upskilling current workers, and expanding pathways to success through apprenticeships and other work-based learning experiences.

We support the priorities outlined in America’s Talent Strategy and urge Congress to provide durable legislative support to help operationalize this plan. In particular, we call on Congress to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and advance the following critical reforms:

• Enhance labor market data systems to provide more timely, accurate, and accessible information on in-demand jobs and skills and post-program outcomes.
• Expand employer-driven training opportunities that are responsive to real-time workforce needs and lead to meaningful employment outcomes.
• Incentivize pay-for-performance models that reward training providers and workforce programs for achieving measurable results, such as job placement, earnings gains, and retention.
• Promote innovation, by helping employers adopt tools that focus on skills-based hiring and empowering workers with portable learning and employment records to help individuals better navigate the labor market to ensure that the U.S. remains globally competitive.
• Strengthen the evaluation of training providers by establishing clear, employer-informed criteria for quality and holding providers accountable for employment outcomes.
• Increase flexibility for states and local governments to tailor workforce strategies to the unique needs and opportunities of their regional economies.
• Incorporate AI literacy into both education and workforce training pathways so individuals are equipped to utilize emerging technology and remain employable amid shifting job demands.

We were encouraged by the bipartisan efforts made in the last Congress to advance A Stronger Workforce for America Act. We are eager, therefore, to use that momentum in this Congress to reauthorize WIOA and modernize our nation’s workforce development system.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,                               

Neil L. Bradley
Executive Vice President, Chief Policy Officer,
and Head of Strategic Advocacy,
U.S. Chamber of Commerce