Workforce Bulletin - March 28, 2014

This edition of Workforce Bulletin contains articles including:

Senate Expected to Pass EUC Extension Early Next Week
On Thursday, March 27, the Senate voted 65 to 34 to begin debate on a bipartisan bill to retroactively extend the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program for five months to June 1, 2014.  The bill, the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2014 (S. 2149) will be attached to the Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act of 2014 (H.R. 3979) that passed the House of Representatives earlier this month. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said the Senate would formally take up the bill Monday evening.

Secretary of Labor Testifies before House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Administration’s FY 2015 Budget Request
The Secretary of Labor, Tom Perez, testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on March 26 regarding the U.S. Department of Labor’s (USDOL) FY 2015 budget request.

House Committee on Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity Holds Hearing on Veteran Employment Legislation
On Tuesday, March 25, the House Committee on Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity held a hearing on nine proposed bills, with officials from the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs testifying before the Committee.

Study Released on Graduation Rates of Veterans Using Post 9/11 GI Bill
Student Veterans of America (SVA) released the initial findings of the Million Records Project on Monday, March 24. The report on the use of the Post-9/11 GI Bill shows 51.7 percent of student veterans are graduating with degrees, far above the 12 percent estimated by some experts.

Mississippi Integrated Workforce Registration System “Up and Running”
In 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) awarded the States of New York (NY), Mississippi (MS), Oregon (OR), Idaho (ID) and Minnesota (MN) approximately $8 million to improve unemployment insurance (UI) and workforce systems integration, in order to better connect UI claimants with reemployment services and resources.

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