"Careers" and "Workforce Development" Acts
by William "Bill" Bonville
HR 1617 and S 143 were not passed out of committee in 1987 simply because President Clinton and the Republican Congress could not agree on miscellaneous verbiage and a lot of voters objected when they heard about it; otherwise, these laws were a done deal. Kudos to Representative Henry Hyde and a few other stalwarts for liberty who are opposing all facets of these laws. But do not forget: the House and Senate later passed these bills overwhelmingly with Republican and Democratic support. Problems in 1987 arose only because the conference committee deadlocked after the Clinton Administration sought changes to meet its global economy objectives.
The later Congress is revisited these bills, splitting out their provisions into a host of interlocked bills, no doubt the better to confuse the electorate and fellow Congressmen who lack time to dissect every bill in question.
These bills, as passed, will create a federal employment agency that would collect data on every child and worker in America. Workers will be controlled by requiring them to qualify for and possess an Occupational Skills Certificate which certifies that he/she has the skills, attitudes and behaviors required for a given job. This means that the government can specify the politically correct ideologies a worker must have, as well as the skills required, for getting a job. School children and adult trainees would be tracked into vocational (and attitudinal) training that would prepare them to fill jobs which the government expects to be available in the future. In effect, this makes it possible for the government to assert, "Only the politically correct need apply for the jobs we believe to be appropriate to have."
Employers, meanwhile, will be required to post job openings in a national database called the Labor Market Information System (LMIS), operated by the federal government. Job descriptions must fit the federal norms for skill certificates, working conditions, benefits, and company policies (which must be politically correct for an acceptable posting). This allows the government to say, "Only the politically correct employer may obtain a work force for jobs that we believe are appropriate to fill."
Unbelievable, what? But passage of these bills established the grounds for exactly that situation. It would give government bureaucrats a strangle hold on business and labor. Private employment agencies, labor unions as we now know them, and free enterprise for the small businessman would be things of the past. It would make the national economy entirely federally planned and directed. They also create a whole new bureaucracy: Workforce Development Boards, Governing Board, a multitude of task forces, and whatever. There is seemingly no limit to the proliferation of bureaucrats and their ability to intrude on the personal lives of workers and private business of employers.
For a wonderfully researched overview of where the complex of federal legislation is headed, and which shows the interlocking features of existing legislation, read Dianna M. Fessler's work entitled, "A Report on the Work Towards National Standards, Assessments and Certificates," available on her web site.
Supposedly, these convoluted laws give full control to the states. Actually, an amendment to the Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933 removes state legislative control, appears to award it to the states' governors, but requires that the governors must submit their plans to the Secretaries of Labor and Education for approval, else not a dollar will go to a state for implementing the system. Given the billions of dollars involved, that is neat blackmail.
This whole idea is not dead. Your Congressman, Peter Defazio,
voted for it and Gorden Smith and Ron Wyden will go along to get
along as they did with GATT and NAFTA. Only a vociferous electorate will
frighten them out of backing it. Add your voice to mine.