With several colleagues in the House, Rep. Mica introduced legislation to provide a comprehensive alternative to President Clinton's Reemployment Act of 1994.  These pieces of legislation are tied together to address the areas of job training and welfare reform.  Overall reform is possible by consolidating many job training programs and alter the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program to increase a person's wages.

     Many of our job training programs have resulted in nothing but dismal failures.  The GAO identified 154 programs that form a complex and ineffective array of federal bureaucracies and restrictions.  This legislation proposed consolidating 93 programs identified by the GAO while the Administration only sought to consolidate 6.  In addition, President Clinton sought to raise taxes on business to pay for his plan and create a new entitlement program allowing dislocated workers to participate in training pragrams lasting up to 2 years.

     The legislative approach favored by Rep. Mica's alternative included:

-Streamlining the federal role in running job training programs

-Consolidating 93 job training programs into one comprehensive employment and job training block grant

-Grant states more flexibility in structuring programs, resulting more efficient uses for funds

-Save taxpayers approximately $10 billion over 5 years

-Cut the cost of labor by reducing the payroll taxes (FUTA)

-Increase take-home pay for low wage workers