Washington, D.C. – Sen. Ron Johnson made these remarks about the Senate vote to make changes to a series of jobs training programs:

“While this was a well-intentioned effort, Congress has once again worked its magic and authorized more spending in a bill that was meant to eliminate duplicative programs and reduce spending. 

“The bill eliminates 15 duplicative job programs, for example — but about two-thirds of those have not been funded in recent years. Eliminating spending that wasn’t taking place does not constitute fiscal restraint. The bill actually authorizes higher federal spending on jobs programs, from $9.1 billion in 2015  to at least $10.1 billion in 2020, and could increase deficits by nearly $4 billion over the next six years.  

“These programs have been running without Congress’ authorization since 2003. A majority will continue as they are, unreformed, unless Congress passes a bill that makes real reforms. This bill fails to do that.

“As much as I would have liked to have voted for a bill that actually reformed duplicative federal training programs and reduced spending, I could not vote for this bill, because it does neither.” 

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