America COMPETES Act

On May 28th, the House of Representatives passed a five-year reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act with a bipartisan vote of 262-150. Over 750 organizations have endorsed COMPETES, including: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Information Technology Industry Council, the American Chemical Society, the Business Roundtable, the Council on Competitiveness, the Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, the National Venture Capital Association, TechAmerica, and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Community College and Career Training Grant program

The House passed an amended version of H.R. 4213, American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010 by a vote of 215-204.  The House bill included a provision related the Community College and Career Training Grant program under the Trade Act of 1974.  The provisions included in the bill would expand the program by authorizing such grants to also benefit individuals who are eligible for unemployment insurance, who are likely to be eligible for unemployment insurance or who have exhausted their unemployment insurance. Additionally, the provisions would: (1) clarify that only public and non-profit educational institutions are eligible for grants; (2) authorize the Department of Labor to spend up to five percent of program funds to administer, evaluate and establish reporting systems for the program; and (3) give the Department of Labor more flexibility by allowing it to obligate grant funds in the year that they are appropriated as well as the subsequent fiscal year.

America RISING Act of 2010

Rep. Laura Richardson introduced H.R. 5472, America RISING Act of 2010 which would establish a grant program for stipends to assist in the cost of compensation paid by employers to certain recent college graduates and to provide funding for their further education in subjects relating to STEM.

Tags: community colleges, Congress, federal legislation, Job training, postsecondary, STEM

This entry was posted on Friday, June 4th, 2010 at 8:41 am and is filed under Legislation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.