Legislative Update for Wisconsin Technical Colleges

June 2, 2022

 

Workforce Pell inches closer to reality

While the Wisconsin legislature has concluded their floor sessions for the year, Congress continues to work on legislation of interest to technical colleges. The conference committee has been officially approved to reconcile the House-passed America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology, and Economic Strength (America COMPETES) Act and the Senate-passed US Innovation and Competition Act (USICA). The COMPETES legislation includes short-term Workforce Pell, which would benefit technical college students seeking high quality short-term credentials. Negotiators from Wisconsin include House Rep. Scott Fitzgerald and Senator Tammy Baldwin. Please contact them (link: https://www.acct.org/product/action-center#/24) and request their support for Workforce Pell.

On May 17, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Reauthorization Act of 2022 by a vote of 220-196. However, the U.S. Senate is not expected to take it up in 2022.

Here in Wisconsin, candidate nominations papers were due June 1st by 5 p.m. for state and legislative races. August 9 is the partisan primary, and November 6 is the general election. Candidates who successfully filed papers are listed below.