Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee - Senate and House
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- October 6, 2026
Unknown speaker
0:00
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
3:00
Members, will it grab you a seat? First things first, Representative Woolridge, will you lead us in an opening prayer? Yes, sir. Bow with me, please.
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
3:30
Lord, thank you for this day and thank you for the opportunity to be here to provide direction for our state. Help us as we gather here to utilize wisdom and to always make you known and make decisions that are good not only for you but for the people of the state of Arkansas. Thank you again for the opportunity to be here to serve and help us to make you known. In your name we pray. Amen.
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
3:55
Thank you, Representative. Yes, sir. With that, I need a motion to approve last month's meeting.
minutes have a motion have a second
Senator John Payton
Unverified
4:04
have a second all those in favor say aye all opposed as have it meetings from july
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
4:09
7th and 9th are adopted so with that we'll move on to item c of cody waits and eddie thomas i believe
Senator John Payton
Unverified
4:25
mr thomas got some bradley county roots in him i'd like But if you guys
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
4:32
would, introduce yourself in the record, and y'all are ready to go.
Speaker 15
4:37
Thank you, Representative Wardlaw. Cody Waits, Executive Director, Workforce Connections, Department of Commerce. Sebastian County native, while we're keeping track there. Eddie
Speaker 17
4:47
Thomas, Arkansas Department of Commerce, Arkansas Workforce Connections, Director of Office of Employment and
Speaker 15
4:53
Training. Thank you to the committee. One of the things we wanted to bring to your attention today,
Chair
Unverified
4:59
and just ongoing conversations around workforce development is the current structure of Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act, a.k.a. WIOA or WIOA, and then some potential changes that may take place in the months ahead at the federal level
with the changeover possibly to Make America Skilled Again or MASA, and what implications that may have here at the state of Arkansas, and a lot of positives and benefits that we see that could help the system as a whole. Just as a kind of a housekeeping item, wanted to bring some awareness to just the restructuring that's occurred within the Department of Commerce underneath Arkansas Workforce Connections. Previously, we had a number of different agencies that were housed in different areas or had kind of siloed approach to reporting and structure. Just this last year, we've really redefined and reestablished and realigned all the different agencies that touch workforce development within Commerce under Workforce Connections.
So the org chart that you see above with the Office of Skills Development, Office of Adult Education, Office of Employment and Training, of which Mr. Thomas is the director for, Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, Division of Services for the Blind, and the most recent transition is the Existing Business Resource Division, which also houses our Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions Group, which functions as our Manufacturing Extension Partnership, has recently transitioned over from AEDC to Workforce Connections as of July 1 to really formally focus on all our workforce development strategies and business engagement in one singularity approach so a lot
of movement that's taken place and a lot of moving around but things that we always try to do is make sure that we're engaging businesses in a productive fashion we're going to get into now kind of the current structure of wioa and how the funds flow from the federal level down through the governor's office through the local ceos and obviously to the boards and then to serve individuals across the state of arkansas i'm going to let mr thomas
Speaker 23
6:47
dive into this slide absolutely thank you director If
Speaker 25
6:50
you can see from the diagram listed on the chart, funds start at the United States Department of Labor,
Speaker 20
6:55
flow down to Governor, who then appoints Arkansas Workforce Development Board, who has the duties and responsibility of division and oversight for the workforce development system. It's carried out through the State Workforce Agency, which is Arkansas Workforce Connections, who work really closely with the chief elected officials of each region. In regions, we call them more so local workforce development areas in our WIOA world. And we work closely with the chief elected officials who, again, are your county judges and your mayors throughout the state.
Who also work closely with the local workforce development boards who execute and serve a service provider for a lot of our programs there. And then you see there on the screen, it's kind of the full, excuse me, the full structure of our one-stop delivery system. And as you can tell,
Chair
Unverified
7:42
it's a little cumbersome as you try to follow all the lines through there. And I think part of this effort
Speaker 15
7:48
from WIOA, whether they reauthorize WIOA as it exists today or whether they make this transition to a Make America Skilled Again model is to somewhat simplify the flow of funds and how that operates at a state level.
Speaker 20
7:59
Absolutely. If you see on the screen now, you'll see the current structure of our Arkansas Workforce Centers. These are the infrastructure buildings that house most of our programs. Arkansas Workforce Centers is what we call them on the state level. Throughout the nation, they're called Arkansas, excuse me, American Job Centers. Twenty-three centers, as you'll see on the screen there, has a 10 local workforce development areas. Real quick,
Speaker 31
8:24
just to kind of go through that a little bit further, you have some
Chair
Unverified
8:29
kind of indicators of comprehensive workforce centers
versus affiliate centers. Comprehensive centers are where we, you know, each local area has to have at least one comprehensive center within its borders. There's no requirement that you have to have more than one, although some do, I believe, have more than one comprehensive center. And essentially, that's where all the partners that are involved in WIOA have a presence within those centers. And so whether it's pretty much all the divisions that
Speaker 15
8:53
you saw that are within Workforce Connections, Rehab Services, Adult Education, Office of Employment Training, Wagner-Peyser, which we'll get into some
Chair
Unverified
8:58
of these titles here in a minute,
all of those have a presence in your comprehensive centers, of which we have to have at least 10 since we have 10 local workforce development areas. And then local workforce development boards have the option to add additional affiliate sites or affiliate centers that could still serve clients and individuals across the state. But there's no requirement that all those partners have to be included in an affiliate center. Absolutely. And just to add just
Speaker 20
9:21
a little bit there, we do have over the years, we've seen a reduction of the number of centers that we have in the state. But we've really kind of tapped into more virtual services, more virtual access for those areas that are more rural or those areas who do not have a physical center.
Just kind of looking at this first slide, it's a lot of numbers there, but it's going to really focus in on the participants served throughout our programs. If you look at the chart there, we go from 21, what we call program year 21 through 24. And if you look at the breakdown of that, it's three particular categories under WIOA. You have your youth, adult, and dislocated worker. Adults are your self-explanatory that it's 18 and above. Dislocated workers are those who have been impacted by no fault of their own, massive layoffs,
those who maybe are members of certain populations, maybe military spouses and so forth that are considered dislocated from their employment. And then we have a youth category, and this consists of in-school youth, which is 14 through 18, and then an out-of-school youth component, which is 16 through 24. And those are ones who are usually not engaged in any type of educational program. And so if you look across the board there, you'll see the numbers for the last four years, program years. If you see it kind of fluctuates across the board a little there, for instance, take PY21, around 900 or so adults were served, 200 or so dislocated workers, and 700 or so youth that were served.
Wagner-Pizer is a specific area that's focusing just on the general population, and we provide basic career services like resume development, job search assistance, and those other general services to anyone who doesn't have to have an eligibility-type service offered to them. But if you look across the boards, you'll see the fluctuation of those numbers. Some years going down, we know that 21 and 22 were the years where the pandemic was heavy, and so we saw some movement there. If you look at 23, the number started decreasing a little bit there.
And some of that could be tied back to the funding, the level of funding, and just some of the nature of the program. And if you look at the most recent program, year 24, we're looking at around 500 or so adults, fewer than 100 dislocated workers, and then same number for youth, 400 or so. And so if you see it's a gradual decrease in those that we serve, and we think some of that has contributed to the amount of additional programs that have been created to serve some of the same population that we serve.
Speaker 31
11:53
And I'll just say, if you're like me and you look at this slide and you see the big numbers there at the bottom, the
Speaker 15
12:00
48,000, the 49,000 numbers and things like that, you know, we started looking at this data. I said, well, time out, are we serving that many people in our local offices with the limited staff that sometimes we may have? And the reality of it is that a lot of those individuals may be accessing their own services online. They may be applying for jobs, doing job search, doing some of these things. And so they're called, quote, what do
Chair
Unverified
12:20
they call that? Self-service. Self-service. And so we're actually working right now to reduce or kind of break down that number a little bit further
to identify which ones are self-service and which ones are actually coming into a local office and working with our Title III Wagner-Peyser staff so we can provide a more, you know, accurate number or reflective number of the activity that's happening from Wagner-Peyser within a local office versus a self-service function that somebody may be doing at their home on
Speaker 20
12:46
their computer, laptop, iPhone, what have you. Absolutely. In correlation to those numbers that are served, we also provided a breakdown of the PY25 funding that runs from July 1, 2025, into June 30, 2026.
And so as you can see there, we have 10 entities or 10 local workforce development areas represented on this chart. Most of our local workforce development programs are ran by planning and development districts, eight of the TNR. And then there are two distinct entities that also run programs in their specific areas. But if you look on the chart, still have the same categories, youth, adult, dislocated workers. And it shows the amount of funding that were allocated to those particular areas. If you kind of look at the bottom line there, you'll see the fluctuation of funds from program year 21 up until the current year.
So if you see there, we fluctuate somewhere from, I'm sorry, I'm having just a little time, hard time seeing these. 14, and current year, if we just jump ahead to PY25, we're around $16.2 million that we have to distribute for statewide activities, which we consider those things, the things like staffing and operation and special grants, special initiatives that we operate on the state level. And then the rest of the funds are allocated to local workforce development boards. Again, they serve as a service provider and provide training opportunities and job seeker opportunities to individuals with barriers to employment.
Also, we serve employers with those funds. Just any type of assistance that's needed there, that's provided through the WIOA funding and the WIOA workforce delivery system. Yeah, one thing just to note here real quick before we move
Speaker 15
14:22
on. I mean, if you look at the far left table, right, and you work your way to the right, you know, you'll notice, I believe, in what they would, what I still call FY22. It was about $18 million, then it went down to $16 million, then it went down to $15 million, then it went down to $14 million. And so, as you can tell, like, just based off the formula that, and Eddie can speak to some of the formula and how that works from the federal level and how we actually get our allocation of funds.
It's not something we really have control over here at the state level, but it's a
Chair
Unverified
14:49
federal formula fund. But if you look at the next slide, so for this coming year, we're projected to receive an increase from where we've been trending year over year, upwards of $16.2 million. And so just to kind of break that down, you know, a lot of these funds are used for training, right? So if individuals are coming into a local office and they're wanting to reskill or upskill into new occupation, they're able to cover costs for training. They're able to cover costs for wraparound services or supportive service, so child care, gas cards, fuel reimbursements, things of that nature are some of the ones we see most often.
But then also, obviously, these local areas have to operate, so they have
Speaker 38
15:22
to have administrative costs as well. So, again, three buckets, wraparound services or support services, training costs, and
Speaker 23
15:29
administrative costs. Absolutely. Thank you. And, again, we talked about the methodology of how those forms,
Speaker 20
15:34
those funding are allocated to the states and then how they're allocated to the local workforce development areas. And there are certain key factors, including unemployment rates, civilian labor force rates, and so forth, that are included in that factor. But, again, it's something that we don't have control over outside of controlling and managing our employment rates.
Kind of moving to the meat of kind of some of the things we want to kind of discuss with you. We're always being moved or shifted maybe possibly into a different program. And I'll yield now to Director Weiss for more of an expression on that. Yeah, sure. So before we move
Speaker 35
16:05
on, I just want to come back to kind of the training funds and everything. So just a quick idea of
Speaker 15
16:11
where these funds are going to by an industry sector. If Shannon Newton were here, she'd be really excited about this. A large percentage of them are going to the transportation sector. A lot of CDL truck driving programs are funded through this.
Chair
Unverified
16:22
Kind of the reason behind that is, number one, it's a pretty quick turnaround in terms of a four- or five-week program that can end in some of the federal measures that get tracked, right? So whether it's a measurable skills gain, an industry-recognized credential, such as a license for CDL. And if some of you are looking for this, it's not
Speaker 15
16:38
in your packet. We can add this document to it later. But CDL, truck driving, things of that nature. second i know rachel bunch is here a lot of c or
Chair
Unverified
16:45
a lot of lpn type training programs rn training programs are funded through this i was just at the northeast arkansas workforce development board last week we had a conversation as kind of the partners meeting and it was there was a scrolling
kind of marquee of all the individuals that were served either at lpn or an rn through
Speaker 15
17:01
those programs so just to highlight a couple of different areas obviously manufacturing is the third one that kind of tops out in the top four or five so as we're talking about kind of this change and what this may look like again there's no guarantee that these things are going to change this will
Chair
Unverified
17:16
all be discussed at the federal level but when you look at WIOA versus Massa or Make America Skilled Again you know obviously
Speaker 15
17:22
the big thing that's kind of the talking point is the the combination of the consolidation of 11 different grant programs into one block grant so the FY26
budget is allocating 2.965 billion for kind of this Make America Skilled Again and consolidation of all the programs and as you'll see here this is really kind of a breakdown of what all those different programs look like today and then how they would be you know all consolidated into one bucket up at the top and you're right under the 2026 request so as eddie's talked about in
Chair
Unverified
17:49
those previous charts where you had the adult dislocated worker and youth funds you would no longer really have those three buckets you would just have one bucket of funding that that local areas would be able to leverage to the best of their ability and kind of the population they see most likely to fit
Now, whether that may be the first come, first serve, or maybe they set their own stipulations as to how many they want to serve in different areas, that's totally up to the local area, at least the way that we see it currently. And you wouldn't have to track these programs separately, right? So for today, you know, they get a youth breakdown, they get an adult breakdown, they get a dislocated worker breakdown. And then, you know, if you don't use all your dislocated worker funds, you can move those into adult funds. There's just a lot of moving pieces as it relates to what happens at a local level with some of these dollars. And putting it into one bucket would obviously reduce some of that back and forth in bureaucracy that they apply to us to move some of these funds around.
Speaker 15
18:38
We approve those funds, and then they go and expend it. And then likewise, there's reporting requirements and metrics that are tied to all three of those, some very similar, some may differ from one to the next. So in a lot of ways, this creates a big efficiency. But as you can see on the screen, there's a lot of different areas, whether it's youth build, workforce data quality initiatives, strengthening community college grants, all that gets put into one consolidated block grant.
Chair
Unverified
19:00
Another big key consideration of this is the fact that WIOA funds moving forward or Make America Skilled Again
Speaker 15
19:06
funds would have to have a minimum of 10% allocated toward registered apprenticeship expansion.
So take that 16.2 number that we gave you just a little while ago for our FY26 number or PY25. I'll get the hang of that at some point. And that's kind of the breakdown of what you would have to use on apprenticeship expansion. Good news is for us is we have a lot of apprenticeship expansion taking place and more
Chair
Unverified
19:25
to come here in the new future. So that's something that we see as a positive. You know, the Title III Wagner-Peyser Employment Services, which is what we use to staff a lot of our local offices with. As Mr. Thomas described, some of the basic skills, requirements, and things that people are coming in to receive.
Job search, resume development, things like that. That would be consolidated as well. And then you look at kind of the last two bullets where it talks about some of the federal government breakdown and what they're looking to do at the federal level, plus some potential cuts to the funding as we see today. And I think we all recognize that's going to happen, whether it's reauthorized as a current state or whether
Speaker 15
20:00
it transitions into Make America Skilled again. So just a few items to consider. We've talked about a couple of these, but, you know, designing services that fit regional and industry community needs. Instead of having to look
Chair
Unverified
20:09
and play the game of how many youth we're going to serve
or what youth funding we have available versus adult or dislocated worker funds. Obviously, this, I think, would help us from a training and employment perspective. If we're able to put more funds in a training pool, then we're able to train more individuals and provide more wraparound services to folks. Less bureaucracy, so state-level monitoring and reporting. We have some of our local boards here today, and I know they probably have benefited from this as much as we have. But this time last year, we
Speaker 15
20:38
had 30-plus past-due monitoring reports dating back to almost 2018. And so if you think about the process, the human capital, the resources, and the time and attention to detail that it takes to manage some of that,
Chair
Unverified
20:50
dating all the way back to 18, it was cumbersome, and it was really bogging down a lot of activity that could be spent on serving people. And so now we're able to report that we've got that down to just two. And the only thing that we're working on now with them is finalizing some audit submissions. So we did a lot of work over this year with our own internal monitoring and auditing team as well as with the local areas. And so obviously if we were to make this change, right, then we see that there's probably going to be a much better benefit to how we have to monitor and report on our local areas versus our own monitoring and reporting to the federal level. We've already talked about the 10% requirement for apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships,
redefining key performance indicators. I mentioned a minute ago, you know, we're really tracked and tasked on kind of four key metrics, really, or maybe a couple others, but second quarter employment earnings, fourth quarter employment earnings, measurable skills gains, and credential attainment rate. And so we have to negotiate these rates both at the federal level for the state, and then we negotiate these rates with the local areas for their own performance measures. And so it's a very interesting process as to how it takes place. I got
Speaker 15
21:50
the opportunity to sit in one of these last year for the first time, and it's hard to kind of understand exactly where some of these numbers come from,
from the federal level down. And so when we negotiate our own performance metrics, we're trying to keep in mind kind of how we want to have
Chair
Unverified
22:04
growth in our own programs, but also make sure that we're not setting ourselves up for failure and setting our local boards up for failure. We want to make sure that we have goals that
Speaker 15
22:14
are achievable and attainable, yet make us work to the best of our abilities. And then lastly, you know, from a regional provider perspective and local board perspective, depending on how kind of the funding flows and what makes sense and what happens if
Chair
Unverified
22:24
we have a 24% cut in funding or whatever that dollar amount may be, whether it's 20 or 30 or anything, right,
it could cause us to have to relook at our entire workforce development system from a workforce board perspective. Do we need 10? Do we need 5? Do we need whatever the numbers are? I think that's
Speaker 15
22:41
something that we would have to consider and have to talk about as a state and as a legislature. And then lastly, just some things that we're doing just from a strategy. We're obviously reviewing our
Chair
Unverified
22:50
own internal WIOA state policies to identify bottlenecks and program success, and really truly looking at are we being more restrictive than the federal guidance? That's the key theme there, is making sure that we have no restrictions that are further than what the federal guidance provides for us.
Working with U.S. Department of Labor and Workforce Association, so national associations of state workforce agencies, national association of workforce boards, national governors association, groups such as that nature, provide a lot of information and insight into what's happening at the federal level. Really having some peer-to-peer conversations. We had a conversation a couple weeks ago with Utah. We had one last week with the state of Louisiana. Really good discussions that are
Speaker 15
23:26
kind of giving some insight both into what we're looking at and what we're doing versus what some of those other states are doing. And then obviously mapping
Chair
Unverified
23:33
our own programs to the consolidated block grant model.
And, you know, obviously there's a conversation happening after Act 145 was passed and kind of the social services and workforce reform study that's being done with Senator English, Representative Bentley, Representative Beck, Senator Bryant, Senator Bryan as
Speaker 31
23:48
well. And so as of that, I mean, that's really the gist of what we wanted to talk about today. Eddie, do
Speaker 15
23:55
you have any other comments? No. Mr. Chairman, I think we're concluded for our presentation. I'm happy to answer any
Senator John Payton
Unverified
24:04
questions. We've got quite a few in the queue. We'll start with Representative Richardson.
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
24:10
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had a question regarding the funds that you guys are talking about as they reenter into the workforce. Is any of that funding going towards DOC or with those inmates that may be getting out and learning job skills? Are you guys putting any money into
Speaker 20
24:27
that as well? Yeah, thank you for the question. So we do partner really close with those agencies who serve the reentry population. We don't have specific awards that go to DOC, but through our program, we do provide tuition assistance. Tuition assistance may
Speaker 23
24:40
not be the best example, but certain program aspects we offer through our training and development department.
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
24:46
Okay, I think, I'm sorry, you were about to say
Chair
Unverified
24:49
something. No, I was just going to say, you know, it's an interesting question, and the timing is right. I mean, just this morning I was reaching out to Tracy Dow, the Department of Corrections, to talk about some of the pathways that they currently offer and how we can maybe help increase our efforts in kind of a correctional capacity. We have provided funding in the past, not necessarily out of this money, to support some correctional activities. We did some TANF funds and some partnership with them a couple of years ago to do some CDL truck driving for some incarcerated individuals. But nothing from this pot of money I don't think is directly, to Eddie's point, going into correctional.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
25:19
Okay. Thank you. Senator Love, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, gentlemen, for coming. I want to go back to your funding, your 25 funding, because I thought I understood you to say that your funding was increasing. Is that correct or incorrect? Yeah, so projected from the previous years to
Speaker 31
25:42
what we're about to move into, I think last year, I think that says 14.8 or so.
Chair
Unverified
25:49
It's projected that we're going to get $16.2 million this year based on the federal guidance and the notice of awards. Okay. So that would be kind of a rejection of the trend, right? So we've
Speaker 15
25:58
been trending down for the last four years or so, and based on the formulas at the federal level, and Eddie, if you have some information you'd like to share on how that's broken down, Senator, he can provide that for you,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
26:09
but we are getting an increase projected this year. Okay, so my question was with the increased funding, and I'm not going to say it's new funding. I'm just going to say with the increased funding, are there new programs coming online with that,
or are you putting that money into your
Speaker 15
26:25
existing? Well, the way it works, I mean, you've got to keep in mind, so when it comes down to the state level, right, we have the right to reserve basically up to 15% for statewide activities. So of that $16 million, we'll take 15% to
Chair
Unverified
26:38
help operate at a statewide level for all of our staff and operations. And
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
26:43
then everything else gets distributed out to the 10 local workforce development areas who administer those funds. Okay. All right. And then moving to your Rio versus the Mesa, however you pronounce it.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
26:57
or country you're from. All right. The skilled piece, is that going to the $2.965 million? Is that, is that you had it in 2024 at $4 million, now it's down to $2.9 million. Those
Speaker 31
27:17
are billions. Oh, yeah. So that's at a national level. It's kind of their,
Speaker 15
27:23
yeah, their national footprint was four, right?
They enacted in 2025 the 3.8. So it's considering the reduction, the consolidation of all those funds, and then the reduction from the previous year's budget. Oh, okay. So this is not
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
27:36
just specific to Arkansas. This is specific to the
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
27:38
national numbers here. All right, duly noted. Okay, thank you. That's all my questions. Yes, sir. Thank you, Senator.
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
27:59
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you all for being here. As you all talk about wraparound services today, I did not hear you all talk about anything that would help
Chair
Unverified
28:09
with transportation. Oh, yes, sir. Transportation is a big kind of supportive services that a lot of local areas provide, whether it's gas cards, fuel reimbursements. I even think some areas may make some subsidized payments on car loans or things
Speaker 15
28:21
of that nature. So, yeah, transportation assistance is a big part of the wraparound services component of it. It's hard to get to training or hard to get to a job if you can't afford it, right,
or you're not on a bus route. So, yeah, that's one of
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
28:41
the big things that they focus on. Well, thank you. Yes, sir. Representative Bentley. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you guys for being here today. Great information. So do we have any data on long-term outcomes for these people? So once they get trained, do we have any six-month, 12-month data? Are they still working six months from the time they receive that or 12 months? Do we have any data on what our
Speaker 15
28:58
long-term outcomes are for these trainings? I'll defer to Eddie to give you a broader answer.
Chair
Unverified
29:01
Obviously, one of the two key metrics are second quarter employment earnings after exit
and fourth quarter employment earnings after exit. So we are tracking what those earnings are. And so obviously, if they're employed, we're going to be capturing that. But you do bring up a good point because, you know, those things that are measured at the federal level, those are part of our reporting requirements. We're establishing some of our own internal state requirements that we want to begin tracking moving forward as
Speaker 15
29:22
of this coming year. So as it relates to that, yes, we are doing it. But, Eddie, do you have anything to add
Speaker 20
29:27
to that? No, I think you nailed it. I think the thing that we possibly could add is that, you know, certain components of our arkansas department of commerce is working to build dashboards to where
we can see more live data and so now typically we have quarterly reporting that we kind of helps us to kind of keep a gauge on where we are with the outcomes and performance and so forth but we're looking for real time real live uh outcomes and and measurements now
Speaker 32
29:47
going forward one quick follow up chairman if that's
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
29:53
okay um so another question i've got is when i look across the map of course we automatically go to where our district is i'm trying to look at the spots here for my district And so are we looking at anywhere we could do a little more mobile outreach to folks to, you know,
I'm just looking at Perry County, Yale County, and those folks there, and Saline. So, you know, I know for some folks it's hard to get to even find it. I know we do a lot online, but are we doing any mobile outreach anywhere to help folks get connected?
Speaker 15
30:19
We do have mobile units that travel around the state. They're in communities all the time, whether that's for working with employers who are having layoffs and
Chair
Unverified
30:25
handling some of those things or whether it's just an invitation to attend and set up job fairs or at hiring events. So we have it a lot of times at those locations. I'll let Eddie speak to some of the virtual things that we're doing.
He's very proud of that. He's been spearheading
Speaker 20
30:41
some of that. So do you want to speak to some of the virtual services? Yes, sir. In September of last year, we launched what we're calling the Connect Employment Services Hotline, and it's pretty much the same hotline that individuals who receive unemployment insurance call into for questions about their claims and so forth. But those individuals, as they're calling in about their unemployment insurance and things of that nature, they're also being directed to our Connect hotline, and they're being provided with information about all these services that we mentioned today. So they're being connected to different resources with the local workforce development boards
and some of our other partners like Goodwill and Community Action and so forth that really kind of yield to the same mission that we have. And so, yeah, that's one of the things we're doing there. We also offer online training. We know that the workforce centers are sometimes just deemed as a job center and so forth, but we really want to provide those essential skills and what some people call soft skills to individuals. And so we've stood up a regular schedule of training services also to individuals who may want something just as simple as interviewing techniques or they may want something that's more intensive like emotional intelligence
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
31:45
and how to deal with individuals on the job. Okay, one final question. So as we're looking forward, we're seeing SNAP recipients and Medicaid recipients going to have to do a work requirement. So are we gearing up with DHS to kind of make some connections with them so those folks are getting
Speaker 35
32:00
the training that they need as well? We are. Yeah, we're having ongoing conversations
Chair
Unverified
32:04
with now Secretary Mann and Lori McDonald and their team over there as to how that looks. And, again, part of Act 145 and the work we're doing there. and trying to understand exactly what that impact is going to look like and how we can leverage, you know, our case management teams,
their case management teams. You know, then there's also the eligibility specialists where people are determining eligibility. And so I think that's another aspect of this that could be a benefit is if some changes were to make, and there were some, you know, since they're talking about consolidating Wagner-Peyser Title III services, which really provide those basic services, if we're able to pull those funds together and hire actually full-time, full case managers, you know, like right now if you call the hotline or if you go to a local office, You're somewhat limited if you're working with a Wagner-Peisel Title III individual who can provide basic career services
versus being able to work with someone through the full cycle that's perhaps a Title I employee that's a case manager to be able to provide all that service and be able to put them
Speaker 15
32:57
on a plan to training or wraparound services or what have you. So we are having those conversations with DHS, and we'll be continuing
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
33:08
to do over the weeks and months ahead. Thank you both. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you. Thank you. uh just follow up on that question if you look at the map um and the green light green there's a big hole there which is the majority of my district so have you closed any affiliate workforce centers
and then recently have any closed i don't know which well i think i'd have to
Chair
Unverified
33:30
ask you to find reason i mean over the course of the last handful of years um i know that our footprint has decreased quite a bit and and eddie you may have to provide the numbers i want to say we had north of 30 something different
Speaker 15
33:43
locations at one point in time and i don't know if that was 10 years ago or six years ago but as you can see with the funding reductions that took place it became very difficult to operate all these local offices and foot traffic and things of that nature so we have not
closed any in the i know not in the last year but i don't know what time frame it was
Speaker 20
34:02
when the last one that shut down was though yeah the largest um major um reduction of officers happened when the tanf transition over from workforce services to dhs and that was just simply a
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
34:13
funding and infrastructure um decision there how do you decide which centers to
Speaker 20
34:18
close and which ones to leave open typically it's a combination between uh or conversation between those chief elected officials and those local workforce representatives they actually are are making those uh main recommendations
to their local workforce development boards in conjunction with the state workforce agency. And so it's everything from proximity from one office to another. We also look at what's available via virtual services, and then we also kind of look
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
34:47
at some of the data in terms of numbers served in areas.
Okay. I mean, again, I guess it's troubling to me because there's not, you know, northwest nor central Arkansas in this area. there's huge discrepancy between those districts and areas
and the others with affiliate workforce centers. So how are you serving those people like in Izzard County and Stone County and Sharp County? How are you serving those people? Fulton. I think it comes back to a little bit about the question that Representative Bentley asked
Chair
Unverified
35:22
is we do have our mobile units that are going out to those communities i don't know how often or frequent they've been to that area we can certainly look into that and provide that information for you um obviously there's the
one in searcy which i i think we would all agree probably there's some proximity there that that yields some um barrier to perhaps getting employed or to getting services um but there are a lot of avenues now with the virtual services that are available through connect the mobile units um the local offices that are in the region and then you know to this conversation to this point i mean we're happy to you know have conversations with the white river planning development district and the north central workforce development board to see if there are opportunities for us to provide
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
36:05
additional capacity in those areas yeah i i would like that information back um just because as i'm
looking at this a lot seems to be central arkansas and then kind of four corners and you're leaving out so i mean searcy county which i know is about an hour and a half to harrison um but i mean there's just a big hole there and i mean i'm not sure if either one of you have personally driven from um gamelia or fulton county hand cove to searcy arkansas um i would invite you to drive that road uh you know and and so it's concerning to me because if you look at and i would also
challenge you to look at those those counties yes i represent them but um they're actually poorer than the counties in the delta searcy county is so you know i i guess that's troubling to me because it looks like some decisions were made to close and i know one did in searcy county affiliate workforce center and so it's a little disturbing to me to be frank with you to see kind of that big hole there um and then the last thing is i would i do appreciate uh the shout out that you made with rachel bunch and what's happening in workforce and the lead that
they're taking um just because in searcy county the other night on last thursday night they came up to me and they said thank you so much for the support uh for the grants and they have four uh lpns that are enrolled and graduated and are being put to work right there locally so the private sector is getting it done and uh so you know we need to make sure that
we're utilizing taxpayer dollars wisely thank you absolutely thank you
Speaker 20
37:51
senator senator if i can one one just
point of clarification is that the centers that you see listed on the map are those who are certified as American job centers but we do also have adult education centers and Arkansas rehabilitation services offices throughout some of those areas that aren't listed here and so we have some representation and we lean on them a little bit more
Speaker 23
38:10
for some of our workforce services just they're just not considered certified affiliate or comprehensive okay it might be nice and helpful to
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
38:17
have that map overlay over this that'd be great thank you - Sure, thank you.
Representative Lincoln Barnett
Unverified
38:24
- Representative Barnett. - Thank you, Chair. I
did have a few questions regarding the apprenticeship opportunities. Are those funded through your agency? - Yes, they are.
Chair
Unverified
38:38
They're through a different division than employment training. They're through the Office of Skills
Representative Lincoln Barnett
Unverified
38:42
Development. - Okay, and then I wanted to know, do you have any data relating to how many those apprenticeship opportunities result in permit or a long-term job placement sure yeah so
Speaker 15
38:54
two things one um by nature if you're enrolled in an apprenticeship of which we have close to i think 9 000 10
Chair
Unverified
39:01
000 apprentices statewide at this point you are employed in a full-time job and so like one of the things that we're tracking though is like from the time to the beginning you know probably 85 to 90 percent of our apprenticeships in the state are construction trades electricians and plumbers just because of the four-year requirement in order to get the licensure. So one of the things that we're tracking is what is the actual completion rate of a four-year apprentice, so from year one to year four, what's the actual completion rate to getting
their journeyman license, so we're tracking that. But the second piece of that is kind of on a pre-apprentice level. We've made some investments in pre-apprenticeship programs that align with like a full registered apprenticeship, and so we're trying to get some data around like what is the matriculation rate from an individual that may be 18 or could still be in high school or even in an adult level that gets involved in a kind of an upskilling pre-apprentice program that actually enrolls in an apprenticeship so we have
Representative Lincoln Barnett
Unverified
39:52
that data and are happy to share it okay
and then the other question I had are there any districts that are struggling with finding those apprenticeship
Speaker 64
40:00
opportunities no I don't I don't I mean districts in terms of school districts
Chair
Unverified
40:09
or like representative districts yes according to this map like no not necessarily with apprenticeship I mean, we have providers all across the state, specific in the construction trades. Now, we've had a lot of expansion in the manufacturing sector into apprenticeships, as well as in the IT space. I think we have close to 800 active apprentices in the manufacturing space and probably another 400 or 500 in the information technology space. So we have a pretty good broad reach in terms of apprenticeship programs, whether it's the builders and contractors, Arkansas Construction Education Foundation, National Apprenticeship Training Foundation, who have locations all across the state.
there's very good proximity to training programs from an apprenticeship perspective if you're
Speaker 91
40:43
looking for it. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Representative Springer. Thank you, Mr.
Speaker 42
41:01
Chair. Good afternoon. I was kind of hoping that
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
41:04
mic didn't work, but I guess it works. All right. You got it. Can you provide additional data with respect to your nurse training services that you mentioned?
I know you talked about the other apprenticeships. Can you provide data on that, given the fact that we need nurses, RENs, LPNs here in Arkansas? Sure,
Speaker 31
41:22
yeah, two things. One, the first comment that we made previously was specific to local workforce
Speaker 15
41:27
development areas who are using their funds that they get to help train people for jobs. A lot of that sometimes goes into training individuals that are eligible in those types of nursing career pathways. And so we can pull that data from this document here and provide that to the committee and to yourself.
So we'll do that. And then the second thing was is we put out some grants and things of that nature to the Health Care Association to upskill nurses from medication assistant certified individuals up to LPNs and from CNAs to MACs and has had overwhelming success. I want to say 100% completion rate, 100% pass rates on the CNA to MAC front. Now we've just launched this medication assistant certified into an LPN program. And so we'll see those outcomes, I guess, sometime next spring, I think,
next spring, almost summer. But we expect nothing less than success there as well. And I think there's probably 70 individuals that enrolled in that LPN program today. So that's just one drop in the bucket, and we certainly hope to grow that more and further. I believe that's in Jonesboro and northwest Arkansas and Fort Smith, Little Rock. And, you know, we hope to expand that out after we run through this pilot phase into other areas of the state. Thank you.
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
42:45
Seeing no further questions, thank you for a great presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. So, guys, we'll
Senator John Payton
Unverified
42:53
move into the interim study proposals. Do something a little bit different because five of them are Senator Payton's and all five of them have the same subject. So, Senator Payton, I'm going to recognize you to go ahead and get started on talking through those five. And, members, just so you understand, as you're looking through them, following Senator Irvin's request last meeting, they will all be transferred to a subcommittee.
We send an email to the sponsors to ask them which subcommittee they'd like them to go to. So, basically, today is a transfer of these to the Labor Subcommittee at Senator Payton's
request. sir payton you're recognized thank you mr chair uh colleagues items d1 through d5 on your agenda are five interim study proposals pertaining to workers compensation benefits i don't know if anybody noticed but back during the regular session this year i had filed five bills uh dealing with
trying to modify the workers compensation coverage and uh there was a lot of vigorous input from both sides and uh we had quite a debate in on the senate end in the in the senate public health committee and uh basically uh had had both sides agreeing to some compromise but we never could settle on exactly where that needed to be it was getting close to the end of the session we had a lot of other things on our plate and so i asked for these to be an interim study so that both the
house and the senate jointly could have meetings and let the stakeholders come and present the current climate and what they feel like needs to be changed in our workers compensation laws in arkansas if you employ two or more people you're required by law to obtain workers compensation insurance coverage for your employees all of my adult life i've been an employer And I've had to purchase workers' comp, and I never liked the idea that the government forced me to do it.
And I always wanted the cheapest, you know, rate or whatever I could get, and that seemed to be non-competitive. And I had a few issues over the years, but I guess I said all that to say this. I came into this role 12 and a half, 13 years ago, very biased to the employer side. And every time a bill came up, I just wanted to know, was that going to keep rates low or lower them or raise them, you know?
But I had a constituent a couple of years ago contact me. Her husband was injured on the job, and it's very serious. And basically, he was a heavy equipment mechanic, making a little over $100,000 a year. And he was crushed and very injured. Nobody could deny that it didn't happen on the job, that it wasn't serious. They immediately went bankrupt because, you know, their standard of living was based on a little over $100,000 a year income.
And they had two vehicle payments and a house payment and a party barge and some luxury items, you know. And immediately, their pay was based on two-thirds of $72,000 a year. And so, as you can imagine, along with all the medical needs that they had, it bankrupted them. And so I began to listen. There's a book this thick on Arkansas State Comp rules and laws that the lawyers have to know.
And so as a committee, I'm asking that we move these to interim study under the Labor and Environment Subcommittee so that we can let the stakeholders come and explain these nuances to you. I've come to believe that we need to update our workers' comp laws and maybe simplify it to some extent. And I'm willing to say that these five bills that I had filed in the interim, I mean, during the session, they were a result of me negotiating with myself as an employer and as a legislator trying to represent my constituents.
But we need more people at the table than just John negotiating with himself. so i would appreciate a good vote and let's move this to a subcommittee where we can bring the stakeholders in to testify that's
proper request without objection so be it we'll move on to representative gremlick's which is going
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
47:56
thank you mr chairman representative gremlick i regretted being unable to attend today he's
actually with an organization right now who he worked with in the original proposal for House Bill 1996, which is the ISP we're referring to today. I want to share a couple comments from him and then a couple specifics about this. And then, Mr. Chairman, if you have any questions, be glad to
facilitate. The two major components of this proposal are an educational piece for students to know the laws surrounding child labor and then a second educational piece for companies
who happen to break the law so that they can come into compliance and this is more about educating those who make mistakes not those who are serial or egregious offenders. The proposal ensures that Arkansas leads with education, not just enforcement, and it supports students' learning responsibility through work while reinforcing the state's duty to keep children safe and in school.
And so as we look at or as we face rising violations, we believe that this balanced approach offers a constructive path forward. And so with that, I'd like to have this ISP referred to the appropriate subcommittee per Representative Gramlich and the chairman at this time. Thank you.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
49:31
Thank you for bringing this. I wanted to just add something. I know, and I'm not sure if this is something that it's still, it was when my kids were there, but it's their senior year.
They can only, they, they, there are kids that just take a handful of classes and they're not there all day long. And they, that, you know, what I was told was so they could go to work, but, but majority of them were not. And so it'd be really interesting, I think, as you're doing your study to try to get some data, perhaps from the Department of Education on exactly what is happening there. And if they're tracking that at all, or if they're seeing if those students are actually working or not, you know, because in my opinion, I'd rather them be in school all day or in school and then at work versus just, you know, at home playing video games or whatever.
So I'm just, I like this and I appreciate that y'all are bringing this forward, just my input and two cents worth, because I think that would be really good information. Senator, great
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
50:43
question, great point. I'll make sure to add that to the notations for Representative Gramlich. And I would agree with you. If a student's in some type of a work-study program or a work-during-school program, they should be working, they shouldn't be unaccounted for, and I'm sure it would lead or does lead to accidents, incidences, and getting into trouble. Yeah, it has. Yeah, thank you.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
51:02
Absolutely. See if no objection, the request to move it to the Labor Subcommittee is made. Thank you, Mr.
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
51:11
Chairman. So, members, seeing no other business, we stand adjourned.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Consideration to Approve the July 7, 2025, and July 9, 2025, Meeting Minutes [Exhibits B1-B2]
C. Discussion of Making America Skilled Again Initiative [Exhibit C]
D. Consideration for Adoption of Interim Study Proposals (ISP) [Exhibits D1-D6]
E. Other Business
F. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Senator John Payton
Unverified
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge
Unverified
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
Speaker 15
Speaker 17
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 23
Speaker 25
Speaker 20
Speaker 31
Speaker 38
Speaker 35
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
Speaker 32
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Representative Lincoln Barnett
Unverified
Speaker 64
Speaker 91
Speaker 42
Representative Joy Springer
Unverified
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified