Tierney says bill a waste of time

A Republican job-training bill passed the House of Representatives along party lines on Friday, even as U.S. Rep. John Tierney decried the bill as “hyper-partisan” on the floor and offered his own as an amendment.”We could have had a good bill for the American people,” the 6th District Democrat said as he introduced as an amendment a bill he co-sponsored that he said aims to create partnerships with in-demand sectors, community colleges, labor organizations and nonprofits to build high-tech jobs.But his amendment failed, as Democrats and Republicans voted by party for or against it.Instead, the SKILLS Act passed 215-202, with 213 Republicans voting for it and only two Democrats supporting it. The Republican-supported bill consolidates job-training programs in employment and training boards across the country into one fund that will be given to states in block grants with little specifications on how to spend the money to create jobs.Supporters like Rep. John Kline, a Republican from Minnesota, said before the vote Friday on the House floor that the act eliminates red tape by allowing states and local communities to make decisions about how best to put people back to work.“We recommend simplifying, making it easier to help people get the training they need, not the bureaucracy to weigh them down,” he said.Tierney, however, compared streamlining to a “one-size-fits-all” approach and said it has the potential to ignore under-served groups.”(Republicans’) approach to it is, ‘Let’s just save money,'” he said in a Thursday interview with The Daily Item.Tierney also decried the process in which the SKILLS Act was brought to a vote Friday, saying Republican members in the House Education and Workforce Committee, which he serves on, didn’t allow for debate of his bill and the possibility of creating a more bipartisan one.To protest, he walked out of a committee meeting last week with fellow Democrats as the bill was being marked up to be sent to the floor.The SKILLS Act now goes to the Democratic-controlled Senate, where Tierney and Congressional analysts said it is unlikely it will make it to the floor for a debate, much less pass and become law.President Barack Obama’s administration strongly opposed the bill the House passed Friday.”They’re effectively just wasting everyone’s time,” Tierney said on Thursday.Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].