House committee approves WIOA reauthorization bill
On Tuesday, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved the A Stronger Workforce for America Act of 2026 – House Republicans’ proposal to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) – on party lines.
As covered in the Community College Daily, the bill includes many elements of the bipartisan A Stronger Workforce for America Act of 2023, introduced by former Chair Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina) and Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-Virginia), while introducing new, more partisan elements.
Like its bipartisan predecessor, the bill authorizes the Strengthening Community College Training Grants Program (SCCTG) at $65 million annually – a longstanding priority for AACC. In welcome proposals, the bill also increases funding for training through individualized training accounts and would automatically include Workforce Pell and Registered Apprenticeship programs on the Eligible Training Provider List (ETPL). In a new addition, the bill would permanently move adult education programs to the Department of Labor (DOL), a proposal that will face opposition from House Democrats.
The bill did not receive support from Democrats on the committee, who, while praising elements of the proposal, called instead for a bipartisan measure without the “poison pill” of the adult education program transfers. Because of this opposition, the bill is not expected to make any headway in the Senate, even if it is passed by the full House.
CCAMPIS applications open
This week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a Notice Inviting Grant Applications for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program. Per the terms of the recent Interagency Agreement (IAA) transferring CCAMPIS to HHS, the announcement was made “on behalf” of the Department of Education (ED).
As covered in the Community College Daily, HHS will award about 148 new grants, ranging from $150,000 to $1 million. While the grant terms are closely aligned with previous competitions, the application includes a new invitational priority to “expand access to education choice… including by empowering parents in choosing the early learning setting that best meets their family’s needs.”
Applications close on May 29.
ED publishes draft regulations for new accountability system
On Monday, the Department of Education (ED) published its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for the new Student Tuition and Transparency System and Earnings Accountability (STATS) framework, set to go into effect on July 1.
As a reminder, ED convened a negotiated rulemaking committee to implement the accountability and Workforce Pell components of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), called the Accountability in Higher Education and Access through Demand-driven Workforce Pell (AHEAD) Committee.
The group met in January to consider the new accountability system to measure the earnings of program completers against a comparison group of high school graduates (the STATS standard). The group also considered changes to existing Gainful Employment/Financial Value Transparency regulations. The committee reached consensus, with all but one member affirmatively approving the regulations. Because the committee reached consensus, ED was bound to use the version of the draft regulations agreed to by the committee in its NPRM.
The draft regulations proposed language to “harmonize” the new accountability system applied to all degree programs with the existing Gainful Employment regulations, currently applied to certificate programs and programs offered by proprietary institutions. Consistent with the consensus text, the NPRM proposes eliminating the existing debt-to-earnings (D/E) standard currently applied to GE programs and subjecting all degree and certificate programs at all institutions solely to the OBBB’s “Do No Harm” earnings test.
Like in the consensus language, the NPRM proposes that if a program fails the earnings test, the institution will not be able to offer loans for the impacted program. Programs currently subject to GE lose all Title IV eligibility if they fail the current D/E or earnings premium measures. New standards of administrative capability were added during negotiations to limit all Title IV participation for institutions where more than 50% of the programs fail the earnings test or 50% of the students are enrolled in failing programs.
The NPRM includes directed questions, including one asking stakeholders for feedback on the proposal to use Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data to populate earnings metrics. Stakeholders are asked to identify any potential drawbacks or distortions that may need to be addressed.
AACC will file comments on behalf of the sector. Comments are due on May 20.