Committee of Education and Workforce: The committee’s jurisdiction is over education and labor. The Committee on Education and Labor also oversees federal programs dealing with education at all levels from preschool through high school to higher education. The first Committee was established on March 21, 1867 after the Civil War and the growth of American industry. The Committee in December 19, 1883, was divided into two standing committees which were the committee on education and committee on labor. In January 2, 1947, the Legislative Reorganization Act again combined the Committees and it renamed the Committee on Education and Labor. On January 4, 1995, the Committee was renamed again to the Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities. The committee again was renamed finally on January 7, 1997, the Committee on Education and the Workforce. The committee of Education and Workforce has four subcommittees which are Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, and Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions. In the committee there are seventeen Democrats and twenty-three Republicans. The chairman for this committee is Congressman John Kline for Minnesota. The issues and priorities for this committee during the 112th Congressional Session is giving employers the certainty, flexibility, and freedom to create jobs, and to conducted an oversight on education and workforce programs across the federal government. This will protect students, families, workers, and retirees. Also to
Modernize and train programs to help job-seekers get back to work; and to pursue a education reform that restores local control, empowers parents, lets teachers teach, and protects taxpayers. One of a recent bill that the committee voted on was the Health Care bill. The health Care bill main focus is to make affordable health care accessible to all Americans regardless of pre-existing conditions and to fight to protected American families. The committee’s Chairman Kline responded to Supreme Court decision on Health Care to be punishing Americans and that it must be repealed. Another bill that passed by Committee on Education and the Workforce was a series of education reform bills designed to overhaul current elementary and secondary education law. The Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act sponsored by Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education passed by a strong vote of 34 to 5. This will open the doors of opportunity for parents and children across the country. It will encourage the development and expand more high-quality charter schools.