Department of Labor

Although the Labor Department has accomplished much over the years, its current approaches to worker protection are dated and frustrate both workers and employers. What is needed is greater service orientation: improved communication, greater access by to compliance information, and expanded meaningful input into the standard-setting and enforcement processes. By developing alternative regulatory strategies that supplement and even replace its current labor-intensive compliance and enforcement approach, Labor can carry out its responsibilities in a less costly, more effective manner. Similarly, in the workforce development area, the government's job training effort consists of a patchwork of federal programs with similar goals, conflicting requirements, overlapping populations, and questionable outcomes. The roughly $20 billion appropriated in fiscal year 1995 for job training assistance to adults and out-of-school youth is disbursed to 15 agencies, including Labor, which supports 163 separate programs. This situation suggests that a major overhaul and consolidation of the programs is needed.