A former Job Corps champion leads its demise

Politico

2 days ago

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When LORI CHAVEZ-DeREMER served in Congress, she was honored for championing the Job Corps program. As Labor secretary, she's the face of its impending demise.
Chavez-DeRemer has initiated the full-scale shutdown of the $1.7 billion War on Poverty-era program that trains and houses tens of thousands of low-income youth each year and has enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress.
It's a surprising reversal for the former Oregon Republican who in late 2023 promised to 'continue doing my part to expand education and career training opportunities for students.'
It also underscores how the Trump administration's effort to reshape the federal government will persist even after DOGE brainchild ELON MUSK's exit from Washington.
Federal contractors last week were told to shut down the 99 Job Corps centers across the country that house, train and teach some 25,000 predominantly low-income young people by June 30.
The Labor Department already paused new enrollment as it conducted a review of the program. On Thursday, DOL said it believes Job Corps is financially unsustainable and too often fails those it serves.
'Our comprehensive review of Job Corps revealed significant systemic issues – including an alarming number of serious incidents, poor student outcomes, and unsustainable costs,' DOL spokesperson COURTNEY PARELLA said in a statement. 'With only 38% of students graduating, it's clear the program is failing the majority of participants.'
Chavez-DeRemer has said she remains committed to the young people who turn to Job Corps but that she did not understand the extent of its shortcomings until arriving at DOL.
The White House last month proposed eliminating Job Corps as part of its budget request, but the move to idle centers and send enrollees packing is a dramatic escalation of its plans. It also differs from President DONALD TRUMP's first term, in which DOL sought steep cuts to the program but intended to keep it running. Congress largely preserved the status quo.
Many of the administration's actions stem from an analysis of the Job Corps program that it says lay bare its failures. The report initially said the program's average per-student cost was more than $107,000, which DOL later updated to $80,300. A DOL spokesperson said the initial figure was the result of an uploading error, and the issue was fixed the same day it was released on April 25.
Job Corps supporters argue DOL designed the data analysis to intentionally paint the program in a poor light.
'These are at-risk youth, and naturally the numbers [for graduation rates] are going to be lower,' said WENOMIA PERSON, a former Job Corps staffer who is now an officer at one of the unions representing DOL workers. 'It's not resolving the problem to send these kids back home and onto the streets.'
Chavez-DeRemer has embraced DOGE, hiring its acolytes and allowing the cost-cutting outfit to get the first crack at announcing cancellation of DOL grant awards and other reductions. She also has a standing weekly check-in with DOGE, according to recently released public schedules of her first months as secretary. Those meetings were first reported by Bloomberg Law.
In turn, DOGE has frequently held up DOL as a poster child for paring back on phone lines and other underutilized expenses and placed it near the top of the leaderboard on its so-called wall of receipts, despite having one of the smallest budgets among Cabinet agencies.
The National Job Corps Association, the group that awarded Chavez-DeRemer in 2023 her for her work supporting the program, is now suing her to block DOL's attempt to suspend the program.
The group hopes 'she will stop the Job Corps closures that are needlessly jeopardizing the lives of some of the most vulnerable young Americans and instead work to implement necessary reforms, including those she voted for in Congress,' NJCA President DONNA HAY said in a statement.
The Transportation Communications Union, a rail union that operates an advanced Job Corps program, is now calling employers to help students land job interviews.
ARTIE MARATEA, president of the union, noted that Trump was 'just talking about the need for more trade schools – well we are a trade school, and our graduates make good money, with pensions and benefits.'
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POTUS PUZZLER
Who were the only major party presidential nominees born in Michigan?
(Answer at bottom.)
Musk Radar
AND, HERE. WE. GO: Once wasn't enough. Musk again made his thoughts known on the president's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' this afternoon, our GISELLE RUHIYYIH EWING reports.
'I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore,' Musk wrote on X. 'This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.'
Musk added in a separate X post that the bill 'will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America[n] citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.'
During today's White House press briefing, which was underway when Musk posted, press secretary KAROLINE LEAVITT brushed aside his comments, saying that Trump 'already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn't change the president's opinion.'
In the Courts
'LAST SUPPER': The HHS personnel records DOGE used to decide which employees to fire were 'hopelessly error-ridden' and contained 'systemic inaccuracies,' according to a new class-action lawsuit, our DANIEL BARNES and LAUREN GARDNER report. The records reflected lower performance ratings than what employees had actually received, and in some cases, listed incorrect job locations and job descriptions, the suit alleges.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages for all HHS employees who were terminated on April 1 and whose reduction-in-force notice contained incorrect information. The lawsuit also claims the HHS layoffs were made because of a 'deep-seated animus toward federal workers.'
The day before one employee received a RIF notice, a young man in business attire drove past the employee while in the empty FDA parking garage. He 'shouted at her from the car: 'This is DOGE and this is your Last Supper!'' the suit states. 'He laughed and drove off. The employee was shaken, but didn't understand the incident at the time. She received her RIF notice the next morning.'
Agenda Setting
BEEFING UP DOGE: Tucked inside of the White House's budget appendix released Friday is evidence of the DOGE operation's staying power, POLITICO's E&E News' ROBIN BRAVENDER reports.
The White House is proposing increasing DOGE's staffers from an estimated 89 people in fiscal 2025 to 150 in fiscal 2026, according to the document.
DOGE would also get more cash under the proposal: It spent an estimated $20 million in fiscal 2025, which would be boosted in fiscal 2026 to $45 million.
WORK BAN LOOMS: The Trump administration is considering blocking most asylum-seekers from getting work permits, a proposal that would upend longstanding U.S. immigration policy, CBS News' CAMILO MONTOYA-GALVEZ reports. The U.S. has since the 1990s allowed migrants with pending asylum claims to work in the country lawfully while their cases are decided.
BUT WE THOUGHT … Trump is asking Congress for a multibillion-dollar spending increase for FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund next year, after months of pledging to cut federal funding for natural disaster response, POLITICO's E&E News' THOMAS FRANK reports. Trump asked for a record-high $26.5 billion for the fund, which reimburses states for disaster cleanup and recovery — up from $22.5 billion for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
'The numbers here kind of contradict the narrative recently — in a good way. It's coming out better than expected,' said CARRIE SPERANZA, head of the U.S. division of the International Association of Emergency Managers.
MORE ON FEMA: FEMA officials are scrapping a hurricane response plan that acting FEMA head DAVID RICHARDSON had told staff was close to completion, WSJ's SCOTT PATTERSON and TARINI PARTI report. Richardson told staff on Monday that the agency would return to the same guidance for hurricane response as last year — including having staffers go door-to-door to help storm survivors — despite the agency having already eliminated several key programs and positions.
Richardson said he didn't want to create a new plan that could contradict the FEMA review council, created by DHS Secretary KRISTI NOEM.
And shockingly, Richardson reportedly suggested he didn't know there was a hurricane season until recently. 'Yesterday, as everybody knows, [was the] first day of hurricane season,' he said. 'I didn't realize it was a season.'
During today's briefing, Leavitt expressed confidence in Noem and Richardson while calling his comments 'jokes.'
WHO'S IN, WHO'S OUT
TROUBLE TROUBLE: Trump's nominee to lead the U.S. Forest Service, MICHAEL BOREN, has been a thorn in the agency's side for years, NYT's HIROKO TABUCHI reported ahead of Boren's confirmation hearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee this afternoon.
The billionaire tech company leader and Trump donor was accused of flying a helicopter dangerously close to a crew building a Forest Service trail in 2020, prompting officials to seek a restraining order. Boren also got a caution from the agency when he built a private airstrip on his Hell Roaring Ranch in a national recreation area.
And in the fall, the agency sent a cease-and-desist letter accusing a company that Boren controlled of building an unauthorized cabin on National Forest land.
CYBER CUTS: Roughly 1,000 people have left the government's top cybersecurity agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, since Trump took office, Axios' SAM SABIN reports. CISA is also facing a 17 percent budget cut under the president's spending proposal.
The White House suggested cutting CISA's workforce by 1,083 positions — from 3,732 to 2,649 — during fiscal 2026, but Axios reports that the agency has already reached those numbers.
What We're Reading
A Stephen Miller Staffer and Tough Talk: Inside Trump's Latest Attack on Harvard (NYT's Michael S. Schmidt and Michael C. Bender)
U.S. Scientists Warn That Trump's Cuts Will Set Off a Brain Drain (NYT's Kate Zernike)
Cuba tried to improve its relations with the US by cooperating with Trump's deportation flights. It didn't work. (POLITICO's Eric Bazail-Eimil)
POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER
Former New York Gov. THOMAS E. DEWEY was a native of Owosso, Michigan, and MITT ROMNEY is a native of Detroit. Former President GERALD FORD was a member of Michigan's congressional delegation, but was born in Nebraska.