Workforce Development

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed an immigration bill that would make it easier for foreign health professionals to work in the United States. The "Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act" was introduced by Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) last month. Among the provisions in the bill is one that would increase the number of waivers a state receives to exempt health professionals on J-1 visas from returning to their home country after two years.

A recent report by the Long-Term Care Criminal Convictions Work Group, which was formed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2011, explores issues that providers of long-term care face when making hiring decisions. The need for direct care workers is expected to grow by 34% by 2015, which causes challenges for providers who want flexibility in hiring.

As lawmakers and the White House work to hammer out a compromise to avert the "fiscal cliff" of sequestration, advocates for workers with disabilities and the government contractors who hire them are reminding Congress that cuts in government spending could have a disproportionate negative effect on people with disabilities. Thousands of workers with disabilities are contracted by federal agencies to perform work that could be considered non-essential, and thus part of the discretionary spending cuts that would be triggered by sequestration.

On July 19, the Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy announced a $1.1 million grant to fund a cooperative agreement to manage and operate the National Technical Assistance and Demonstration Center on Preparing Youth with Disabilities for Employment.