On January 21, 2026, the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB), of which KRA is a member, posted a blog titled A Note to NAWB Members and Partners: Stability Matters for the Workforce System, which began, “Yesterday, congressional leaders announced a bipartisan agreement on the FY 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill.
“For the public workforce system, the most important takeaway is a welcome one: WIOA Title I funding will remain very close to FY 2025 levels.
After a year marked by uncertainty, that stability matters.
“Over the past several months, workforce boards across the country have been doing their level best to plan against the backdrop of an unusually volatile environment. We have navigated a…budget that proposed deep reductions to workforce investments, alongside House proposals that raised serious concerns about the future of core formula programs.
“Our system was not waiting to react to the potential for funding cuts as we noted in our November 2025 report, A System Under Strain: New Survey Reveals the Impact of Funding Uncertainty on Workforce Boards. Indeed boards were making sometimes difficult cuts proactively and finding efficiencies wherever possible. Against that backdrop, the decision to adopt the Senate’s funding levels provides much-needed certainty and preserves the foundation of the public workforce system. Read NAWB CEO Andrew Bercich’s Blog Post Here…
KRA is pleased to add that on January 30, 2026, the Senate passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (H.R. 7148)—with an amendment that removed long-term funding for the Department of Homeland Security—which the House subsequently approved on February 3, 2026, sending it to the President to be signed into law, ending a 4-day partial government shutdown.
Since the final law provides full-year funding for DOL and DHHS—primary funding sources for our workforce-development operations across the county—KRA has confidence that we will continue to provide our WIOA and TANF clients and customers with the innovative, exceptional, and trusted services they have come to rely on for more than 25 years.