Labor Department's $14.5M award keeps jobless program alive in Pa.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Labor Department awarded a $14.5 million reprieve Monday to a debt-ridden federal job training program for unemployed workers in Pennsylvania, officials said.
But the emergency funding is not enough to reopen the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance program to new applicants, said state Labor and Industry Secretary Stephen M. Schmerin.
Instead, the money will be used to help pay down the $51 million debt racked up over the last several years by Pennsylvania's labor agency to retrain laid-off employees for new careers.
The state had shaved the debt to $30 million before Monday by, in part, shutting down TAA training for laid-off workers who applied for the program after March 24.
"This grant demonstrates significant progress in resolving a $30 million deficit developed during the course of the last two federal fiscal years," Schmerin said Monday.
But the state needs an additional $16 million in aid before it will start accepting new applicants, he said. "Once we receive those commitments, I am confident the program can be reopened," Schmerin said.
The federal TAA program, which is administered by state officials, provides aid to workers who lost their jobs as a result of foreign trade imports.
The program's $51 million debt in Pennsylvania amounted to nearly one-quarter of the total $220 million earmarked for TAA programs nationwide.
A U.S. Labor Department review of the program earlier this year found that nearly every laid-off Pennsylvania worker who applied for funding under the program, since 2001 at least, was approved by an understaffed team of state officials who sorted through thousands of applications by hand.
The Democratic administration of Gov. Ed Rendell, who took office this year, blamed the debt on spending commitments of former Govs. Mark Schweiker and Tom Ridge, both Republicans.
The federal Labor Department's inspector general is now auditing Pennsylvania's TAA program, a probe largely prompted by Rep. Phil English of Erie, R-3rd.
"We must make certain that current and future enrollees will be able to receive the job training for which they qualify," English said Monday.