Education and Workforce Committee
As a former teacher in the Newark public school system, Rep. Donald M. Payne has been a lifelong supporter of programs to improve and expand education in the 10th Congressional District of New Jersey and throughout the country. Rep. Payne proudly serves on the Education and the Workforce Committee where he sits on the Employee-Employer Relations Subcommittee and Education Reform. He is working closely with his colleagues to pass innovative education legislation to ensure a successful future for our nation's young people.
Leading into the 107th Congress, Rep. Payne helped usher a $6.5 billion overall increase in funding for education and worked to secure provisions that target funding to public schools with the most need.
Last year, Rep. Payne has successfully worked to secure a $933 million increase for Head Start to $6.2 billion, serving over 930,000 children. This is the largest one-year increase in Head Start ever. Leverage $1.6 billion for the Democratic class-size reduction initiative—25 percent increase over last year—to reduce class sizes in the early grades. Nearly double after-school learning opportunities by securing $846 million for after-school programs, a $392 million increase over last year, serving 1.3 million children nationwide.
As a Member of the Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations Rep. Payne joined the successful effort to increase funding for job training and summer job opportunities to disadvantaged young people by $102 million (to $1.1 billion). He also assisted in the fight to increase Youth Opportunity Grants to $275 million to provide comprehensive employment and training assistance to 63,000 out-of-school young people in high poverty areas.
Working within the Subcommittee on Employer- Employee relations, Rep. Payne continues to fight for the health and safety of our workers. This year will prove to be a challenge as they look at ways to improve the regulatory process at OSHA, particularly as related to updating outdated standards, fighting for an ergonomics standard and strengthening the protections provided to members of labor unions under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA).
Your concerns and opinions about issues that impact you and your community are very important to me. Please feel free to contact my office with any questions or concerns.
