The House Committee on Education and the Workforce passed A Stronger Workforce for America Act of 2026, H.R. 8210, along party lines this year by a vote of 19 to 14. Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan sponsored the bill, which would reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and add changes that have drawn concern from local workforce boards, community colleges and youth-serving nonprofits nationwide.
WorkTexas co-founder Mike Feinberg hasn't commented publicly on the bill's specific provisions. Its outcome is tied directly to the funding structure that keeps WorkTexas courses free for most participants.
How Mike Feinberg's WorkTexas Relies on WIOA Money
WorkTexas draws on a layered mix of federal and state dollars to cover training costs for adults who couldn't otherwise afford them. Most of that money starts at the U.S. Department of Labor, moves through WIOA formula grants to the Texas Workforce Commission, and lands with local workforce boards, which approve training providers and fund eligible participants.
“Basically, in this country, if someone is unemployed or underemployed, they can get help to learn a new trade,” Feinberg has said. “Unfortunately, we make it more difficult than it needs to be to access. It gets bucketed into these smaller grants; we help people navigate that.”
WorkTexas staff help participants sort through which funding streams apply to them: WIOA adult funds, out-of-school youth grants, targeted grants through the Texas Workforce Commission and private scholarships that fill the gaps. Nearly five years into the effort, WorkTexas counts more than 50 funding partners. Between 1% and 2% of participants pay out of pocket. Everyone else attends free, covered by some mix of public and philanthropic money.
Zaman Al-Mansri, 18, enrolled in the WorkTexas welding program after leaving community college following one semester. A WIOA program for out-of-school youth covered his tuition, routed through the Texas Workforce Commission. Cecily Salas, 23, studies commercial electrical work and had her costs covered by a TRIO grant through the same commission. Neither case is unusual. Together they describe how the funding model works.
What the 2026 Bill Could Mean for Mike Feinberg's Model
The 2026 bill keeps much of the framework from a bipartisan predecessor passed in 2024 but adds provisions that have split that earlier coalition. It would move adult education programs out of Title II of WIOA at the Department of Education and place them under the Department of Labor. It also expands a block grant pilot rebranded “Make America Skilled Again,” giving governors more control over how WIOA funds get spent.
Local workforce boards and county governments have pushed back publicly, arguing the shift would weaken local flexibility at the exact moment community-level training decisions matter most. National Association of Counties officials raised the issue after the committee vote, warning that certain spending mandates and funding redirects toward states could threaten the capacity of local workforce systems. Reduced authorized funding for most workforce programs, compared with the prior bipartisan version, is another feature of the bill, and funding would stay flat through 2032.
Some provisions favor programs like WorkTexas. It includes a $65 million Youth Apprenticeship Readiness Grant program, raises work-based learning requirements and codifies the Reentry Employment Opportunities program with dedicated youth funding, all of which touch directly on the kind of work underway at The Opportunity Center.
Getting through the Senate will require bipartisan support to clear the filibuster threshold. The 2024 bipartisan version cleared committee 44 to 1. This year's version passed 19 to 14, a shift that shows how much common ground has disappeared.
Mike Feinberg's Case for Employer-First Training Doesn't Change
Lawmakers are debating the mechanics of workforce policy. Feinberg's argument has always centered on what comes out the other end of the process.
His core critique holds regardless of which federal agency administers adult education or how block grant flexibility gets structured at the state level: programs that measure success by credential completion without tracking employment are optimizing for the wrong outcome. WorkTexas tracks 637 evening-program alumni for at least five years after graduation, and adults employed for a year or more earn an average of $23 an hour. Those numbers don't shift based on which department signs off on the grant.
Craig Shapiro of Premier High School, WorkTexas's charter school partner, said he expects the model to hold up regardless of the political outcome. “This has bipartisan support,” Shapiro said. “Everyone agrees with the concept. I think there will be more money, the way that the Trump administration and the Biden administration both were pushing this concept of workforce development within high schools and community colleges.”
Feinberg frames the stakes in blunter terms. “Think about what our mission is,” he has said. “We're helping people get jobs, keep jobs, advance in careers. Which political party is going to say they don't agree with our mission?” More on his background in workforce development is available through his TXSVF bio and on Facebook.