PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Dec 14, 2023
Reengage the Workforce Act
This bill requires the Department of Labor, in consultation with the Department of Education, to make competitive grants to eligible entities for carrying out in-person or virtual programs to provide specified services to eligible secondary school dropouts.
Eligible entity refers to a partnership between or among (1) a local educational agency, a unit of general local government, a nonprofit intermediary, or a consortium of any of these entities; and (2) a community-based organization, an institution of higher education, or a local or state board (or a combination of these entities).
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
Eligible secondary school dropout refers to an individual who is not younger than 16 years of age and who is not enrolled in a secondary school or high school equivalency program.
A program funded with a grant must provide specified services to eligible secondary school dropouts. These services include assistance in reentering a secondary school or entering an in-person or virtual high school equivalency program, flexible secondary school credit recovery to accelerate the time to receive a high school diploma, life and career workshops, and supportive services (e.g., transportation, child care, and housing).
Labor must give preference to eligible entities that will use the grant to carry out programs in low-income communities or that will implement evidence-based practices in providing these services.
Labor must annually report to Congress about this grant programs.
People & committees
Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ] · D–NJ
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Dec 5, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze S.3518 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine S.3518 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine S.3518 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine S.3518 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.