Sponsors (2)
The bill broadens and clarifies access to digital literacy training—helping adults get job‑relevant skills and improving program consistency—while creating short‑term costs, administrative work, and equity limits unless funding and connectivity gaps are addressed.
Adult learners and unemployed workers gain explicit access to federally‑defined digital literacy training, increasing opportunities to learn workplace digital skills that improve employability and self-sufficiency.
Workforce program providers, and state and local WIOA implementers, get a clearer statutory definition of “digital literacy skills,” enabling more consistent curricula, better targeting of services, and improved outcome measurement across programs (including greater potential to incorporate library/museum resources).
Parents and family members can receive digital skills training to better support children’s learning, strengthening family education supports and digital inclusion at home.
Rural residents and low-income learners may not realize benefits unless complementary broadband and device access are provided, worsening equity gaps in who can use expanded digital literacy services.
Expanding WIOA’s scope to explicitly cover digital literacy could increase demand for funding or require reallocating existing WIOA resources, creating budget pressure for states and potential costs to taxpayers or cuts to other services.
Local providers and training organizations may face short‑term implementation costs — revising curricula, buying equipment, and training instructors — to deliver new or expanded digital literacy instruction.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Adds digital literacy definitions and explicitly incorporates digital skills into WIOA purposes, adult education, family literacy, and English‑learner provisions.
Adds "digital literacy skills" into the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) by cross‑referencing the federal definition in the Museum and Library Services Act and by inserting digital literacy into WIOA's purposes and definitions for adult education, family literacy, and English‑learner supports. The changes explicitly make developing and using digital technology a stated goal of adult education and workforce programs administered under WIOA.
Official title: To amend the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to recognize digital skills and digital literacy as critical adult education and literacy objectives, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 23, 2025 by Maggie Goodlander · Last progress May 23, 2025