If the year 1999 was dominated by the intense efforts of the federal government to establish guidelines for compliance with the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998, the year 2000 was dominated by the field's efforts to implement plans to meet those guidelines. In addition to engaging in this time- and labor-intensive work, the field witnessed four significant events that influenced adult basic education (ABE) across the country: a national summit to develop an action agenda for the field; developments in federal appropriations, including the emergence of English literacy and civics funding in state grants; rekindling of discourse among the parties involved in national research and evaluation projects; and changes in leadership at the national level. This chapter provides an overview of these events. [Chapter 1 in: Annual Review of Adult Learning and Literacy. Volume 3; copublished with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; see ED478329.]