Grace Napolitano: “I congratulate Chairwoman Granger and Ranking Member Visclosky for this great bill. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of…”

“I congratulate Chairwoman Granger and Ranking Member Visclosky for this great bill. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of my bipartisan amendment, which increases the funding for the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program by a mere $6 million to match the program's 2018 funding of $180 million. This increase in funding is made possible by reducing the operations and maintenance defense-wide account by the same amount. An increase in funding would allow the Department of Defense to continue three Job ChalleNGe programs in Georgia, Michigan, and South Carolina that were previously funded through a Department of Labor grant that is currently ending. It will also help start new pilot Job ChalleNGe programs in Alaska, California, Louisiana, and West Virginia that have demonstrated initiatives in combining education credentials with job training courses. The Job ChalleNGe program acts as a post-residential program for Youth ChalleNGe graduates to gain job skills and/or apprenticeship training. For States that cannot expand or open another program at this time, the funding would allow them to focus on the next step for their graduated cadets. It would also help prepare them with essential skills to go join the workforce after completion of both the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program and the Job ChalleNGe program. The Youth ChalleNGe program has graduated more than 150,000 of our Nation's high school dropouts.…”