Political Quotes

“I understand the very difficult job the Appropriations Committee has faced in producing this supplemental appropriations bill and I commend the leadership of the committee for its work. However, it is very unfortunate that it was necessary to rescind $217 million in critical dislocated worker funding. I hope that this will be a short-lived reduction and that it will be possible to eliminate this cut in conference. Further, I urge the committee to also reject the administration's proposed further $600 million reduction in training programs in the fiscal year 2002 appropriations. In the 105th Congress the Workforce Investment Act was overwhelmingly supported on a bipartisan basis. Few issues that we debate in Congress are as important to the future of this country as the lifelong education and training of our workforce. We live in an era of a global economy, emerging industries and company downsizing. It is imperative that our delivery of services meet the employment and educational needs of the 21st century. We now are embarking on the creation of a streamlined and vitally necessary workforce development system.”