Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Scott for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bipartisan A Stronger Workforce for America Act, which makes critical improvements to America's job training laws that will close the skills gap, strengthen the relationship between employers and the local labor market, and put more Americans on the pathway to successful careers. I congratulate Chairwoman Foxx and Ranking Member Scott for their bipartisan collaboration to bring this bill to the floor, defying all the negative conventional wisdom about this place because this is a really critical program at a time when our U.S. economy has 9 million job openings. My district in eastern Connecticut is the fastest growing labor market in our State and the second fastest in New England. The Federal job training program that we are discussing here today has been a huge contributor to that growth. Back in 2015, I hosted then-Labor Secretary Tom Perez at Electric Boat's shipyard to meet with our local WIOA workforce board to discuss the looming need for shipbuilding skills to meet the sharply increased demand by the U.S. Navy for submarine construction. Mr. Speaker, 5 months later, in September 2015, the Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative program was launched using a $6 million WIOA grant by the U.S. Department of Labor.…”