Political Quotes

“I am pleased to come to the floor--and I will be joined shortly by Senator Murray from the State of Washington--to announce that tomorrow in the HELP Committee--the Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee--we will be introducing the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act. Quite honestly, the Workforce Investment Act was passed in 1998 and has not been reauthorized in the last 15 years. During that period of time, our country--particularly in the last 6 years--has gone through a sustained period of high unemployment. We also have periods where employers cannot find the match of workers who are actually trained for the jobs they have. Workforce investment and training is important for those with disabilities, those without jobs, those with skill sets that need to be improved, and this bill addresses all of those areas. Senator Murray has been a tireless Senator in working to find common ground on issues that have been critical to both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party but, more important, to the workers of the United States of America. I wish to pay tribute to her staff who has worked tirelessly with my staff, and I wish to thank Tommy Nguyen on my staff, in particular, for his dedication and hard work. This bill represents a real step forward, and I am pleased that this morning the Business Roundtable issued a release of their endorsement of the base bill we are putting forward tomorrow in the committee.…”