Edward M. Kennedy: “They commit from about 1.5 percent up to about 3 percent of their payroll costs for training programs to upgrade…”

“They commit from about 1.5 percent up to about 3 percent of their payroll costs for training programs to upgrade employee skills including continuing training programs with certificates establishing what the content of those training programs actually was. I think there was reluctance by the administration to talk about some kind of requirement by the companies and corporations to move into that kind of encouragement for those plants and factories. But nonetheless, that has been the policy in those countries and is widely embraced by all the political parties, by business as well as workers, and that continues to function. What we have seen in the United States is that about anywhere from $30 billion to $40 billion a year goes into training programs. Two-thirds of that is for white-collar workers, not the blue-collar workers. A number of the companies that have had those programs have been willing to do that even though there is a reasonable chance that after their employees actually gain the training, there is enormous interest in those employees by some of the competitors of those companies and then they move and become hired by those competitors. That is a condition which does not exist by and large in most of the other industrialized nations in the world. I know that is not the issue before us, but I do think it does describe the very modest but important initiative which we have at this particular time.”