Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I wish to emphasize the importance of apprenticeship standards that safeguard apprentices' welfare with unions who have helped negotiate and protect them for many, many years. These standards are critically important to the success of the national apprenticeship system, which is why I introduced the Strengthening Training and Accessibility for New and Diverse Apprenticeships through Relevant and Dependable Standards Act, or the STANDARDS Act for short. I am pleased that the National Apprenticeship Act of 2020 incorporates my bill, which protects the rights of workers who participate in apprenticeships. The language of this amendment is perfectly clear. It says that grant applicants should partner with an industry or sector partnership and a labor or joint labor-management organization to the extent practicable. Yet, interests hostile to unions are once again using scare tactics to claim, falsely, that my amendment will prevent industry organizations from securing apprenticeship grants under the legislation unless in all cases they partner with unions, even when there are no unions in the geographic area or part of an industry partnership. This is not what the amendment says. Opponents of this amendment are bending the truth for ideological reasons. They know, and a plain reading of the text makes crystal clear, that this amendment does not mandate that every applicant partner with a union to access grant funding, full stop.…”