G. K. Butterfield: “I want to thank the gentleman for yielding time and thank him for his leadership on the committee and what he has done…”

“I want to thank the gentleman for yielding time and thank him for his leadership on the committee and what he has done for education in this country. Madam Chair, never have job-training and educational opportunities been so crucial for so many people as they are during this challenging economic time. Our country's economic situation is getting better. Last month we added 236,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, the lowest rate in 4 years. But the unemployment rate in my home State of North Carolina is 9.4 percent; and in my First District, one in four people is below the poverty level. The SKILLS Act, Madam Chair, will stall our delicate economic recovery at a time when we must invest in our workforce to ensure hardworking people are able to access the training they need to achieve the American Dream. The SKILLS Act kills workforce development as we know it. It would turn 35 important workforce development programs into a block-grant system and force effective programs targeted to help disadvantaged populations to compete against each other for funding. The bill would subject workforce development programs to partisan politics by putting funding in the hands of Governors and would remove seats reserved for community interest groups and community colleges on local workforce investment boards and, instead, leave the decision of where to invest the money in the hands of who? Big business. H.R.…”