Louis Stokes: “Mr. Chairman, while the bill's $55 million, or 22-percent cut in school-to-work would devastate the viability of this…”

“Mr. Chairman, while the bill's $55 million, or 22-percent cut in school-to-work would devastate the viability of this initiative, my concerns extend well beyond this symbolic amendment to the broader devastating funding cuts in career and employment training. Mr. Chairman, while global competition requires a highly trained workforce, while our technology driven and increasingly changing labor market requires a highly skilled work force, and while the American business community recognizes the importance of training, the majority on the committee have gutted funding for employment training. No job training or re-employment initiative whether for our youth or older Americans was safe from the majority's budget ax. The 60 percent, or over $2 billion, cut in employment and related training means that 194,000 dislocated workers, individuals laid-off through no fault of their own, will be denied the re-employment and skills training services they desperately need to re-enter the work force; 80,000 Americans will no longer have access to the employment training they need to compete in the job market; 3 million individuals will be denied vocational education skills training they need to earn higher wages; over 275,000 young people will be denied the employment training they so desperately need; and over 600,000 youth will be denied summer jobs they need.”