On the recordFebruary 9, 2011
Oh, it is my privilege. I wanted to reinforce what you were saying about education and the Workforce Investment Act. In the counties that I represent, whether it is the Source in Lucas County or One Shop Stopping in Ottawa County, every single county has workforce investment boards that try to connect to our community colleges and institutions beyond high school in order to help people transition into education, as well as those who fall out of the workforce and have to retool. I was shocked to hear today that on the other side of the aisle, they can't bring up a bill to extend trade adjustment assistance to workers who have been booted out of their jobs because their companies moved to Mexico or to Korea or to China and workers are thrown out of work. That program expires February 13, and they were not able to bring up a bill to extend that for the millions of people across our country who have lost their jobs in manufacturing because they moved abroad. I just think that that is simply unconscionable. I say to the gentleman that the important issue of linking our community colleges, our apprenticeship programs, our university programs, our GED programs to help people move into, and, frankly, many of our small business programs, to help people move into the private sector is something that is so vitally needed and cannot be done in this economy in areas of high unemployment without the Federal Government partnering with them.
