Darlene Hooley: “I intend to support this legislation. In particular, I am extremely pleased the conferees have included $20 million in…”

“I intend to support this legislation. In particular, I am extremely pleased the conferees have included $20 million in emergency assistance to farmers in the Klamath River Basin in Oregon and Northern California. The farmers and communities in this area have been devastated by one of the most severe droughts to ever hit the Pacific Northwest. While the federal government doesn't have any control over the weather, at the very least we should provide emergency aid to alleviate the situation. That said, one of the more troubling aspects of this legislation is that among the $1.8 billion in spending offsets the conferees have agreed to take away $178 million from dislocated worker-training funds. With layoffs and unemployment increasingly in headlines across the United States--and rising electricity costs threatening to further swell the ranks of dislocated workers--the decision to slash available funding to dislocated workers just doesn't make any sense.”