Sheila Jackson Lee: “I thank the gentleman from Virginia for yielding and for his leadership, and I thank the gentlewoman from California for…”

“I thank the gentleman from Virginia for yielding and for his leadership, and I thank the gentlewoman from California for her leadership. Mr. Speaker, I rise with great enthusiasm to support this outstanding legislation which is H.R. 8294, the National Apprenticeship Act of 2020. Mr. Speaker, 250,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. Today 720,000 Americans applied for unemployment insurance, and here we are today recognizing the pain that America is experiencing, but more importantly giving an opportunity for young Americans and others to be part of a major apprenticeship program which invests more than $3.5 billion over 5 years in expanding opportunities and access to registered apprenticeship, youth apprenticeship, and preapprenticeship. I am glad to be an American. I am glad to be a union supporter, and one of the reasons is that I look over the landscape of my mother's work and my father's work, and I saw lives improve as unions gathered together to ensure that Americans could have a decent living, support their family, and provide opportunities for their children. Here we are today investing $3.5 billion, but the return will be $10.6 billion in net benefits to the United States taxpayers. I believe that that is a real darn good return. This legislation could not be more timely because of the record unemployment and because of the pain America is experiencing. This legislation also creates an additional 1 million new apprenticeship opportunities.…”