Sean Reyes: “today I sought to offer an amendment that would have increased funding for dislocated worker employment and training…”

“today I sought to offer an amendment that would have increased funding for dislocated worker employment and training programs under H.R. 2660, the FY 2004 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill by $88 million, from $1.46 billion to $1.549 billion, restoring funding for these essential services to their FY 2002 level. The bill before us today would freeze funding at last year's level. In my congressional district of El Paso, TX, 20,000 workers have lost their jobs as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement--more than any other community in the United States. These job losses have left dislocated workers struggling to learn new skills that will allow them to find jobs that pay a living wage, and they have left El Paso with an unemployment rate that has soared into the double digits at times. My district is not alone in facing these challenges. In communities across the country, workers have lost good jobs as a result of NAFTA. These workers desperately need Federal assistance to prepare them to successfully rejoin the workforce and provide for their families. At a time when the national unemployment rate is at a 9-year high, this bill fails to provide additional, desperately needed funding to ensure that all dislocated workers get the services to which they are entitled. Unfortunately, these programs are just a couple of the many critical health, education, and worker programs that are woefully underfunded in the bill.”