Patty Murray: “with this bill, we are taking a major step forward to help America's workers compete and win in the global economy. I…”

“with this bill, we are taking a major step forward to help America's workers compete and win in the global economy. I have been working on education, workforce and competitiveness issues for many years, and I will never forget a roundtable I held in Washington State a few years ago. Sitting around the table, we had business owners, higher education officials and public school educators. The big question was this--who is responsible for making sure our students get the skills they need? Businesses didn't want to hire somebody and then have to train them in the basics. Higher education leaders wanted to be able to focus on college-level material, not remediation. And high school leaders were working as hard as they could just to deal with the demands on their plate. So whose responsibility is it to make sure our students get the skills they need? It is all of our responsibility, and that is what this bill finally recognizes. It ensures that our Federal agencies--from Commerce to Education to Energy to the National Science Foundation--take aggressive steps to keep American workers ahead of the curve.”