Patty Murray: “The amendment the Senate is about to vote on is a really important one. Across this country thousands of people who have…”

“The amendment the Senate is about to vote on is a really important one. Across this country thousands of people who have lost their jobs will never get these same jobs back. Today, in my home State of Washington, there are 10,000 people on a waiting list in King County alone trying to get into a retraining program in order to obtain the skills they need to get back into the workforce and put food on the tables for their families. Certainly, at this time in our country's history, when our economy is sluggish, when people are struggling everywhere, the best we can do-- and one of the most important things we can do--is give these workers the skills they need to get back into the workforce. This amendment is critically important. Many of these training programs have not received any increase in funding in a decade. It is important to us as a country that we have a workforce that has the skills to be marketable. That is what this very critical amendment does. I urge my colleagues to support it.”