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National Apprenticeship Act of 2021

Floor Speech

Date: Feb. 5, 2021
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Employment and Affirmative Action

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Ms. STRICKLAND. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my amendment, which requires the Office of Apprenticeship to use best practices to recruit and retain nontraditional candidates.

In 2019, only 9 percent of the 280,000 apprentices surveyed by the Department of Labor were women. Merely 16 percent were non-White. In a country where nearly half the labor market is made up of women and one- quarter are people of color, our training programs--often debt-free pathways into good-paying jobs--must include the full diversity of our Nation.

My amendment addresses this problem by ensuring that apprenticeship programs have ample resources to effectively recruit and retain nontraditional candidates. But we can't sop there. We must continue to uplift all communities in the South Sound, my home, and across the Nation by equitably supporting women and people of color pursuing the American Dream. Everyone deserves access to economic opportunity and stability.

Madam Speaker, I urge the adoption of this amendment and the underlying bill.

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