National Apprenticeship Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMUCKER. Mr. Speaker, this bill today is a missed opportunity, a missed opportunity for people all across this country to live their own American Dream, to access the jobs that are available in this country. This is at a time when millions have lost their jobs due to this pandemic.

Why? Because Democrats are more interested in protecting the labor unions than they are in helping the 94 percent of the private-sector workforce that is not part of a labor union and in helping the millions of individuals who are not able to access the workforce at all.

It is a shame. You should be ashamed of yourselves. I know because I owned a nonunion construction company that was unable to start an apprenticeship program due to union pushback.

Now, I will agree with you, construction labor unions have a great training program. I have seen them firsthand. But why not expand that to other construction companies and other industries?

All of us know that in the United States, we are far behind many European countries in the apprenticeship programs that we offer in many different industries, and it affects the American worker and the opportunities that they have. This bill doubles down on that system.

What we need is more innovation to allow more individuals and more families to achieve their own American Dream, and the Democrats are wholly failing to do so in this bill.

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