National Apprenticeship Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on the importance of the bipartisan National Apprenticeship Act of 2021.

First, I would like to thank former Congresswoman Susan Davis for the work that she and Brett Guthrie put in this bill and how important it was. We had traveled the world looking at different models to see how other countries have done it, but the answer was right here in our backyard, the gold standard, what the national building trades have done over the past 100 years.

Mr. Speaker, as a child growing up, you hear from teachers and counselors that you have to go to college in order to make it in America. Well, I was one of four boys. My three brothers went to college. I like to say I went to the other 4-year school, a registered IBEW apprenticeship program for electricians.

It allowed me to earn while I was going to school, to take what I learned in the books at night and apply it the next day; how important that was to help raise my young family and literally paved the way for me to go from the construction site to the floor of Congress; remarkable.

But we know, one size does not fit all. I like to say, some people want to go to college, some people want to build the college, some people want to defend the college. We need everyone to come together, and this registered apprenticeship is the most successful training program in the history of the United States. You heard, 94 percent of the people who complete it go right to work and are fully employed.

And the building trades have a graduation rate of approaching 90 percent, something unheard of, and coming out making $70,000, with little or no debt. Little or no debt. That paycheck that goes along with it is that dignity that if you can work with your hands you also work with your heart and your head, and how important that is.

Whether you work in a shipyard, medical technology, or you have your Ph.D., we are all the same, adding value to this great country, and we need all of them to succeed.

This apprenticeship act builds off of what we have done in the past.

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Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Speaker, I just want to make sure, the standards are so important. When there is a hurricane that hits the Gulf Coast, literally, linemen and workers from around the country come together. And why is that important? Because they all train on the same standards.

Could you imagine if everybody came in learning a different way? That is how people die. That is why standards are critically important and proven over time.

So I encourage everybody to come together to work on and vote for the most impressive and successful program in the history of the United States.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the North America's Building Trades Unions letter of support. North America's Building Trades Unions, Washington, DC, February 3, 2021.

Dear Member of Congress: On behalf of the over 3 million skilled craft professionals that comprise North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU), I write in support of H.R. 447, the National Apprenticeship Act of 2021.

I first would like to commend the work of Chairman Scott and the bipartisan cosponsors of this legislation for their diligent efforts to maintain the integrity of the Registered Apprenticeship system, and their continued engagement with us on this bill, which reauthorizes the foundational law on which our apprenticeship programs are built. In the eight decades since the Registered Apprenticeship system was created, our nation, the economy, our industry, and technology have drastically changed. What has not changed is the need to forever protect and enshrine the rights of those individuals who enter an apprenticeship program, and H.R. 447 continues to protect the safety, well being, and economic trajectory of the apprentice.

More than two-thirds of all civilian registered apprentices in the United States are trained in the construction industry. Among these construction apprentices, seventy-five percent receive their training at one of the 1,900 privately funded training centers in North America which are jointly administered by construction contractors and building trades unions. Investing almost $2 billion in private capital annually in our Registered Apprenticeship programs, our joint labor-management programs have long been considered the gold standard of the Registered Apprenticeship system.

The affiliated unions of NABTU provide a debt-free ladder of opportunity to those who seek a career in the construction industry through Registered Apprenticeship. From day one, apprentices earn while they learn on a progressively increasing wage scale, with the added security of healthcare and retirement benefits, and upon completion of the program earn, on average, $60,000 annually. Furthermore, through our ever-expanding pre-apprenticeship programs, we continue to work with our industry partners to increase the diversity of apprenticeship candidates by recruiting women, people of color and veterans.

While there are other avenues one may take to be trained in the construction crafts, for generations, the safest, most highly skilled and productive construction craft workers in the world have received their training through the Registered Apprenticeship system. H.R. 447, the National Apprenticeship Act of 2021, will ensure the Registered Apprenticeship system not only remains the gold standard in workforce training in the construction industry, but that it is accessible for all industries that seek a productive and highly skilled workforce. I urge swift passage of this bill and look forward to working with you to strengthen economic opportunities in every community, both large and small, across our great nation. Sincerely, Sean McGarvey, President.

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