Building A Better America

Floor Speech

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Ms. GARCIA of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the impact the COMPETES Act will have on our Nation.

We are seeing the best economy for American workers in decades, with people earning higher wages, better benefits, and better jobs, thanks to President Biden's leadership.

With that said, when I visited with the leadership from the Port of Houston in my district a while back, they expressed their gratitude for Congress' strong investment in the maritime infrastructure needed to keep America's economy moving in the right direction.

They also expressed concern, however, that more workers will need technical training than our current system will be able to provide.

The America COMPETES Act will be that critical next step in providing vital maritime workforce training.

My home district, Texas-29, will benefit greatly from the large grant program for domestic maritime worker training and education included in the America COMPETES Act.

I was proud to see this maritime grant program language included, as it was originally part of my bill, H.R. 987, which was one that was introduced to strengthen our maritime workforce.

This investment will provide more Houston area workers the technical training, education, and resources needed to become qualified for good- paying maritime jobs.

For example, the San Jacinto College Maritime Center in my district helps thousands of students learn new skills so they can earn good paychecks, paychecks that hold families together.

Located just outside of Houston, the San Jacinto College Maritime Program offers maritime training and deck-level coursework for all professional mariners. They cover everything from entry-level deckhands on an inland towboat to unlimited tonnage masters on the world's largest ships.

The COMPETES Act will empower the maritime grant program that will directly benefit this community college; more workers for maritime work.

But like the San Jacinto Community College in my district, there are also similar training centers across the Nation that will benefit. The COMPETES Act will help thousands of students learn new skills so they can provide comfortably for their families and live a good life with good benefits.

This is another way the America COMPETES Act will strengthen our supply chains. While there will be plenty of large-scale improvements across the Nation, there will also be many local governments like this in our hometowns that will benefit.

I look forward to President Biden signing this bill into law. And this is yet, Madam Speaker, another example of how we are building a better America for generations to come.

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