Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which will modernize America's job training program at precisely the time that we need it the most.

Today in America, for every one unemployed person, there are two job openings. Again, I don't care what sector you are talking about, whether it is manufacturing, whether it is healthcare, whether it is information technology, whether you are from a red State or a blue State, the hue and cry from employers who are desperate to find workers is one of the most powerful challenges that we face in this economy. It is a good challenge. It is about connecting people to opportunities and to jobs or careers, which this bill is precisely designed to do.

Again, if you want to talk about the problems that we are having with inflation and gas prices, well, listen to the oil and gas industry. They are 100,000 workers short today, so they cannot increase supply because they don't have the workforce to do the drilling that is necessary.

In my district, where I have Electric Boat's shipyard, which has used the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act in the past, there are 725 job openings this morning in the metal trades, in design and engineering work. The existing Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which, again, uses the collaboration of employers and unions to design a curriculum that matches the work that happens in that shipyard, in the metal trades and other areas, has been extremely successful. They graduated their 2,000th graduate, who immediately was employed and is working in that shipyard. Again, that is going to be a career for that individual to support themselves and their family.

The challenge we have before us is we need to size up that preapprenticeship critical link that this program addresses by passing this legislation.

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Mr. COURTNEY. If you read the bill, it doubles the number of slots that workforce boards like mine in eastern Connecticut, and the 500 workforce boards that exist around the country will again then be able to address that critical need that exists right now today. It does it in a way that has been on the books since the Clinton administration passed the Workforce Investment Act back in the 1990s.

Again, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle were part of the bill signing with President Obama in 2014 when we authorized it the last time. This bill is very much aligned with the structure, but it enlarges it, and it reaches out to underserved populations and other individuals who can take advantage of and succeed with the tools that this bill will provide.

Again, now is the time. We need to vote on this measure today. We need to get it through the Senate, and our economy will benefit. Our Nation will benefit. Vote in favor of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

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