Providing for Consideration of H.R. Targeting Resources to Communities in Need Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of and Providing for Consideration of S. Joseph Woodrow Hatchett United States Courthouse and Federal Building, and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, the bills included in this rule are beneficial measures that will improve the lives of many Americans. But I take a moment to highlight two provisions that I am glad to see here.

First is a resolution that I introduced with my colleague on the Rules Committee, Mr. Burgess, to urge schools to improve nutrition training for America's medical professionals. For far too long, our country has overlooked and undervalued the essential role diet and nutrition play in our health.

How do we know? Look at the data. U.S. medical schools devote an average of 19 hours to nutrition education over 4 years, with little of that related to diet and common health conditions. You heard that right: 19 hours on nutrition over 4 years.

All the while, more than 40 percent of American adults have been obese and 1 in 10 suffer from diabetes. Both are chronic health problems directly related to nutrition that cost Medicare and Medicaid millions and millions of dollars to treat.

We cannot continue to ignore the correlation between diet and health. It is time to make sure that our medical providers are equipped with the best knowledge and tools to help their patients.

I thank Mr. Burgess for his partnership on this important bipartisan effort.

Nutrition, food access, and health are not only directly connected to each other; they are directly connected to our progress as a Nation. It is time we treat them as such.

Second, I will touch briefly on an amendment that I am offering to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2022.

Massachusetts arts and cultural group MASSCreative first brought the idea behind this amendment to my attention. I thank them for all they do in support of the creative industry.

My amendment will help ensure workers with creative skill sets are better integrated into the workforce. We need people with creative skill sets to make art and write plays, but we also need them on construction sites and web design teams. People with creative skill sets belong everywhere work is being done, and that is what my amendment is about.

Creative workers have been some of the hardest hit over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as we continue to make our way out of the pandemic, we have to support them in innovative and imaginative ways.

Yet too often, our narrow vision of what creative workers can or should do doesn't fit the needs or demands of today's workforce. This amendment is about supporting them, so they are better integrated into the workforce.

Not only will this study help assess how we can continue to help creative workers get back on their feet, but it will also illuminate how we can continue to meet the labor needs of the most in-demand industries.

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