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St. Louis Job Corps Center

Floor Speech

Date: June 5, 2025
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. BELL. Mr. Speaker, if anyone stood outside the St. Louis Job Corps Center last week, they saw what happens when cruelty becomes policy. They saw students being escorted off campus, bags in hand, dreams on hold; grandparents crying because their grandkids had finally found something that gave them a shot, and now it is gone. In St. Louis, that was over 200 students who were impacted.

Job Corps is exactly the kind of program everyone should all agree on. It gives young people the tools to succeed, real skills, real credentials, real jobs. It reduces crime, increases employment, and pays off for taxpayers in the long run.

This wasn't a budget choice. This was a values choice. It tells our young people their future doesn't matter, not if they are working class, not if they are Black or Brown, not if they come from a ZIP Code that doesn't matter.

I rise today because Job Corps works. It changes lives, and there is no defense, none at all, for ripping that away from students.

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