Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004
DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED
AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004
Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask the pending amendment be laid aside so I may offer an amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
AMENDMENT NO. 1559 TO AMENDMENT NO. 1542
Mrs. MURRAY. I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Washington [Mrs. MURRAY] proposes an amendment numbered 1559.
Mrs. MURRAY. I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To restore funding for certain programs under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998)
In the matter under the heading "TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT SERVICES" under the heading "EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION" in title I, add at the end the following:
Subject to the following sentence, for necessary expenses of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, including the purchase and hire of passenger motor vehicles, the construction, alteration, and repair of buildings and other facilities, and the purchase of real property for training centers as authorized by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, $801,000,000, of
which
(1) $100,000,000 is available to carry out activities described in section 132(a) of that Act (relating to adult employment and training activities);
(2) $159,000,000 is available to carry out activities described in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of section 132(a)(2) of that Act
(relating to dislocated worker employment and training activities and other activities for dislocated workers);
(3) $99,000,000 is available to carry out chapter 4 of subtitle B of title I of that Act (relating to youth activities);
(4) $250,000,000 is available to carry out section 169 of that Act (relating to youth opportunity grants);
(5) $23,000,000 is available to carry out section 167 of that Act (relating to migrant and seasonal farmworker programs);
(6) $20,000,000 is available to carry out section 166 of that Act (relating to Native American programs); and
(7) $150,000,000 is available for the acquisition and improvement of one-stop center infrastructure, including acquisition of real estate, payment of rent or utilities, improvement of technology, and staff development.
The amount $6,895,199,000 in section 305(a)(1) of this Act shall be deemed to be $7,696,199,000 and the amount $6,783,301,000 in section 305(a)(2) of this Act shall be deemed to be $5,982,301,000: Provided, That of the funds appropriated in this Act for the National Institutes of Health, $370,000,000 shall not be available for obligation until September 30, 2004.
Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I come to the floor this morning to offer an amendment to help some of the millions of Americans who are looking for work in this very tough economy. The amendment I am offering right now provides an additional $801 million for critically needed worker training and retraining programs under the Workforce Investment Act. I am proud that Senators Kennedy, Dodd, Leahy, Jeffords, and Bingaman are cosponsors of this important amendment.
Today our Nation faces both a jobs crisis and a skills crisis. There are 9.1 million Americans searching for jobs and another 5 million more Americans are working part time because they cannot find full-time work in this stagnant economy. Those millions of workers need training and skills to get good jobs that are going to last, and that is what this amendment before us provides.
I am proud that a wide range of organizations have endorsed my worker training amendment, including the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Association of Counties, the National Workforce Association, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, and the National Association of Workforce Boards.
My office has also received hundreds of letters of support from local workforce boards, mayors, county executives, employers, and just ordinary Americans. They all want this Senate to provide additional training opportunities for our workers.
The amendment before us would provide training opportunities for an additional 200,000 adults, young people, dislocated workers, Native Americans, and migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Most of these workforce and training programs have not had anynoneincreases in funding for the entire last decade.
Think about that. We are in the middle of a jobs and skills crisis but most of our training programs have not had any funding increases in a decade.
My amendment will increase funding for adults by $100 million; for dislocated workers by $159 million; for youth by $99 million; for youth opportunity grants by $250 million; for migrant and seasonal farmworkers by $23 million; for Native Americans by $20 million; and for one-stop infrastructure by $150 million. That funding is going to make a huge difference.
I think any Senators who spent time with their constituents during the August recess from which we have just returned will recognize the urgent need for jobs and job training.
Last month when I was home I visited two of our one-stop employment centers in my State and I met with staff members who are working to train residents. I met with local employers who want to hire people in the community if they have the right skills. I met with workers, from young people who are just starting their careers to established workers who have been displaced by much larger economic forces. All of them want the skills they need to find a good job. But for many of them it is very tough going.
In King County, where Seattle is located, there is currently a 10,000 person waiting list for training. That is appalling.
These are people who want to work. They desperately want training. But in King County alone they are stuck on a waiting list with 10,000 other people. They have been waiting a long time. In King County, the freeze on training services began last January. It has been a very long and very difficult year for everyone on that waiting list. They need our help and the Murray amendment will provide it.
Residents of the State of Washington continue to suffer with the third highest unemployment in the country, 7.5 percent.
Since January of 2001, my State alone has lost 73,000 good-paying jobs in areas such as technology, aerospace, and manufacturing. Workers who were accustomed to earning $30 to $40 an hour as engineers in my State are now forced to accept warehouse jobs that pay $8 to $12 an hour.
Today, one-stop employment centers across the country are being asked to serve more people than ever before, yet their funding remains below what it was in fiscal year 2001 when our country was still experiencing relative economic prosperity. As a result, workers who are searching for jobs are taking longer than in previous recessions to find work. In 2000, it took an average of 12 weeks to find a new job. Currently, it takes approximately 20 weeks, and that is only if there are jobs to be found.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, some 1.1 million workers have exhausted their extended unemployment benefits with no employment prospects on the horizon. These workers have worked hard and they have played by the rules, yet they are losing their homes in record numbers and even foregoing medical treatment for their children. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee these jobs are going to return, making it even more crucial that this Senate provide the retraining dollars to help those workers find jobs in the industries and sectors of the economy that have the greatest potential for growth.
Unfortunately, young people seem to be the hardest hit by the current job crisis. The youth unemployment rate has hit a 10-year high of 19.3 percent. The minority youth unemployment rate continues to hover around 30 percent.
Recent studies have shown that nearly 50 percent of the job losses in this recession have occurred to young people who are 16 to 24 years old. Young people desperately need help but our Federal workforce dollars currently serve only about 7 percent of our eligible youth nationally.
My amendment would increase the youth formula grant money to States and localities, and would fully fund the Youth Opportunity Grant Program, which has a real track record of success in many communities and on Indian reservations around the country. My amendment also provides desperately needed modest increases for some of our most vulnerable populationsmigrant and seasonal farmworkers and Native Americans. These two groups often have unemployment rates above 50 percent with few prospects for jobs that will provide a sustainable income to support themselves and their families.
As a nation, we have to place a higher priority on helping these chronically underserved populations. My amendment does just that.
Finally, my amendment provides critical infrastructure funding for our national network of 1,900 one-stop employment centers. These one-stop employment centers integrate nearly 20 Federal workforce and social service programs at the local level.
In the HELP Committee, we have been working very hard to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act, and to include more related programs such as TANF, small business, and transportation into the one-stops with an additional emphasis on program integration and seamless service delivery for all eligible Americans.
In summary, the Murray amendment that is before this body will provide additional hope and opportunity for citizens who need jobs today. Given the employment trends we will face over the next decade, we cannot afford to waste the talents of any worker as we continue to compete in the global economy.
I hope all Senators will agree with me that taking care of the training needs of our workers at home should be a top priority for our Government. The rest of the world is monitoring how we train our workforce because these foreign governments are looking for every advantage to capture additional market share for goods and services that are currently produced in the United States.
Let us not give our competitors a leg up. Let us support the Murray amendment so we can continue to have the most highly skilled and productive workforce in the world and so we can put our Americans back to work in good jobs that will last.
I urge my colleagues to support the Murray amendment.
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Mrs. MURRAY. The Senator from Massachusetts is correct. I heard the President on Labor Day. I was delighted to hear that he was facing up to the fact that our economy is struggling, with thousands of people out of work. I am very perplexed that he is not willing to add additional money to train our workers.
As the Senator from Massachusetts knows, when a young man or woman is laid off, they don't have the money to provide for their family. It impacts not just themselves but their entire family and their entire community as they struggle. They are not going to find the same jobs. Our economy is changing. The only way they are going to get back into the workforce is if we give them the skills and training to get into the economic sectors that have job openings. These programs are critical in getting our economy back on track. They are fundamental to getting our economy back on track.
It is very perplexing to me that the President has not asked for nor supports the amendment before us that will help those workers.
Mr. KENNEDY. The Senator also understands that we are talking about a different aspect in terms of the need for training.
We have the youth, we have the adult workers, and we have those who are laid off because of skills. There are a variety of different challenges out there, are there not? What we want to try to do is make sure we are going to take scarce resources and use those resources in ways which will result in giving skills to individualswhether they are young, whether they are dislocated, whether they are the adult workersand get them back into gainful employment, paying taxes and really returning resources to the economy in a very constructive and productive way.
I understand the Senator's amendment attempts to do that. Am I correct?
Mrs. MURRAY. The Senator from Massachusetts is absolutely correct. As I traveled around in August to talk to people in my State, where we have been severely impactedwe have the third highest unemployment in the NationI talked to students just out of high school who cannot afford to go college because of tuition increases and who do not have the skills to simply enter the workforce. It is very different than talking to a young father who is 35 years old with three young kids, who was an engineer at Boeing, who will not get that job back and doesn't have the computer training skills to get into another job that will provide him with the income to sustain a family with three children.
There are different programs funded in my State which we have worked on and which were supported in the HELP Committee. They are different for dislocated workers or for adults or for youth.
Mr. KENNEDY. Beyond that, as I understand it, some of the resources could be used to retain individuals actually in school rather than retraining young workers who drop out of school.
This has an important relationship to what we have been trying to do in terms of focus, attention, and support for strengthening our education process to reach out to those individuals who may be tempted to drop out but can be retained in school and perhaps acquire some skills.
This effort is reflective of a long experiencenot that there shouldn't be some changes and alterations in a program.
I see our good friend from Wyoming, Senator Enzi, on the other side of the aisle who is an expert in terms of training programs, OSHA, and otherwise.
We have tried to work this out in a bipartisan way. This is really a key to our economic recovery.
I thank the Senator from Washington for bringing this to the attention of the Senate. I hope we will have strong bipartisan support. We have had bipartisan support in the past. This certainly is an amendment that deserves it. I thank her for offering it on the appropriations bill.
Mrs. MURRAY. I thank the Senator from Massachusetts for his support, his words of wisdom, for his longstanding commitment to people in this country who do not have the opportunities, and for making sure that every American, no matter who they are, where they come from, or what circumstances have hit them in their lives, gets the opportunities for the American dream that all of us want. Certainly this amendment is part of that effort.
Thank you, Madam President. I yield the floor.
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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Wyoming, and I understand he is opposing the amendment. I just say we are in a crisis in this country. We are in a crisis when there are 10,000 people on a waiting list in King County alone to try to get into a training program in order to get the skills they need to get back to work. We are in a crisis when our economy continues to struggle and people are unable to put food on the table, send their kids to college, and to be able to feel secure when it comes to their jobs.
We all know we are spending $1 billion a week in Iraq in order to reconstruct that country. It seems to me totally reasonable to ask for $801 million for next year to help train our workers, to get our economy back on track, and to give American families the security they need in their homes to know they can take care of their own.
Mr. President, I encourage my colleagues to support this amendment at the appropriate time.