Introduction of the Pre-Apprentice and Apprenticeship Training Act of 2009

Floor Speech

SPEECH OF HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

* Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, the Pre-Apprentice and Apprenticeship Training Act of 2009 makes mandatory the one half of one percent of funds now available under 23 U.S.C. 140(b) to ensure federal highway funds are used to provide on-the-job training and other services to combat a serious training deficit that builds in the effects of past discrimination and that is necessary because the current cohort of journeymen and other skilled workers is retiring. Currently, only 17 states use fund previously made available for training and even that participation is spotty. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, under the strong leadership of Chairman JIM OBERSTAR has already taken the first important steps to include training as an essential part of building our infrastructure when he included, at my request, $3 million specifically for training in the General Services Administration stimulus authorization this year. He also included $20 million for federal highways training programs.

* Today, the official unemployment rate already is at 15 percent for blacks and 8 percent for whites, a typical gap throughout economic cycles. Most analysts predict that there is more unemployment to come. This surface transportation reauthorization is also necessary to finally afford the opportunity for minorities and women to gain their first foothold in the high-wage construction industry.

* More than 25 years ago, the federal government abruptly ended the government-sponsored labor-management remediation program designed to address training and exclusionary practices in the construction industry. Although deliberate exclusion has largely receded, elimination of this program has left a significant training deficit for workers in skilled construction trades, which is largely responsible for the white male profile of the construction industry today. This training deficit guarantees that infrastructure jobs will continue to go to trained, mostly white male construction workers, who now have faced a long period of unemployment and job scarcity. Particularly considering a steep rise in unemployment for minorities and whites alike, this bill will also help avoid racial tension.

* Because of the scarcity of trained workers during boom times, a few union programs had even begun training ex-offenders as pre-apprentices and apprentices to do construction work. This bill will mount a major national infrastructure program focused on job creation with a well-designed component of pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs that can lead to high-paying journeymen jobs for the new workers who will be needed in the future. And it will assure compliance with the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bar discrimination in the use of government dollars.

* More than 25 years ago the federal government prematurely ended the successful government-sponsored labor-management remediation program that addressed exclusionary practices and lack of training in the construction industry. Without a significant and systematic government effort, a serious training deficit has remained and continued to build. This training deficit is largely responsible for the white male profile of the construction industry today. Unless training is a strong component of the highway and transit reauthorization, underrepresentation of minorities and women will deepen.

* Training is a major barrier, particularly for African Americans and women in construction. Congress recognized the training deficit and encouraged the use of one half of one percent for training in the use of highway funds. Because use of federal funds was not mandated for training, only 17 states have chosen, intermittently, to fund training programs, since the program was authorized in 1998. Without appropriate training, federal funds will exacerbate the training deficit among previously excluded groups and others who have not had access to training in the construction trades.

* A recent study of African Americans, in particular, in the construction industry in eighteen metropolitan areas found that they are under-represented in construction jobs. If African Americans were employed in construction at the same rate that they are employed in the overall workforce, the study estimated that 42,700 more African Americans would be employed in construction in the eighteen metropolitan areas.

* The official unemployment rate as of April 2009 already is 15 percent for African Americans and 8.8 percent for whites. This disparity has been typical throughout economic cycles.

* A major, well-designed component in the surface transportation reauthorization bill for pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs can lead to high-paying journeymen jobs, where, in good times and scarce, labor supply has developed.

* Congress must assure compliance with the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bar discrimination in the use of government dollars.

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