Iraq and the Middle East
IRAQ AND THE MIDDLE EAST -- (House of Representatives - March 01, 2005)
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) is so eloquent in her words about freedom and the economy and what makes this country great. We have the healthiest economy in the world, and I want to build on the things that my colleagues have said. The reason we have the healthiest economy in the world is because we are the freest people in the world.
I agree with what the President has been saying. If we want to see a good world, we want to see people have all of the rights and privileges, we are going to see freedom throughout the world and we are going to see growing economies. As again the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) said, job creation was up in 48 of the 50 States last year, and unemployment was down in all regions.
I want to talk a little bit about the Job Training Improvement Act which is going to be voted on here tomorrow. The Committee on Education and the Workforce has passed it out of our committee after a great deal of debate. H.R. 27 is called Strengthening America's Job Training System. It builds on the significant reforms made in the bipartisan Workforce Investment Act improvements that were enacted in 1998. While those reforms have provided workers with resources and tools necessary to rejoin the workforce or retrain for better jobs, there were still areas of inefficiency and duplication that were remaining. What H.R. 27 is going to do, among other things, is eliminate duplication and waste. It consolidates three adult job training programs into one consolidated adult funding stream to streamline program administration and reduce inefficiency at the State and local level. This change will enable more job seekers to be served with no reduction in services.
Last week we talked a lot about inefficiency and waste, and this is another one of the ways that we are going to do that. We are going to ensure our one-stop delivery system is demand driven. We are going to remove barriers to job training. The bill eliminates arbitrary provisions of current law that prevent someone from accessing training immediately if appropriate to meet his or her employment goals. State and local areas will have the flexibility to tailor services to meet individual needs, and that is so important to us as we drive down the decisionmaking to the local level.
The bill is also going to protect the rights of faith-based groups to help train and retrain workers. The bill protects the rights of faith-based groups willing to participate in the Nation's job training system. The landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act makes clear that faith-based groups have the right to hire workers on a religious basis, and that such hiring practices do not constitute discrimination.
Former President Clinton signed a number of major laws upholding this right. We are going to strengthen partnerships between businesses and job-training service providers. We are going to improve adult education and enhance vocational rehabilitation. The bill includes a number of provisions designed to strengthen the 1973 Rehabilitation Act in a continuing effort to help individuals with disabilities become employable and achieve full integration.
I want to make a comment about a wonderfully significant thing that happened in the Fifth Congressional District last week related to increasing jobs, and that was that Dell manufacturing broke ground for a $100 million plant in Forsythe County. That plant is Dell's largest anywhere, 527,000 square feet. They are going to hire 700 people in the first year. Workers are going to assemble two of Dell's desktop models, the Dimension and the OptiPlex, in the new plant. The jobs there are going to pay an average of $27,000. We are about 2 weeks away from the start of a process where people can express interest in being hired for the first 200-250 jobs, then Dell will hire another 500 people. Most of these will be people from the Fifth Congressional District.
We are so excited to have Dell manufacturing in Forsythe County. Again, I think this is an indication that the policies of this President and the policies of this Congress are working in terms of reducing taxes and making our South a very good place to bring new jobs.
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