Job Corps 50th Anniversary

Floor Speech

Ms. DELAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate Job Corps on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary.

Five decades ago, President Lyndon Johnson stood before Congress and challenged us to end poverty in the United States. Job Corps is a critical part of the answer to that challenge. Since 1965, the program has helped level the playing field for more than two million disadvantaged young men and women through its 125 centers across 48 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Young people come to Job Corps unsure about their future and often in need of a second chance. When they graduate, they are ready to take on the challenges and opportunities of the adult world. Put simply, Job Corps changes lives for the better.

Job Corps is not like other career preparation programs. It does not just train and educate its participants. It instills in them discipline, structure, and the social skills they need to be successful in their lives.

I had the honor of taking part in the opening of Connecticut's very first Job Corps center in New Haven in 1996. A year later, I returned to serve as graduation speaker. I was amazed at how far the students had come.

Today, the New Haven Job Corps center is among the best in the nation. Armed with the right skills, its alumni pursue careers everywhere from Yale-New Haven Hospital to the Department of Homeland Security.

Job Corps successfully places more than three quarters of its graduates in higher education programs or careers. Thanks to this track record of achievement, our nation now has many more skilled young people ready for careers as emergency medical technicians, chefs, nurses, carpenters, entrepreneurs, and all kinds of other vocations.

No investment is more critical than investment in our human capital. If we want to compete in the global economy, we must invest in the workers of tomorrow and give them the skills they need to succeed. For half a century, Job Corps has been doing just that.

I could not be more proud of the role I have played, as Chair and Ranking Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee that funds Job Corps, in supporting the program. I congratulate Job Corps, its staff, and its many graduates on fifty years of success.

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