[Senate Hearing 117-201]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                       S. Hrg. 117-201

                       NOMINATIONS OF LISA GOMEZ,
                       AND JOSE JAVIER RODRIGUEZ

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                                 OF THE

                    COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
                          LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                                   ON

        EXAMINING THE NOMINATIONS OF LISA M. GOMEZ, OF NEW JERSEY, 
          AND JOSE JAVIER RODRIGUEZ, OF FLORIDA, BOTH TO BE AN ASSIST-
          ANT SECRETARY OF LABOR

                               __________

                            OCTOBER 7, 2021

                               __________

 Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
                                Pensions
                                
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        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
        
                               __________

                                
                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
46-781 PDF                   WASHINGTON : 2023                    
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------             
       
          COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                    PATTY MURRAY, Washington, Chair
BERNIE SANDERS (I), Vermont          RICHARD BURR, North Carolina, 
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania       Ranking Member
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin             RAND PAUL, M.D., Kentucky
CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut   SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
TIM KAINE, Virginia                  BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire         LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
TINA SMITH, Minnesota                MIKE BRAUN, Indiana
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  ROGER MARSHALL, M.D., Kansas
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico            TIM SCOTT, South Carolina
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado          MITT ROMNEY, Utah
                                     TOMMY TUBERVILLE, Alabama
                                     JERRY MORAN, Kansas

                     Evan T. Schatz, Staff Director
               David P. Cleary, Republican Staff Director
                  John Righter, Deputy Staff Director
                            
                            
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                               STATEMENTS

                       THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2021

                                                                   Page

                           Committee Members

Murray, Hon. Patty, Chair, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 
  and Pensions, Opening statement................................     1
Burr, Hon. Richard, Ranking Member, a U.S. Senator from the State 
  of North Carolina, Opening statement...........................     3

                               Witnesses

Gomez, Lisa, Raritan Township, NJ................................     7
    Prepared statement...........................................     9
Rodriguez, Jose, Javier, Miami, FL...............................     9
    Prepared statement...........................................    11

 
                       NOMINATIONS OF LISA GOMEZ,
                       AND JOSE JAVIER RODRIGUEZ

                              ----------                              


                       Thursday, October 7, 2021

                                       U.S. Senate,
       Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room 
216, Hart Senate Office Building, Hon. Patty Murray, Chair of 
the Committee, presiding.
    Present: Senators Murray [presiding], Casey, Baldwin, 
Murphy, Kaine, Hassan, Smith, Rosen, Hickenlooper, Burr, Braun, 
Marshall, Scott, and Tuberville.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR MURRAY

    The Chair. Good morning. The Senate Health, Education, 
Labor, and Pensions Committee will please come to order.
    Today, we are holding a hearing on the nominations of Lisa 
Gomez to be the Assistant Secretary for the Department of 
Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration, or EBSA, and 
Jose Javier Rodriguez to be the Assistant Secretary for the 
Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration, 
the ETA.
    Ranking Member Burr and I will each have an opening 
statement, and then I will introduce our witnesses. And after 
they give their testimony, Senators will each have 5 minutes 
for a round of questions.
    We are again unable to have this hearing fully open to the 
public or media for in-person attendance. Live video is 
available on our Committee website at help.senate.gov. If you 
are in need of accommodations, including closed captioning, you 
can reach out to the Committee or the Office of Congressional 
Accessibility Services.
    We received Ms. Gomez' formal nomination on July 28th, her 
Office of Government Ethics paperwork on August 9th, her 
Committee paperwork on September 15th.
    We received Mr. Rodriguez' formal nomination July 13th, his 
Office of Government Ethics paperwork on July 27th, and his 
Committee paperwork on September 15th.
    I would like to thank all of our witnesses for joining us, 
and also, welcome to your families. Ms. Gomez' husband, Alex 
Gomez, and their three children, Tina, Alyssia, and Adrian, are 
watching from home. And Mr. Rodriguez' wife, Sonia Succar, is 
here with him. Welcome to all of you.
    EBSA and ETA both do critical work to make sure the 
economic security of families across the Country, so I am 
pleased to have before us two extremely qualified nominees who 
have shown they have what it takes to lead these important 
agencies.
    EBSA has the massive task of overseeing more than 700,000 
retirement plans, two million health plans, and 880,000 other 
welfare benefit plans. That is tens of trillions in assets 
overall, the management of which has huge consequences for the 
everyday lives and futures of millions of our families across 
the Country.
    The agency also has a critical role to play in addressing 
threats to families' financial security, like unscrupulous 
financial advisors that may put their own interests above the 
financial security of those who turn to them for help, or the 
growing array of cybersecurity threats.
    While Congress passed legislation to address the multi-
employer pension crisis, which threatened to cut the hard-
earned benefits of millions of workers who did nothing wrong, 
EBSA faces the challenge of helping retirement plan 
participants recover the benefits they are entitled to.
    EBSA also enforces critical protections for people who get 
their healthcare coverage through their job, such as 
protections for people with pre-existing conditions; 
protections enacted in the ACA, including access to free 
preventive services; and mental health parity and addiction 
equity law, which ensures health plans cover those benefits at 
the same level they would cover other medical care.
    Thanks to the law we passed last year banning surprise 
medical bills, EBSA will help make insurance companies--make 
sure insurance companies cannot leave patients with unexpected, 
exorbitant medical bills for out-of-network care and will have 
additional tools to enforce mental health parity.
    While EBSA works to make sure the benefits millions of 
employers provide comply with Federal protections, ETA plays 
another critical role when it comes to providing economic 
security for workers and their families. It is charged with 
addressing our Nation's workforce needs and works to do this by 
providing high-quality job training and employment programs, 
administering worker dislocation programs, tracking labor 
market information, and supporting unemployment insurance and 
other state programs through Federal grants.
    During the COVID-19 crisis, we have seen how unemployment 
insurance programs are a critical lifeline for workers when 
their financial security is upended. But also, how urgently--we 
urgently need to modernize our unemployment insurance system so 
relief is not delayed by outdated infrastructure. ETA has been 
at the forefront of these efforts.
    As we work to recover from this pandemic, it also has a key 
role to play in our Nation's workforce--addressing our 
workforce shortages this pandemic has exacerbated in so many 
fields.
    Our Nation has an enormous challenge ahead to build back 
from this pandemic stronger and fairer. It will take additional 
bold relief, which Democrats are continuing to fight for, and 
it will take experienced leaders like Ms. Gomez and Mr. 
Rodriguez at key agencies like EBSA and ETA.
    I look forward to hearing from both of you about the 
challenges ahead and how we build an economy that truly works 
for working families.
    Now, before I turn it over to Ranking Member Burr for his 
opening remarks, I seek unanimous consent to put in the record 
three letters in support of Ms. Gomez' nomination and 26 
letters in support of Mr. Rodriguez' nomination. So ordered.

    [The information referred to was not submitted.]

    The Chair. Senator Burr.

                   OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BURR

    Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The purpose of this hearing is to consider the nominees to 
serve on the Employee Benefits Security Administration and 
Employment and Training. To our nominees today, welcome, and to 
your families, congratulations.
    In my role as Ranking Member, this is usually where I 
either raise concerns about your qualifications or raise 
concerns about some terrible thing that the Administration is 
doing. There are enough concerns--excuse me. There are enough 
concerning things being done by the White House and the 
National Labor Relations Board to fill volumes of the 
Congressional Record.
    But, today, I have to address the reckless spend--tax and 
spend agenda of the partisan majority that calls for $3.5 
trillion in additional spending and a massive transformation of 
the size and scope of the Federal Government. That is on top, 
on top, of the 3.5 trillion we spent combating COVID last year, 
all passed on a bipartisan basis. It may seem like a distant 
memory, but Republicans and Democrats actually worked together 
on those bills.
    That is on top of the 1.9 trillion splurge by a partisan 
majority less than 7 months ago during its first taxpayer 
funding spree.
    In the past 18 months, the Congress has added $5.4 trillion 
to the national ledgers, and it is $29 trillion in debt.
    Social Security actuaries say Social Security will become 
insolvent in 2034, leading to cuts by as much as 24 percent in 
the retirement benefits of approximately 65 million Americans.
    Medicare is equally in dire shape. Medicare's hospital 
trust fund is set to run out of money in 2026, just a few years 
down the road. The Medicare trustees, which include, by the 
way, Secretary Becerra, Secretary Yellen, and Secretary Walsh, 
admit that when Medicare cannot pay its bills, beneficiaries' 
access to health services will be rapidly curtailed.
    But, instead of working to make these programs solvent, a 
narrow partisan majority wants to grow government even more and 
add another $3.5 trillion, at least, in a massive socialist 
redesign of society.
    We should be honest that this is a socialist agenda. You 
can dress it up with the label of progressive, but when you put 
government at the center of every decision a family makes about 
childcare and education, about healthcare, energy production, 
where we live, how we work, how much you can earn, how much you 
can save, and how much you can pass onto your children, that is 
not making a free society more free or more fair. That is 
making government bigger, to control our lives.
    Rammed into this vision for progressive socialist America 
is an instruction to this Committee to report spending, 
legislative spending, of $726 billion--three-quarters of a 
trillion dollars.
    On August 23rd, every Republican on this Committee wrote, 
asking for a hearing and markups on any proposals to meet those 
instructions within the Committee's jurisdiction. Because if 
the Committee is tasked with spending three-quarters of a 
trillion dollars, when we are evenly divided in the U.S. 
Senate, you would think hearings and markups would in fact be 
on the docket. Based upon the Committee's public calendar and 
this week's letter from Senator Schumer, I suspect that we are 
not going to be given the opportunity.
    I would like to remind my friends on the other side of the 
aisle--and, I might say, many of them are my friends--that 
Democrats have the barest of majorities. Democrats hold a 
three-seat majority in the U.S. House; and, only with the Vice 
President breaking a tie, do Democrats run the Senate.
    This is not a mandate for sweeping partisan legislation to 
reshape every aspect of American family. It is not a mandate 
for grand socialist expansion of government designed and driven 
by the furthest left reaches of the Democrat socialist in your 
party.
    Why am I so frustrated? It was not that long ago that the 
Senate came together in a bipartisan fashion to work on 
childcare. I remember. I was here.
    In 2014, Barbara Mikulski and I led the reauthorization of 
the Childcare and Development Block Grant, a bipartisan law 
that has been the foundation of access to healthcare for over--
or to childcare for over 30 years. Barbara and I held three 
hearings on the legislation. We marked it up. We worked all the 
issues out, and then we passed it, unanimously, in this hearing 
room. Unfortunately--we passed it in the U.S. Senate 
overwhelmingly, 96 to 2, and the final agreement, after 
conference, 88 to 1.
    Republicans and Democrats on this Committee have proven 
overwhelmingly that we care about childcare and that we both 
want to help families have the opportunity to get high-quality 
care for their children.
    In 2007, this Committee reauthorized Head Start and Early 
Start programs to make major improvements to critical programs 
for our Nation's youth.
    As recently as 2015, this Committee, included in the Every 
Student Succeeds Act signed by President Obama, the preschool 
development grants to help states further their efforts to 
improve and coordinate childcare and early childhood 
development. More proof that Republicans and Democrats can work 
together on these issues if given the chance.
    Last year alone, the Federal Government spent $21.4 billion 
on childcare and early education in addition to 53.5 billion 
provided in childcare and early education funding provided 
through the CARES Act and other legislation.
    We also have nine Federal programs and three tax 
expenditures with early childhood and preschool as their 
explicit purpose, and 35, 35, additional Federal programs that 
support early education and childcare.
    Without a hearing, without a Committee vote, the 
progressive socialists are saying that Congress should ignore 
all the bipartisan work, the bipartisan support, that 
bipartisan foundation of millions of families across the 
Country for a poorly conceived effort to grow government.
    We have massively successful programs that support a rich, 
mixed delivery system of providers, from family childcare 
providers, mom-and-pop operations, to churches, synagogues and 
mosques, to employer-based care and large center-based programs 
that span the Country.
    Ending that successful system, destroying it from within, 
and especially shutting down faith-based providers as the House 
proposal does, is not worthy of a great Country, and it is 
certainly not worthy of a great Senate.
    In higher education, the House bill again throws away 
decades of bipartisan efforts and collaboration. In higher 
education, we fund the student, not the institution. We give 
students Pell Grants and student loans, and they pick the 
college they want to go to. That started under the G.I. Bill of 
World War II and continues today. The House proposes to subvert 
that entirely and fund just some schools while commandeering 
state authority to advance this partisan objective of 
Washington control over more of our educational system.
    Community colleges are the backbone of our communities, and 
I am proud to support them. We have some of the Nation's best 
community colleges in North Carolina. Our tuition is already 
affordable, and tuition is essentially free, free, with a Pell 
Grant.
    But, as I look across the Country, most of these 
institutions have terrible completion rates. We should not just 
pour money into schools that cannot get their students out with 
a degree or a certificate, and we should not make that the only 
affordable option for low-income students.
    Republicans and Democrats agree that college should be more 
affordable; that our graduation rate is too low; and 
accountability in higher education is lacking. We agree that 
our student loan repayment programs are too complex.
    I am grateful to Senator Angus King, an Independent who 
sits on the Democrats' side of the aisle and agrees on a 
bipartisan solution as to how to fix it. We do not need to 
control state higher education policy from here. We do not need 
the Federal guardrails for the bad old days of No Child Left 
Behind in higher education.
    We could, Heaven forbid, work together. That is the model 
this Committee famously stands for. Two previous Chairmen, my 
good friend, Ted Kennedy and Mike Enzi, called it the 80-20 
rule. We usually agree on 80 percent; we disagree on 20. So, 
let's work on the 80.
    But, these partisan efforts will change that. If Democrats 
succeed in ramming through partisan legislation like this, 
Republicans and Democrats will no longer agree on higher 
education or on childcare or on national service. Instead, we 
will seesaw back and forth in support and opposition. The cycle 
of anger will grow, and the very fabric of society will 
continue to tear itself apart.
    We have shown we can work together on a bipartisan 
infrastructure bill--one trillion in spending, six--including 
500 billion in new spending; 110 billion for roads; 65 billion 
for high-speed internet; 40 billion for bridges; 39 billion for 
transit. There is about 66 billion in funding for Amtrak for 
the President.
    But, the answer from the left, from the admirers of 
socialism and total government control, is no. If they cannot 
get everything they want, they would rather have nothing. They 
have even proudly said that last Saturday--last Friday, that 
nothing is better than something. Tell that to the families who 
are relying on jobs created by the infrastructure bill. Tell 
that to school children in rural communities that for the first 
time are going to get high-speed internet.
    They used to say that it was my way or the highway. I guess 
it is now my way or no highway. And when traffic jams mount, 
when communities get--commutes get longer, you can thank the 
Democrats, who do not understand that most Americans do not 
want to live in a worker's paradise.
    I say to my colleagues, let's set aside this disastrous 
budget. Let's set aside this reckless tax and spend agenda, 
designed by progressives. Let's tackle these challenges 
together, which is what the American people sent us here to do.
    I yield back.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    We will now introduce today's witnesses. Our first witness 
is Lisa Gomez, President Biden's nominee to lead the Employee 
Benefits Security Administration.
    Ms. Gomez is currently a partner at the law firm Cohen, 
Weiss and Simon, and the chair of the firm's management 
committee. At Cohen, Weiss and Simon, Ms. Gomez represents 
clients on issues running the gamut of employee benefits law. 
She has worked with Federal employee health benefits plans, 
multi-employer pension and welfare plans, single-employer 
plans, jointly administered training program trust funds, plans 
sponsored by unions for their internal staff, and more.
    She is also a member of the American Bar Association's 
Labor and Employment Law Section Committee and the 
International Foundation for Employee Benefit Plans.
    She was recognized in 2014 for her contributions to the 
employee benefits field by being inducted as a fellow of the 
American College of Employee Benefits Counsel.
    She serves on the board of senior editors for the ABA and 
Bloomberg Law Employee Benefits Law Treatise and authoritative 
text in the field.
    She is also a member of the Peggy Browning Fund's advisory 
board, an organization which helps law students pursue 
opportunities to fight for workers' rights.
    Ms. Gomez received her undergraduate degree from Hofstra 
University and her law degree from Fordham University Law 
School, where she was an editor at the Fordham Urban Law 
Journal.
    Ms. Gomez, we are glad you could join us today. Given your 
deep experience in employee benefits law, I believe you are a 
highly qualified pick to lead EBSA, and I look forward to your 
testimony.
    We will also hear today from Jose Javier Rodriguez, who is 
nominated to lead the Employment and Training Administration. 
He is a litigator and partner at the law firm Sugarman & 
Susskind, representing employees, labor unions, and pension and 
benefit funds.
    He served for 8 years in the Florida legislature, first in 
the State House of Representatives and later in the State 
Senate, where he was vice chair of the Judiciary Committee.
    During his time in the state legislature, Mr. Rodriguez 
proved himself as a strong advocate for workers and families.
    He pressed for action on climate change and successfully 
worked to pass landmark environmental legislation.
    He helped rally support for a ballot measure the state 
passed last year to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
    He fought throughout this pandemic for financial support 
for struggling workers and families.
    Mr. Rodriguez began his career in service. Before he joined 
the legislature, after receiving his undergraduate degree from 
Brown University, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in 
Senegal.
    After graduating from Harvard Law School, he began his 
legal career as a legal aid attorney for Florida Legal 
Services, where he litigated cases on behalf of workers who are 
paid low wages, tenants, and small businesses.
    Mr. Rodriguez also served as an adjunct law professor 
throughout his career, most recently at St. Thomas University 
School of Law.
    Mr. Rodriguez, I am pleased to have a champion for workers 
like you nominated for this critical role. I appreciate you 
joining us today and look forward to hearing from you.
    Ms. Gomez, we will begin with your testimony.

         STATEMENT OF LISA GOMEZ, RARITAN TOWNSHIP, NJ

    Ms. Gomez. Good morning. Thank you, Chair Murray, for that 
introduction.
    Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr, and Members of the 
Committee, it is my honor to appear before you today as you 
consider my nomination for Assistant Secretary of the Employee 
Benefits Security Administration, EBSA.
    If confirmed, I am committed to serving and protecting the 
participants and beneficiaries in America's employee benefit 
plans. I will dedicate myself to carrying out EBSA's mission of 
ensuring the security of the retirement health and other 
workplace-related benefits of America's workers and their 
families.
    I thank President Biden and Vice President Harris for this 
tremendous opportunity, and Secretary Walsh for his support of 
my nomination. I am thrilled at the possibility of being able 
to contribute in a meaningful way to the important work of 
EBSA, the Department of Labor, and this Administration.
    I would like to extend my love and deep gratitude to my 
amazing children, my daughters Tina and Alyssia, and my son, 
Adrian. I wish they could be here in person. They are and will 
always be my greatest accomplishments and the sources of my 
inspiration to make a difference and to lift others up.
    I am forever thankful to Alex, my devoted husband, for 
always being by my side as my most ardent supporter and friend, 
as he is here with me today.
    I want to also thank my family, friends, and colleagues, 
and my parents, Linda and Lou, for the tremendous love and 
support they have surrounded me with, especially during this 
process and as I move forward toward this incredible new 
chapter.
    I was raised in a working class family and was the first to 
attend college. While I was not sure exactly what I wanted to 
do with my life, I knew I wanted to work to protect others and 
make a difference.
    In law school, I learned about the struggle to protect 
America's workers and their hard-earned benefits. I came to 
understand that my father, who worked for a small printing 
shop, and my mother, who worked at a local uniform supply 
company after being home with us, did not have most of these 
basic protections. Despite years of hard work, they did not 
have any form of workplace retirement benefits to provide 
security in later years. It was not until my father was within 
a few years of retirement that he had any opportunity for a 
pension benefit.
    I have spent the last 27 years, my entire legal career, 
representing employee benefit plans. My work has focused on 
protecting the benefits of workers and their families, and 
helping them to understand their benefits.
    It has also centered on counseling plan sponsors so that 
they can comprehend and appreciate their responsibilities to 
participants and their families.
    My extensive experience with plans, with employees, and 
employers in a broad and diverse range of industries, with 
different concerns and needs, has given me a fuller 
understanding of how to serve them all best.
    Over nearly three decades, I have found that my substantive 
experience in the law must work hand in glove with managing 
challenging--challenges and empowering people.
    One of the most rewarding aspects of my work is bringing 
parties with competing interests to consensus. To now have the 
honor of this nomination and the opportunity to serve and 
contribute on behalf of all Americans is an unbelievable dream 
job.
    A key strength I bring to this position is my ability to 
assess difficult situations, see the clear path forward, and 
bring the parties to reach the end goal. Bringing people toward 
practicable, workable solutions, I strive to have people 
sincerely feel heard, no matter the ultimate outcome. My end 
goal is to help EBSA carry out its mission and do its part in 
Bringing Back Better.
    If confirmed, it would be an honor to work with everyone at 
EBSA, the Department, the related agencies, Congress, and this 
Administration to make EBSA's mission a reality.
    Former Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, said, There is 
always a large horizon. There is much to be done. It is up to 
you to contribute some small part to a program of human 
betterment for all time.
    It would be my privilege to do so through this role.
    Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.

    [The prepared statement of Ms. Gomez follows:]

                    prepared statement of lisa gomez
    Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr, and Members of the Committee, it 
is my honor to appear before you today as you consider my nomination 
for Assistant Secretary of the Employee Benefits Security 
Administration (EBSA). If confirmed, I am committed to serving and 
protecting the participants and beneficiaries in America's employee 
benefit plans. I will dedicate myself to carrying out EBSA's mission of 
ensuring the security of the retirement, health and other workplace-
related benefits of America's workers and their families.

    I thank President Biden and Vice President Harris for this 
tremendous opportunity, and Secretary Walsh for his support of my 
nomination. I am thrilled at the possibility of being able to 
contribute in a meaningful way to the important work of EBSA, the 
Department of Labor and this Administration.

    I'd like to extend my love and deep gratitude to my amazing 
children--my daughters, Tina and Alyssia, and my son Adrian. I wish 
they could be here in person--they are and will always be my greatest 
accomplishments and the sources of my inspiration to make a difference 
and lift others up. I am forever thankful to Alex, my devoted husband, 
for always being by my side as my most ardent supporter and friend, as 
he is here with me today. I want to also thank my family, friends and 
colleagues--and my parents, Linda and Lou, for the tremendous love and 
support they have surrounded me with, especially during this process 
and as I move toward this incredible new chapter.

    I was raised in a working class family and was the first to attend 
college. While I wasn't sure what I wanted to do in life, I knew I 
wanted to work to protect others and make a difference. In law school, 
I learned about the struggle to protect America's workers and their 
hard earned benefits. I came to understand that my dad, who worked for 
a small printing shop and my mom, who worked at a local uniform supply 
company after being home with us, did not have most of these basic 
protections. Despite years of hard work, they did not have any form of 
workplace retirement benefits to provide security in later years. It 
was not until my father was within a few years of retirement that he 
had any opportunity for a pension benefit.

    I've spent the last 27 years, my entire legal career, representing 
employee benefit plans. My work has focused on protecting the benefits 
of workers and their families, and helping them to understand their 
benefits. It has also centered on counseling plan sponsors so that they 
comprehend and appreciate their responsibilities to participants and 
their families. My extensive experience with plans covering employees 
and employers in a broad and diverse range of industries, with 
different concerns and needs, has given me a fuller understanding of 
how to serve them best.

    Over nearly three decades, I have found that my substantive 
experience in the law must work hand-in-glove with managing challenges 
and empowering people. One of the rewarding aspects of my work is 
bringing parties with competing interests to consensus.

    To now have the honor of this nomination and the opportunity to 
serve and contribute on behalf of all Americans is an unbelievable 
dream job. A key strength I bring to this position is my ability to 
assess difficult situations, see the clear path forward, and bring the 
parties to reach the end goal. Bringing people toward practicable, 
workable solutions, I strive to have people sincerely feel heard, no 
matter the ultimate outcome. My end goal is to help EBSA carry out its 
mission and do its part in building back better.

    If confirmed, it would be an honor to work with everyone at EBSA, 
the Department, the related agencies, Congress and this Administration 
to make EBSA's mission a reality.

    Former Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins said, ``There is always a 
large horizon . . . There is much to be done . . . It is up to you to 
contribute some small part to a program of human betterment for all 
time.'' It would be my privilege to do so through this role.

    Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Mr. Rodriguez.

         STATEMENT OF JOSE JAVIER RODRIGUEZ, MIAMI, FL

    Mr. Rodriguez. Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr, and 
Members of the Committee, I am honored to appear before you 
today as nominee for Assistant Secretary of Labor for 
Employment and Training.
    I thank President Biden for nominating me. I share his 
commitment and that of his Administration to a strong and 
competitive American workforce. If confirmed, I look forward to 
serving the American people during these times that have been 
so challenging for workers and their families, for businesses, 
and for communities.
    I thank my wife, Sonia, who is in the Committee room with 
us today. She traveled with me from Miami. Both of us say hello 
to our two boys, who will watch from home after school today 
with family.
    I am also grateful to my parents. I grew up bicultural and 
bilingual. My mother, Joyce, grew up in rural Indiana, and 
until her retirement, she worked in bedside nursing at our 
local public hospital. She and our family instilled strong 
values in my brother and I, and helped inspire my public 
service.
    My father, Guillermo, left communist Cuba alone as a boy 
during Operation Pedro Pan, a program that evacuated 
unaccompanied Cuban children in the early 1960's. After paying 
his way through college, serving in the U.S. Corps--Army Corps 
of Engineers, and working as a corporate executive, my father 
went on to start and run a successful small business. From him, 
I learned the value of hard work and making the most of 
opportunity that no other country offers.
    The American Dream is that hard work will meet with success 
if given the opportunity. That is my family story, and it has 
motivated a career of service dedicated to making sure those 
opportunities remain open.
    Before law school, I served in the Peace Corps in West 
Africa, first training small business owners, and then helping 
design training programs in the Employment Section at Senegal's 
Ministry of Labor.
    I returned home to Miami after earning a Harvard Law 
degree. I worked as a Legal Aid lawyer, representing employees, 
homeowners, and small businesses who could not afford a lawyer 
but needed help as they sought to improve their economic 
futures.
    I later went into private practice. I am currently a 
partner at a labor and employment firm where, among many other 
matters, I have had the chance to work with joint 
apprenticeship and training committees.
    For 8 years, I had the honor of serving my fellow 
Floridians in the state legislature. In my first campaign, my 
platform included reform of our state jobs programs. So, I was 
thrilled when one of the first bills I presented after arriving 
at the capitol became part of that year's bipartisan economic 
development and jobs reform.
    That year, I also proposed legislation that would have been 
part of modernizing our unemployment system. I am proud to 
report that some of that work bore fruit before I left. Much of 
that work, however, remains to be done. The pandemic made that 
painfully clear.
    Like many colleagues, I took pride in the constituent 
service that I did throughout my legislative--through my 
legislative office. Last year, during the pandemic, my team and 
I served small businesses together with our local workforce 
board. We also served hundreds of constituents that desperately 
needed an economic bridge but were failed by an inadequate and 
unreliable unemployment system.
    If confirmed, I hope to serve the many Americans who need 
and deserve a responsive, modern workforce system.
    They are workers willing to put in the time to earn a 
higher wage.
    They are disadvantaged youth or returning citizens who will 
thrive in the workforce with some assistance overcoming 
barriers.
    They are young people who want a career rather than a 
series of low-paying jobs.
    They are employers in growth industries that need skilled 
workers, or employers in industries battered by change that 
need to upskill their current workforce.
    They are hard-hit communities, looking for the added 
economic stability that temporary support programs can provide.
    They are workers who will be able to compete and lead as 
our Nation tackles the climate crisis.
    Delivering on all of these is the business of the 
Employment and Training Administration. If confirmed, I would 
be honored to lead this critical mission.
    I look forward to addressing any questions that you have. 
Thank you.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Rodriguez follows:]

              prepared statement of jose javier rodriguez
    Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr, and Members of the Committee, 
I'm honored to appear before you today as the nominee for Assistant 
Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training.

    I thank President Biden for nominating me. I share his commitment, 
and that of this Administration, to a strong and competitive American 
workforce. If confirmed, I look forward to serving the American people 
during these times that have been so challenging for workers and their 
families, for businesses and their communities.

    I thank my wife Sonia who is in the Committee room with us today. 
She travelled with me from Miami. Both of us say hello to our two boys 
who are watching from home with their grandparents.

    I am also grateful to my parents. I grew up bicultural and 
bilingual. My mother Joyce grew up in rural Indiana. Until her 
retirement she worked in bedside nursing at our local public hospital. 
She and our family instilled strong values in my brother and I; and 
helped inspire my public service.

    My father Guillermo left communist Cuba alone as a boy during 
Operation Pedro Pan, a program that evacuated unaccompanied Cuban 
children in the early 1960's. After paying his way through college, 
serving in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and working as a corporate 
executive, my father went on to start and run a successful small 
business. From him, I learned the value of hard work and making the 
most of the opportunities that no other country offers.

    The American Dream is that hard work will meet with success if 
given the opportunity. That is my family's story. And it has motivated 
a career of service dedicated to making sure those opportunities remain 
open.

    Before law school I served in the Peace Corps in West Africa, first 
training small business owners and then helping design training 
programs in the Employment Section at Senegal's Ministry of Labor.

    I returned to my beloved Miami after earning a Harvard Law degree. 
I worked as a legal aid lawyer representing employees, homeowners and 
small businesses who could not afford a lawyer but needed help as they 
fought to improve their economic futures.

    I later went into private practice. I am currently partner at a 
labor and employment firm where among many other matters I've had the 
chance to work with joint apprenticeship and training committees.

    For 8 years I had the honor of serving my fellow Floridians in the 
state legislature. In my first campaign, my platform included reform of 
our state jobs programs. So I was thrilled when one of the first bills 
I presented after arriving at the Capitol became part of that year's 
bipartisan economic development and jobs program reform.

    That first year I also proposed legislation that would have been 
part of modernizing our unemployment system. I'm proud to report that 
some of that work bore fruit before I left. Much of that work, however, 
remains to be done. The pandemic made that painfully clear.

    Like many colleagues I took pride in the constituent services my 
legislative office offered. During the pandemic, we served small 
businesses together with our local workforce board. We also served 
hundreds of constituents that desperately needed an economic bridge but 
were failed by an inadequate and unreliable unemployment system.

    If confirmed, I hope to serve the many Americans who need and 
deserve a responsive, modern workforce system.

    They're workers willing to put in the time to earn a higher wage.

    They're disadvantaged youth or returning citizens who will thrive 
in the workforce with some assistance overcoming barriers.

    They're young people who want a career rather than a series of 
jobs.

    They're employers in growth industries that need skilled workers.

    Or employers in industries battered by change that need to upskill 
their current workforce.

    They're hard-hit communities looking for the added economic 
stability that temporary support programs can provide.

    They're workers who will be able to compete and lead as our Nation 
tackles the climate crisis.

    Delivering on all of these is the business of the Employment and 
Training Administration. If confirmed, I would be honored to lead this 
critical mission.

    Thank you. I look forward to addressing any questions you have.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you very much, Mr. Rodriguez.
    We will now begin our round of 5-minute questions, and I 
will ask my colleagues to please keep track of the clock and 
stay within those 5 minutes. And I will begin.
    Four in every 10 women expect the pandemic will have a 
long-term impact on their finances and inequities throughout 
our economy, and this has really left women, on average, less 
financially secure in retirement than men as a result of that. 
The COVID-19 pandemic has really made all of this worse. It was 
a problem before.
    I recently reintroduced the Women's Retirement Protection 
Act to address some of these long-standing inequities by 
expanding eligibility for employer-sponsored retirement plans 
to more part-time workers, most of them who are women, and 
expanding protections to prevent one spouse from undermining a 
couple's retirement resources without the other's knowledge and 
consent.
    Ms. Gomez, if you are confirmed, how will you plan to 
address some of the challenges that women face in saving for 
retirement?
    Ms. Gomez. Thank you, Chair Murray, for your thoughtful 
introduction. And I appreciated our discussion, and I thank you 
for your commitment to workers' rights, and particularly to 
issues related to protecting women in retirement, as you 
mentioned.
    I am fully supportive of efforts to increase financial 
security for those who face systemic barriers, including women, 
or who have been economically or socially marginalized, 
particularly as a result of the pandemic. And, if confirmed, I 
would look forward to working with Congress to better 
understand the challenges and to address those challenges so 
that women have more financial security in retirement.
    I thank you again for this very important issue and for 
that question.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Mr. Rodriguez, for the past several decades, workers have 
experienced growing inequality, a trend that has increased 
exponentially during this pandemic. Women, workers of color, 
workers with disabilities are increasingly being left behind.
    Workers who could benefit the most from workforce training 
programs are more likely facing challenges to access them. 
These programs are often not accessible to workers who work 
multiple jobs or have other demands on their time, like 
caregiving for their kids and other family members. Some 
workers may not be able to afford to take time off from 
working, or may not have access to transportation needed to 
reach training centers.
    I wanted to ask you, if you are confirmed, what steps will 
you take to expand access to workforce training programs for 
those workers who stand to benefit the most from those 
programs?
    Mr. Rodriguez. Senator, thank you for your question, and 
thank you also for your introduction.
    The President and the Secretary have made equity central to 
their agenda. It is one of the reasons why, if confirmed, I 
would be thrilled to join the Department of Labor.
    When it comes to equity and reform of our public workforce 
system, reauthorization of the central framework of our public 
workforce system is a priority for the President, and he has 
laid it out in his proposed budget. And, as I said, equity is 
at the center. Federal resources must deliver equitable 
outcomes for workers and communities historically underserved 
and most adversely affected by inequality and poverty. The 
President has proposed historic investments in the system, 
prioritizing the--those who have traditionally been 
underserved.
    Just as an example, in Florida, where I come from, we have 
seasoned workforce providers that work with returning citizens 
and are very attuned to the onramps that those ending a term of 
incarceration need to get to the right place in the workforce, 
whether that is adult basic education, whether that is career 
counseling, whether that is paid work opportunities.
    I would mention that throughout the programs that ETA 
administers, the President's executive order on equity has 
really set the tone. And, I would mention that, for example, in 
apprenticeship, where the President has proposed significant 
expansion of apprenticeship slots--apprenticeship, of course, 
is the premiere earn-as-you-learn training strategy.
    But, it is extremely important for many reasons, but one of 
them is because it is a great way to increase the 
representation of folks who have traditionally been 
unrepresented in the workforce. And the Secretary has partnered 
ETA and the Women's Bureau, for example, specifically to have a 
strategic approach to making sure that women are also better 
represented in apprenticeship.
    The Chair. Thank you very much to both of you.
    Senator Burr.
    Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    To both of you, you come from a tremendously strong and 
impressive family background, so it begs me to remind you of 
something you may not know, or maybe you have forgotten.
    In 2009, Democrats had 60 votes in the U.S. Senate, 256 in 
the House. They used reconciliation to pass massive legislation 
inserting government deeply into healthcare. For all of the 
many problems with that legislation, at least it was done in 
the light of day, starting on June 17th and ending almost an 
entire month later on July 15th. This Committee spent 13 
legislative days working on a record number of amendments.
    We even adopted a bipartisan amendment, even though it was 
abundantly clear that no Republicans were going to vote for the 
massive government expansion that made healthcare more 
expensive for millions; made millions more dependent on 
government; robbed Americans of the power to choose their own 
insurance; raised taxes on seniors, innovators, and any person 
who did not want or could not afford to purchase healthcare.
    We had a similarly exhausting process in the Senate Finance 
Committee. In 2017, when Republicans moved to pass the job--the 
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, we did it in the light of day. The 
Senate Finance Committee had a markup that lasted 4 consecutive 
days with 23 hours and 34 minutes of Committee time. Three 
hundred and fifty amendments were filed while 69 amendments 
were considered. Thirty-five bipartisan amendments were adopted 
as part of the chairman's mark.
    Now, we sit in Congress that has the narrowest margins in a 
century and not a single committee in the Senate is going to 
consider the current reconciliation legislation. No committee 
in the entire U.S. Senate will have a hearing or a markup on a 
bill that would massively grow government, massively grow 
dependence on government, massively shove government into 
decisions individuals, parents, families, and every company 
make every day of their lives.
    Ronald Reagan and Milton Friedman developed the adage that 
there was nothing so permanent as a temporary government 
program.
    Well, the Democrats are determined to prove them right. 
Under COVID, we temporarily expanded taxpayer subsidies for 
insurance companies. Now, they want to make them permanent 
without a markup.
    Democrats must not want to confront the reality that their 
proposals have actually cost millions of Americans to lose 
their health insurance plans and increase healthcare costs 
overall. They did not make healthcare more affordable; they 
made it more expensive. And, they just shifted the cost to 
taxpayers and younger Americans, making insurance free for some 
but grossly unaffordable for others. It is just a nationwide 
game of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
    PolitiFact even called it the Lie of the Year when 
President Obama and nearly every Democrat in Congress said that 
if you like your plan, you can keep your plan. Now, Democrats 
propose to literally take over health insurance, away from 
people in states that do not like it, and shove them into a 
government-run plan.
    The great philosopher, C.S. Lewis, warned us against this 
type of arrogance in government when he said that a tyranny 
exercised for good of its victims may be the worst oppressive; 
and warned us against those who torment us for our own good 
because they will torment us without end so that they do so 
with the approval of their own conscience.
    Democrats failed to force all states into Medicare--
Medicaid expansion scheme. They failed to make healthcare costs 
cheaper, failed to make health insurance cheaper. But, not to 
worry. The technocrats', bureaucrats', professors' lounge is on 
top of it. If they did not get it right, no worries. They will 
just try again, and again, no matter what you want because they 
know best.
    They have also decided that states should no longer be 
responsible for licensing and approving of who runs healthcare 
in their states. Democrats trust the Federal Government to make 
decisions for you, but out in the real world, we think people 
should have the ability to make these types of decisions for 
themselves.
    After 12 months of constant debate and struggles over 
health insurance, you would think someone on that side of the 
aisle would actually understand the concept of how insurance 
works. A 3-year long open enrollment season is only aimed at 
killing private insurance. There cannot be any other 
explanation.
    Enrollment seasons exist so insurance companies know who is 
purchasing coverage in order to negotiate rates with providers 
and hospitals so they can plan ahead, so they can have a viable 
network, and not go out of business. All of this creates 
predictability and lowers premiums.
    I understand Democrats think subsidies can fix any problem. 
But, no matter how much they want, it is impossible to repeal 
the laws of economics. So, instead, they propose to take 
insurance markets they break, break them further, and cut 
checks to insurance companies with the hopes they will not 
notice. This is an exceedingly bad idea.
    I hope I have given you a little insight into the past.
    I yield back.
    The Chair. Senator Smith.
    Senator Smith. Thank you, Madam Chair, and welcome to our 
two nominees. It is wonderful to be here. And welcome to your 
family, as well. Thank you for your willingness to serve our 
Country in this way.
    I am going to try to ask each of you a question, and I am 
going to start with Ms. Gomez. I would like to follow-up on the 
conversation you and I had, I think it was earlier this week. 
It has been a long week.
    After I was appointed to the Senate in 2018, one of the 
first things I did was go to Duluth, Minnesota to meet with a 
group of Teamsters retirees, and they told me about their deep 
concerns about the impending insolvency of their pension plan, 
the Central States Pension Plan.
    Here is this group of individuals who had worked hard, done 
everything right, paid into their pension, and now, that hard-
earned pension was at risk of insolvency, through no fault of 
their own or the management of the pension.
    Vickie, one of the retirees, told me about how if she lost 
this pension, if it was not there for her, she says, I don't 
have a Plan B. Plan B for me is living under a bridge.
    Now, earlier this year, I am so grateful that we were able 
to pass landmark legislation to provide a lifeline to these 
retirees and to keep multi-employer pension plans solvent for 
at least the next 30 years. And now, we turn to implementation, 
which is always challenging, and we need to make sure that 
implementation works.
    Ms. Gomez, if you are confirmed, what will you do to 
address the implementation challenges that we are seeing here 
and to work with us to make sure that these plans get the full 
funding that they need to stay solvent for 30 years?
    Ms. Gomez. Yes. Thank you, Senator, for that question, and 
I did enjoy our conversation however many days ago that may 
have been. I have lost--sort of lost track.
    Before the American Rescue Plan was passed, there were 
millions of Americans who were in the same situation as the 
worker you described, who had worked their entire careers 
toward a pension that was now at risk of being lost, with plans 
approaching insolvency, and with the PBGC being itself at risk.
    If confirmed, I expect to be fully briefed on the current 
status of the rulemaking process, and to work with the other 
Departments in making sure that we implement a program that 
achieves the mission of that law and has the appropriate 
safeguards so that plans that are entitled to this relief and 
eligible for this relief will receive the assistance that they 
need; assistance that really gave a sigh of relief, not to use 
the word loosely, but to both the unions and the employers that 
were contributing to those funds so that they could make sure 
that they lived up to the promise that they made to those 
employees.
    I look forward to, if I am fortunate enough to be 
confirmed, working to implement those safeguards in moving 
forward. Thank you.
    Senator Smith. Thank you. I look forward to working with 
you on that, as well. I appreciate that very much.
    Ms. Gomez. Thank you.
    Senator Smith. Mr. Rodriguez, I would like to talk with you 
briefly about registered apprenticeship programs. And I want to 
draw your attention to some great work that is happening in 
Little Canada, Minnesota, which is being done at the Finishing 
Trades Institute of the Upper Midwest, which is led by IUPAT, 
the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.
    What they are doing is pretty unique. They are--it is an 
authorized institution of higher education in the State of 
Minnesota, and they are running an official registered 
apprenticeship program around industrial painting and coatings 
and glazing and others, other activities. And, so, they are 
getting--developing skilled tradespeople and helping students 
earn their degree and qualifications. And it is also cutting 
edge because they are doing great work to advance equity and 
serving people who have historically been underserved and 
underrepresented in these trades.
    I would welcome my colleagues, including my Republican 
colleagues, if you are interested in joining with me and 
working with me to support this type of apprenticeship college, 
I would be delighted to work with you on this.
    This is my question, Mr. Rodriguez. Can you speak to how 
you would approach the workforce education system, including 
registered apprenticeships, under your purview at the ETA?
    Mr. Rodriguez. Senator, thank you so much for your question 
and for your commitment to apprenticeship and to the training 
of the workforce.
    I am familiar with the Finishing Trades Institute in 
Florida, as well. And the reason--reasons that you mentioned 
that apprenticeship is the benchmark earn-as-you-learn strategy 
are not only because it is cost-effective for government; it is 
a win-win for employers and employees. But, also, because it is 
an extremely effective tool that we have to address 
underrepresentation in many occupations.
    I absolutely would, if confirmed, would be honored to work 
with you. And, I know that the Administration has as a priority 
the National Apprenticeship Act, which would be the first 
effort to do so since the 1930's.
    Senator Smith. Thank you very much.
    I yield back, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Yes.
    Senator Tuberville.
    Senator Tuberville. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Thank you both for being here today.
    Mr. Rodriguez, Congress right now is in the middle of 
debating a $3.5 trillion bill with all kind of programs in it. 
My Democratic colleagues continue to talk about pay-fors in 
ways that they somehow can justify spending that much money. I 
know you are a big fan of expanding unemployment benefits, and 
you want to make--as we all want to make sure everybody has 
access.
    We also know that over the past year and a half, we saw 
tons of fraud in unemployment. In California alone, we know 
there has been found out to be 11.4 billion in fraudulent 
payments sent out; possibly over 20 billion. I am sure other 
states were in similar positions. The Department of Labor 
Inspector General estimates that more than 63 billion have been 
paid out through fraud.
    Mr. Rodriguez, what is being done to recover the money? 
Will people be prosecuted? And what will you personally do if 
confirmed?
    Mr. Rodriguez. Senator, thank you so much for your question 
and for your concern for the 53 unemployment systems.
    It is absolutely the case that transnational criminal 
syndicates exploited the unreadiness of states with respect to 
security concerns. That is especially true with remote identity 
verification. The just--again----
    A footnote from Florida, as well. We learned that there was 
a--that the identities of 58,000 claimants were impacted by a 
data breach. So, these are live issues. They are very, very 
important.
    The pandemic exposed these long-standing challenges in our 
unemployment system, not just about access, as you mentioned, 
but also in security. The design of our systems was out of 
touch with the modern workforce, but also, the architecture of 
these systems was outdated and inflexible, and the fact that 
they were ill-equipped for security threats was part of that.
    The Administration has moved forward with support from 
Congress, most recently through ARPA, to address equitable 
access, but also to root out the fraud plaguing the systems.
    It has provided immediate technical assistance to states, 
sending teams of specialists.
    It has also had a focus on increasing the capacity of 
states, particularly with identity verification, and is 
developing open modular technology to help update and protect 
the systems, in addition to deploying grants to states.
    If confirmed, I would also look forward to working with the 
modernization office that the Secretary has established, as 
well as working with state unemployment systems on these 
solutions. They are critically important.
    But, I would note one of the reasons why it is so important 
to get this right is that despite the failures in our 
unemployment systems, they nevertheless were the reason why 53 
million workers were able to stay afloat during the pandemic 
and helped stave off an even deeper recession. So, we do need 
to tackle these challenges.
    Senator Tuberville. Yes. Mr. Rodriguez, we cannot afford 
that many billion in fraud. And it will get worse. We know that 
organization is the key to winning in this situation, so I know 
you will be well organized.
    Ms. Gomez, please briefly walk me through what it means to 
be a fiduciary as it is defined by ERISA.

    [Technical difficulties.]

    Ms. Gomez. There is a five-part test for determining 
whether an individual is a fiduciary, and there is really no--
there is nothing that is more central to ERISA than defining 
who is a fiduciary.
    But, in determining exactly who is a fiduciary in different 
contexts has been the source of some disagreement, and it has 
been a long road to get there. And I look forward, if I am 
fortunate enough to be confirmed, to working with the SEC, as 
well as with the Department to be briefed on the efforts of 
looking at the definition of a fiduciary in different contexts 
and taking another look at the conflict of interest rule and 
how it would apply in different situations.
    Senator Tuberville. Would you agree that a fiduciary should 
always act in the best economic interest of investors and work 
to maximize the investors' total return on a risk-adjusted 
basis? Yes or no. I am running out of time.
    Ms. Gomez. Thank you, Senator, for that question. I think, 
unfortunately, that is not a yes or no question.
    Fiduciaries have various fiduciary duties, one of which is 
to act in the best interests of the participants and the 
beneficiaries of the plan, which has different nuances as to 
exactly how that would work. And I would need to look at the 
circumstances of the situation in order to address any given 
question as to how to act in a--as a fiduciary in that--with 
respect to that decision that is being made.
    Senator Tuberville. You would hope it would be in their 
best interest after you have made all your decisions, is what 
you are saying?
    Ms. Gomez. It--yes, thank you, Senator, for that 
clarification. It should be--the cornerstone of being a 
fiduciary is acting in the best interests of the participants 
and beneficiaries. How one does that may differ depending on 
the decision that is being made.
    But, I would look forward to--I would commit to making sure 
to always work with fiduciaries to make sure that they are 
acting in the best interests of the participants and their 
families with respect to these plans. And thank you.
    Senator Tuberville. Thank you.
    Thank you, Madam Chair. It went over a little bit, but 
thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Hickenlooper.
    Senator Hickenlooper. First, thank you, Madam Chair.
    Thank you both for your commitment to public service and 
your willingness to go through this ordeal.
    First, Mr. Rodriguez, I was going to ask you a question. I 
believe we have come to a point where we really need to help 
this Country reimagine and think holistically about workforce 
training and how it interfaces with education and training, 
really on a cradle-to-grave circumstance.
    Apprenticeships provide an opportunity for workers to earn 
while they learn, with a job waiting at the end of the program. 
And apprenticeships with the trades is how we create 
electricians and plumbers and all manner of tradespeople. But, 
also, in business now, increasingly we see more 
apprenticeships.
    My friend, Senator Braun, and I just held a hearing on 
innovative adult and youth apprenticeships. We want to make 
sure that--or at least I want to make sure that you recognize 
and you are willing to work with us to expand the range of 
apprenticeship opportunities to new industries, recognizing 
that we owe so much to the apprenticeships that have been 
created by our trade unions. In other words, they have created 
a template that is very valuable.
    My goal, to figure out ways that, even as we expand those 
opportunities, that we--within organized labor, we also look at 
making sure that we expand that to businesses more traditional, 
like banks or insurance companies.
    Mr. Rodriguez. Senator, thank you. I enjoyed our 
conversation last week, and I also enjoyed watching the 
Subcommittee hearing. This is exciting stuff in terms of what 
the future of workforce training looks like.
    Yes, absolutely. The easy answer is yes, if confirmed, it 
would be an honor and a thrill to assist you in this.
    The President has made it a priority to invest in 
apprenticeships, has advocated for the National Apprenticeship 
Act, and the collaboration that goes into this type of work is 
exactly what will get that done.
    I will mention in terms of the broadening from the 
industries where apprenticeship was born or is traditionally 
associated with it part of the, President and Secretary's 
agenda includes expanding on these pipelines, in IT, 
healthcare.
    I would mention that if you just look at the apprenticeable 
occupations where registered apprenticeships have been coming 
online in Florida, they are cybersecurity support tech, customs 
broker, medical assistant, childcare development specialist, 
surgical technologist.
    The model is absolutely there. There is a lot of excitement 
and interest around what we can do in apprenticeship. And, as I 
said, I would be--if confirmed, it would be an honor and a 
thrill to continue working on this.
    Senator Hickenlooper. Thank you. And I agree. I enjoyed our 
conversation very much. I ended that Zoom with a sense of 
exhilaration and potential that we could really get something 
done and really make real progress on this.
    I have other questions that I will submit to paper, but I 
want to make sure I ask Ms. Gomez a question, as well.
    The Pugh Charitable Trusts highlighted a 2017 survey that 
cost was the chief concern, the most significant concern, among 
small business owners when they were setting up a retirement 
plan.
    How best can we streamline costs? How can we lower the 
overall costs for plan administration for small businesses who, 
in the end, are employing roughly half--creating half the 
American jobs?
    Ms. Gomez. Thank you, Senator, for that question.
    As I mentioned in my testimony, both of my own parents, who 
I hope are watching today, worked for small businesses for most 
of their--most or if not all of their working lives and left 
those jobs without the benefit of a pension. So, this issue is 
very important to me personally.
    If I am fortunate enough to be confirmed, I would want to 
be briefed on EBSA's work in this area. But, I think that it is 
really important to make sure that all small business owners 
are educated and aware of the tools and the options that are 
currently available to them; and to dispel any myths that might 
be out there about the administrative and cost burdens in 
offering such a plan; and to the extent that there are burdens, 
to work together to offer cost-effective solutions that still 
protect--that do not offer a reduced cost at the detriment of 
not protecting the participants----
    Senator Hickenlooper. Right.
    Ms. Gomez [continuing]. And beneficiaries in that plan.
    But, I thank you for that question and I look forward to 
working with you if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed.
    Senator Hickenlooper. Yes, me, too. I mean, there are so 
many possibilities. Again, I have other questions I will 
submit, but I am out of time, so I will yield back to the 
Chair. Thanks.
    Ms. Gomez. Thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Braun.
    Senator Braun. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    We have had several conversations over the last few months, 
and all of the journey we have come through in trying to keep 
small businesses healthy and alive. And I do not know how 
closely we are paying attention to how the economy was working 
pre-COVID, but it was heading on many cylinders in the right 
direction. We were raising wages in some of the toughest places 
that we could not do before. We had lowered certain regulations 
that seemed to impede the health of small businesses. And the 
proof was in the pudding. It was working.
    Now, through COVID, it seems like we are trying to pile 
more and more onto the agenda of small businesses. It is going 
to make it tougher rather than easier. And my observation is 
small businesses, medium-size businesses, large businesses, 
have put protocols in place that have finally given them the 
rhythm to come through what was a devastating national health 
issue, but also, that was probably as devastating, if not more 
so, to certain parts of the economy--small businesses being 
one.
    A lot of what I see coming down the pike looks like it is 
trying to get the Federal Government more and more involved in 
what almost any business owner would say that is one of their 
biggest challenges to begin with, is to run a good business, 
try to raise wages, compete. And things seemed to be working.
    There are not many here that actually have been small 
business owners in the Senate, and especially that have grown a 
business into a national company over a period of nearly 4 
decades. And, so much of what I see, and when I am in Indiana, 
which is the biggest manufacturing state per capita in the 
Country, great business climate, much of what we are doing 
here, or proposing to do through the Biden administration, 
makes absolutely no sense. Generally speaking, it looks to me 
like it is a way to Federalize what we do on Main Street well, 
and where it was working better than it ever was.
    I know so much of what comes from here is done with good 
intentions. Everything I see--you can call it Build Back 
Better--it looks like it is building back government better. 
And it is coming with all of this stuff that we have had to 
contend with over year--over the years, including competition, 
trying to make a better living for our employees. And it was 
working because the proof was in the results, pre-COVID.
    I want to ask each of you a simple question. Do you think--
and I asked the Secretary of Education, do you think parents 
should be the primary stakeholders in their own kids' 
education?
    Who should be the primary driver in small business? Should 
it be the states in the business climate that they try to 
nurture, or should it be the Federal Government, which appears 
to be the Biden agenda?
    What should be more important, directives from the top 
down, from the Federal Government to Main Street, or should 
that be the business of local and state governments primarily? 
Which, it is clear there, too. The report card is out. You have 
got half the states that got good business climates, had low 
unemployment rates, did not need a Federal bailout.
    I would just like your--each of you to give an opinion on 
that basic question. Should it be driven from the top down, 
Federal Government, or should local and state governments be 
the drivers behind what works for small business?
    Mr. Rodriguez, you can go first.
    Mr. Rodriguez. Thank you, Senator. I appreciated our 
conversation a few weeks ago. I know that Main Street small 
businesses are very important to you. As I mentioned in my 
opening, I was raised by a small business owner.
    If you look at the workforce programs that the ETA 
administers, fundamentally, it is a partnership. It is a 
partnership between the public and private sector. It is a 
partnership between local, state, and Federal. And that is how 
our system really works best.
    If you look at the investments that the President is 
proposing and that the system already makes, the data-driven 
effective investments in meeting the challenges that, it helps 
small business compete more effectively.
    Small businesses tend to be the beneficiaries of the labor 
exchange services that ETA manages, as well as the on-the-job 
training. But, the system is designed as a--to have dual 
customers--businesses that need talent, and workers that need 
quality jobs or the training they need to get them.
    It is not simply about helping small businesses compete, 
but these targeted investments based on data to make sure that 
we are getting a good return on investment are also about the 
self-sufficiency of our workers.
    Senator Braun. Thank you. Ms. Gomez.
    Ms. Gomez. Thank you, Senator Braun. And again, thank you 
for the--taking the time to speak with me a week or so ago and 
talking to me about your own experiences as a small business 
owner.
    I will just use a few words from Senator Burr earlier today 
that I think the most important thing is to tackle these 
challenges together; and that there are a number of different 
parts that will work toward that.
    If I am fortunate enough to be confirmed, my role would be 
working as the Assistant Secretary with respect to EBSA, and I 
would do everything within my control to work to make sure that 
EBSA is doing its part in reaching all of the goals that you 
have talked about. And I look forward to working with you.
    Senator Braun. Thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Kaine.
    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    A couple of my colleagues have used this as an opportunity 
to kind of poke at Build Back Better, so let me tell you why I 
am such a strong supporter of it. I do not think it is about 
growing government at all. The----
    We are doing an infrastructure bill that is bipartisan, 
that is fantastic. Both of you in your capacities with DOL will 
have work to do. Who is going to build the infrastructure? I 
mean, I am looking at an awful lot of newspaper articles right 
now that say we cannot hire school bus drivers; we cannot hire 
truck drivers. There is incredibly tight labor markets right 
now.
    Who is going to build the infrastructure? If we make an 
infrastructure investment like this once in a generation and we 
do not have the workforce to do it, we will have really missed 
this huge opportunity.
    Let's look at Build Back Better. It is significant in terms 
of training today and tomorrow's workforce.
    The investments in childcare help people get back into the 
workforce.
    The investments in pre-K help get people back into the 
workforce.
    The investments in community college and career and 
technical education and workforce development programs help 
expand a workforce that can do what we want to do with the 
bipartisan infrastructure bill.
    The immigration reform components of Build Back Better help 
us with the workforce.
    Child tax credit does not grow government. It puts dollars 
in the hands of families who have children. It does not grow 
government at all. It is about helping families.
    Funding for childcare and pre-K does not grow government 
because this is a mixed-delivery model. If church-based 
childcare is high quality, they are going to be able to get 
assistance to do an even better job, or educate more kids.
    I look at the Build Back Better bill as a necessary 
component to the infrastructure bill to create the workforce of 
today and tomorrow that will enable us to do it. And 
overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, the Build Back Better 
components are support directly to families, and especially 
families with children; not growing agencies. And that is why I 
am so excited about it.
    Look, it is going to undergo some sandpapering and changing 
and all of that, but at the core, this is about having the 
workforce that we need to be competitive, to help people get 
good jobs, be competitive globally.
    I want to ask you, Ms. Gomez. You have had an interesting 
experience because you were a legislator, a state legislator. 
Your position at ETA will require you to work with a lot of 
stakeholders. So, talk to me about your work as a legislator 
and what you did in a partisan environment in your state 
legislature to build bridges across partisan aisles and involve 
stakeholders in the work that you were doing.
    Ms. Gomez. I think I will turn that over to Mr. Rodriguez.
    Senator Kaine. Oh, he was the legislature--legislator. 
Sorry about that.
    Ms. Gomez. No worries.
    Mr. Rodriguez. Yes, sir. No. Thank you.
    Thank you for the question, Senator. And as Ms. Gomez also 
mentioned the Ranking Member did talk about working together on 
economic relief, on infrastructure, as you mentioned.
    I think that, if confirmed, I would be looking at my record 
of service in Florida, I believe that I would bring a track 
record of working across party and ideological lines. Those of 
us who do so, do so out of a commitment to those who entrusted 
us to serve.
    I would mention that on--I mentioned the reform of our jobs 
programs, other economic issues that required bipartisan 
collaboration. At the local level, working with our local 
workforce board and local Chambers of Commerce, especially 
during the early days of the pandemic to help promote layoff-
aversion programs that really work.
    I am proud of some of the letters of support that were 
submitted to this Committee include both labor and industry. 
And I think that, to me, I am very honored by that because, 
that type of collaboration and work is what the American people 
demand and I think will move the agenda forward.
    As you mentioned, fundamentally, Building Back Better is 
about a more competitive, more fair, and more resilient 
economy, post-pandemic. And, again, if confirmed, I would be 
honored to join that mission.
    Senator Kaine. Just one last comment that is something that 
we have to grapple with, and some of my colleagues have 
mentioned this. When Congress did this dramatic expansion of 
the UI program, enhanced benefits, extra weeks of benefits, but 
especially the expanded universe of people who could qualify 
for UI, there was fraud in the program in most states. And most 
of the fraud came in that third category when we, as Congress, 
demanded that states expand to cover the self-employed and the 
independent contractor and the part-time gig worker. We needed 
to do that during COVID, but sadly, a lot of people, tried to 
get over on us and we need to enforce against them.
    However, I do think we do have significant reforms to do 
going forward to make sure our UI universe extends to cover the 
way people work today. My colleague, Senator Warner, always 
points out that the traditional UI system only covers about 
one-third or 35 percent of people who work today because they 
work in different ways. And with appropriate safeguards and 
with appropriate financing mechanisms, we need to figure out a 
way to have a UI system that is designed for the way people 
work today, not for the way people worked 50 years ago.
    I would look forward to working together with both of you 
on that important and challenging project should you be 
confirmed. Thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Marshall.
    Senator Marshall. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    I want to start by echoing Ranking Member Burr's comments, 
concern that for all practical purposes, this Committee is 
going to spend a trillion dollars over the next 10 years, and 
there has been no input from the minority.
    I was sent here to save Medicare, and I am afraid what I am 
seeing could destroy Medicare; that already, Medicare is on its 
way to a financial crisis. I am concerned that when we expand 
Medicare, it is going to dilute it for those senior citizens 
that we have already.
    I want to turn now and talk about unemployment and vaccine 
mandates. As you all know, we had record unemployment through 
the COVID epidemic, partially, mainly because of government 
shutdown. And Kansas, like many states, just did horrible 
trying to filter through the unemployment issues. Our office 
got more calls and complaints about trying to access the 
unemployment program than any other issue. It dominated our 
phones and our emails for over a year.
    Probably the biggest fraud we are going to see from the 
trillions of dollars we have appropriated for COVID will be 
unemployment fraud. Kansas is estimated to have $700 million of 
fraud. I am going to guess that nationwide it will be $70 
billion. Seventy billion dollars that could have went toward 
hard-working Americans who needed the help.
    On top of this, now, the White House has issued a vaccine 
mandate, which is going to--so many people are going to lose 
their jobs and going to go back to unemployment now. My phone 
again, blowing up from small businesses, from big businesses. 
They are telling me maybe 30 to 50 percent of their line 
workers, the blue collar workers, are not vaccinated. They do 
not plan on getting vaccinated. This is a personal choice they 
have made.
    This vaccine mandate is a slap in the face of so many 
people that ran to the battle--the nurses, the doctors, the 
ambulance drivers, our police officers. They developed natural 
immunity because there was no vaccine--the natural immunity 
well proven to be better than vaccines--but the CDC and this 
White House will not acknowledge natural immunity.
    You can see that we are on the path to more record numbers 
of people becoming unemployed because of Joe Biden's vaccine 
mandate.
    My question, obviously, is for Mr. Rodriguez. You have 
little, if any, experience dealing with unemployment. How will 
this experience, when we see unemployment rates spike again 
here in the next several months due to this vaccine mandate, 
what is your plan to help Kansas and other states be able to 
handle the problem better?
    Mr. Rodriguez. Senator, thank you for your question, and 
thank you for the concern you have for your constituents during 
very difficult times.
    The President and the Administration are so committed to 
making sure and reducing the number of unvaccinated Americans, 
decreasing hospitalization, making sure--and it is primarily 
because they are trying to protect life, but also because it 
allows us to make sure schools can remain open, to make sure--
--
    Senator Marshall. That is not my question. I think--look, I 
am in favor of the vaccine. I have been vaccinated. My parents 
vaccinated. I hope they get the booster shot this week. But, 
there is a group of people, no matter how much you pontificate, 
no matter how much Dr. Fauci pontificates, that is not going to 
get the vaccine. There is going to be a spike in unemployment.
    What are you going to do to help prevent this fraud from 
reoccurring and help Kansans get their unemployment insurance 
in a timely fashion?
    Mr. Rodriguez. Absolutely the strength of the unemployment 
system is not where it needs to be, still. Prior to the 
pandemic, we know that there were long-standing challenges----
    Senator Marshall. What is your solution? Why do we--we do 
not need to describe the problem again. I have described the 
problem. What are your solutions to the problem?
    Mr. Rodriguez. If confirmed, my goal would be to carefully 
monitor the 53 unemployment systems to make sure the right 
people are getting the right benefits on time.
    It would be to support the Administration's ongoing efforts 
to provide assistance to states. I described a little earlier, 
particularly with security and identify verification issues, 
but also to help states streamline their systems. A lot of 
these systems are outdated. In some states, they were outdated 
when they came online. We are talking about 1980's technology 
in some states.
    Also, to enforce the laws regarding unemployment to make 
sure that they are fairly administering the programs.
    I share your commitment to making sure that these systems 
work. We hope that we do not have another crisis, but the 
Administration has been committed--and you see it in the 
President's budget proposal--to making sure that we--the 21st 
Century unemployment system also has mechanisms to 
automatically ramp up, and currently, our systems are not able 
to do that. But, they should be able to. It is an 
Administration's priority.
    They have also said that they want to adjust the funding 
mechanisms to make sure that our unemployment systems are more 
nimble when it comes to staffing and resources, et cetera.
    If confirmed, I would be honored to work with you in making 
sure that our systems are strong, secure, and accessible.
    Senator Marshall. Thank you. I yield back.
    The Chair. Okay.
    Senator Baldwin.
    Senator Baldwin. Thank you, Chair Murray.
    I hope to also get one question each for you, but starting 
with Ms. Gomez.
    Employee retirement savings have become increasingly 
concentrated into one of three large index funds. These big 
three manage money for over 63 percent of all employee-
sponsored retirement plans. As a result, one of the big three 
funds is the largest shareholder in nine out of 10 publicly 
traded companies in the United States, giving these funds the 
power to swing votes at almost every annual meeting in America, 
and they use workers' retirement savings to do it.
    Analysis of these voting records reflect that many funds 
vote to advance their own business interests at the expense of 
workers' retirements and efforts to address long-term risks, 
like climate.
    I have proposed legislation in the form of the EMPOWERS Act 
to allow workers to nominate and elect trustees to represent 
them and set proxy voting guidelines that align with their 
values and their inherently long-term investment strategies.
    Ms. Gomez, if confirmed, would you work with me to give 
workers more power, more say, over their retirement savings to 
ensure that their fiduciaries are investing for the long term 
and not in their own short-term business interests?
    Ms. Gomez. Yes. Thank you, Senator, and I really enjoyed 
our conversation and the various things that we discussed. And 
I appreciate your commitment, and I share in your commitment to 
support workers and their families both in the short term with 
respect to health benefits, and then the longer term with 
respect to their retirement benefits.
    I am understanding of the EMPOWERS Act and how you are 
working toward--through that act to allow workers to have 
representatives at the table, working alongside with the plan 
sponsor to try to manage the plan--those plans and the 
decisions that are made by those plans.
    If I am confirmed, fortunate enough to be confirmed, I 
would commit to working with you and with Congress to better 
understand the implications of the existing rules and how the 
EMPOWERS Act could play a part. And with, again, my main focus 
being protecting the interests of the participants and 
beneficiaries and making sure that we are acting in their 
interests with respect to all decisions, including decisions 
made with respect to investments.
    Thank you for that question.
    Senator Baldwin. Thank you.
    Mr. Rodriguez, the Senate passed the bipartisan 
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and it makes historic 
investment in building and rebuilding American roads, bridges, 
ports, drinking water systems, broadband, and more. In 
Wisconsin, and elsewhere, we will need a fully trained 
workforce if we are going to reap the full benefits of this 
investment.
    I am going to associate myself with the eloquent words of 
Senator Kaine about how the Build Back Better budget works hand 
in glove with that infrastructure bill. And, I would also add 
to that the USICA, which is the U.S. Innovation and 
Competitiveness Act, which I think will bring more 
manufacturing jobs back to the United States.
    I have introduced legislation called the America's College 
Promise Act that creates a new Federal-state partnership to 
provide 2 years tuition-free at a community or technical 
college, helping students get a certificate or a credential, a 
2-year degree, or transferable credits toward a 4-year degree.
    Community and technical colleges are a cornerstone of the 
job training ecosystem in America, and I believe that we need 
to include tuition-free community and technical college in the 
Build Back Better Act so that we can train the workers that we 
need to fill the jobs created by USICA and the bipartisan 
infrastructure bill.
    The Employment and Training Agency provides high-quality 
training to American workers through several programs. How do 
you view the role of community and technical colleges in this 
training system? And how important is it that we invest in 
these institutions so that they can prepare workers for the 
historic investments that we are planning in infrastructure and 
manufacturing?
    Mr. Rodrigues. Senator, thank you for your question and for 
your commitment to not just infrastructure, but our workforce 
needs that is going to help us get there.
    Our public workforce system is set up as a partnership 
between Federal, state, and local, and our 1,200 community 
college systems, our career and technical institutions, as 
well, are critical partners in that.
    I come from a community where there are strong 
partnerships, public, private, across institutions. I had a 
close working relationship with my community college when I was 
in the legislature. They play a critical role in tackling our 
local workforce needs, including apprenticeship. And, I guess 
they will be happy that I am on their mailing list because, on 
my way out the door to catch the plane, the newsletter from my 
local community college was sitting right there where I have 
all the mail and featured was one of the many auto tech 
apprenticeships coming online.
    Our community college--colleges, plural, have been really 
central partners in deploying all of the workforce strategies 
now and in the past, whether it is a trade adjustment 
assistance, apprenticeship.
    I do look forward to, if confirmed, working with you on 
those critical priorities.
    The Chair. Senator Murphy.
    Senator Murphy. Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
    I caught the end of Senator Marshall's remarks. I 
appreciate that he shares a view on vaccines with many other 
Republicans. I will just say my constituents see it differently 
in Connecticut. They see the lack of our ability to get over 
this pandemic because of our inability to get people 
vaccinated, as a barrier to folks going back to work. Folks--
people do not feel safe in settings in which they do not feel 
fully protected.
    Vaccine mandates, whether they be public sector or private 
sector mandates that is a way to get people back into the 
workforce; a way to get people off the sidelines.
    Ms. Gomez, two questions for you, the first on the issue of 
mental health parity. This is something that Senator Cassidy 
and I have worked together on over the years. At the end of 
last year, we included in the end-of-year spending bill some 
additional authorities for the Department of Labor and other 
Departments to use in order to assess whether insurers are 
complying with the Mental Health Parity Act of 2008.
    What we have seen over the years is that there are all 
sorts of what we call non-quantitative treatment limitations, 
red tape and bureaucracy, that gets put in front of families 
that are trying to access substance abuse treatment, mental 
health treatment, that frankly you do not run into when you are 
trying to get reimbursement for an orthopedic procedure, right, 
or treatment for heart disease.
    You have got staff limitations while you are trying to 
oversee 2.5 million health plans. I just want to get a sense 
from you as to whether this is a priority for you, using these 
new authorities to try to make sure that plans are in 
compliance with the mental health parity law and how to make 
sure that you maximize oversight given the staff limitations 
that you have.
    Ms. Gomez. Yes, and thank you, Senator, for that question.
    If I am fortunate enough to be confirmed, I would expect 
that this would be one of the first briefings that I receive, 
and I would hope that it would be that because it is something 
that is a huge priority for the Administration, as well as for 
the Secretary of Labor. He and many Congresspeople have spoken 
about their own personal experiences with respect to both 
mental health and substance use disorder issues.
    This is a top focus for me, as well. I cannot think of any 
one family, including my own, who has not been personally 
touched by the--by issues involving mental health and substance 
use disorder. And particularly in light of the pandemic, it has 
just become a more challenging issue.
    Once I can better understand the current opportunities that 
the Department has, as well as the challenges that they are 
facing that you refer to, I would look forward to working with 
folks in the Department and Congress on what would be most 
helpful, where they need additional assistance in being able to 
make the promise of mental health parity a reality since it has 
been a while coming.
    I do think that many plans do want to make good on those 
promises, and that EBSA has been working with them to try to 
give them the tools to be able to do so. At this point, we are 
seeing the need for more enforcement in that area.
    Senator Murphy. Yes.
    Ms. Gomez. I would commit to working with them on that.
    Senator Murphy. Great. Thank you very much. An opportunity 
for bipartisan engagement here. The Trump administration 
requested some additional authorities that I hope you would 
look into, as well, and I hope this Committee will take 
seriously.
    Last, I just wanted to get into the weeds on an issue that 
I am learning about, and this is the pension risk transfer 
industry. This is this growing practice by which private equity 
firms, led by Apollo Global Management, essentially buy up the 
pension liabilities and transfer them into annuities. But, 
these entities are sort of seeking to profit off of the spread 
between the investment returns and the benefits that are paid, 
and they often end up moving the assets away from traditional, 
secure investments into much riskier investments. Some of the 
companies that do this were amongst those that we had to bail 
out in 2008 and 2009.
    As I said, I am learning about this, but I have heard a lot 
of concern about this growing practice, about the risk that it 
puts many pension benefits in, especially since you lose ERISA 
and PBGC protection when they get moved into these annuities.
    I just wanted to know if you are familiar at all with this 
practice and whether you might commit to working with Members 
of the Committee to look into this market, and to figure out if 
it does provide a benefit or a real downside risk to pension 
holders.
    Ms. Gomez. Yes. And thank you, Senator, for that follow-up 
question.
    I am familiar with the issue. I do think that, as with 
everything on every issue, I commit to support workers and 
their families and making sure that we are acting in their 
interests. And I would look forward to working with you and 
other Members of Congress, as well as with the Department, to 
look into this issue and see what needs to be done to make sure 
that we are working in the interests of these--the workers and 
their families.
    Senator Murphy. Great. Thank you to both of you for your 
willingness to serve.
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Rosen.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you, Chair Murray, Ranking Member 
Burr, for, of course, holding this hearing; and, for you 
nominees, for being here today, your willingness to serve. We 
thank you.
    Mr. Rodriguez, I want to start with you and talk about 
expanding registered apprenticeships in STEM and cybersecurity 
because, as a former computer programmer and systems analyst, I 
really understand the need for robust and diverse STEM and 
cyber workforce. We have so many challenging demands in these 
sectors.
    Like you said, some of those programs were written in the 
1980's when I was a young programmer myself. And, so, we 
understand the rise in crippling cyberattacks against our small 
businesses, our healthcare systems, the workforce shortages. 
And these are great jobs, high-paying jobs, and I think really 
creative jobs.
    I have introduced a lot of bipartisan bills to expand these 
registered apprenticeships in cybersecurity, increase the 
number of STEM educators, of course not just in Nevada, but 
across the Country, and to improve interest in STEM and 
cybersecurity among young students and training the next 
generation.
    As you know, the Employment and Training administration, 
they have jurisdiction over registered apprenticeships. So, if 
confirmed, how do you plan to tackle the workforce shortages in 
STEM and cybersecurity? And will you commit to working with me 
to expand those registered apprenticeships and worker training 
opportunities?
    Mr. Rodriguez. Senator, thank you so much for your question 
and for your commitment to an expansion of the registered 
apprenticeship model.
    As I had mentioned earlier, I enjoyed watching the 
Subcommittee hearing on employment and workforce safety, and I 
did note that you mentioned cybersecurity and advanced 
manufacturing apprenticeships.
    The registered apprenticeship model really is a fountain of 
innovation in terms of branching out from those industries 
where traditionally apprenticeship has been, and the reason for 
that is that it is the benchmark earn-as-you-learn training 
strategy. Not just the track record, but the fact that it 
responds more quickly and more effectively to workforce needs 
than other strategies. It is also an important tool to help 
increase access to good jobs for underrepresented populations.
    There are many things that the Administration has proposed 
and is doing that I am committed to that would increase the 
apprenticeship and on-the-job training in on-demand--in in-
demand areas, including STEM professions, as well.
    I would note that our--where apprenticeships are 
traditional--in the construction trades, for example--that if 
you ask--if you look at earning potential, lifetime earning 
potential for apprentices going through a joint labor 
management construction apprenticeship, it is comparable to a 
college education.
    I think that the Administration is very committed, as we 
Build Back Better, to high-quality jobs. And the types of 
strategies that you are talking about in growth industries are 
absolutely important for us to meet the needs of employers and 
be competitive, but also deliver on those quality jobs to make 
sure that, when workers are getting credentials, that those are 
credentials that are portable across the labor market, which is 
one of the hallmarks of a registered apprenticeship.
    Senator Rosen. Well, I am glad that you brought up regular 
apprenticeships because when we Build Back Better and we pass 
the Investment Infrastructure--Infrastructure Investment and 
Jobs Act, we are going to be doing a lot of building, so we 
need construction. And, so, Job Corps, we have our Job Corps, 
our construction and renovation--it is a huge backlog we have 
going on.
    According to 2019 data issued by Employment and Training 
Administration, there is a $700 million backlog in facilities 
maintenance projects at Job Corps centers across the Country, 
including more than a $6 million backlog for much-needed 
repairs for us at the Sierra Nevada Job Corps center in Reno, 
Nevada.
    This backlog, it not just limits our physical building 
infrastructure, but our ability to train and prepare and get 
more and more students in these really important programs, high 
sector--in demand--jobs that are in high demand--advanced 
manufacturing, healthcare, and labor.
    How do you plan, if confirmed, Mr. Rodriguez, to approach 
this problematic backlog and repairs at our Job Corps centers 
in Nevada and across the Country? And will you commit to 
working with me to expand these--also these important 
resources?
    Mr. Rodriguez. Senator, thank you for your question about 
Job Corps. Job Corps is a priority for the Administration, as 
well as the Secretary. If confirmed, I would look forward to 
getting fully briefed on the status of the unfunded backlog. I 
know that it is a priority for the Administration and, as I 
said, the Secretary.
    I would also look forward to moving forward on the 
priorities that the Administration has in terms of rebranding 
and expanding access to Job Corps programs. There are 121 Job 
Corps centers in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, DC, and I know 
that everybody probably has a--several stories that they can 
bring to mind of individuals that have been impacted. They are 
life-changing experiences for those who go through the program.
    If you speak to the president of the Miami-Dade Chapter of 
the NAACP, who is a workforce professional in our school 
system, she will tell--she is a 1999 graduate of the 
Gainesville program, and she will tell you, it accounts--she 
accredits it with the guidance that she needed to be 
successful.
    It is absolutely a priority, and I would be honored to work 
with you if confirmed.
    Senator Rosen. Well, thank you very much.
    I see my time is over. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Burr, do you have any additional remarks?
    He does not.
    I just want to make a couple comments. I want to--Senator 
Kaine mentioned the UI system and that it--that, as we saw last 
year, saw unprecedented use of that system, and we need to--it 
is not perfect. We need to update that. And Mr. Rodriguez, I 
look forward to working with you on that.
    Finally, I just want to say, we have had a lot of, as 
Senator Kaine said, pokes at the Build Back Better agenda. We 
heard a lot of comments about getting back to normal, or 
somehow normal was better, and I just do not feel that. I feel 
like normal was not great before the pandemic.
    The pandemic really exacerbated many of the issues families 
face today, and we have a responsibility as a Country to make 
sure that our workforce can go to work, and that is why 
childcare is such an important piece of this. If you do not 
have anywhere to send your kids, and we have childcare deserts 
across this Country, you cannot go to work. Or, if you do go to 
work, you worry about what is happening to your child rather 
than being competent at work.
    We have--we do not have a family leave--paid family leave 
in this Country, so many family members go to work when they 
are sick. We saw what happened during this pandemic when that 
occurred.
    Senator Baldwin, who is here, has been a champion of making 
sure that our community college and technological--technical 
colleges are there for people to get the kinds of skills they 
need to be at work.
    That is why this is such a critical time for us to address 
this as a Nation, and I look forward to working with all of our 
colleagues as we continue to put that package together and move 
it through the Senate.
    That will end our hearing today. And I want to thank my 
colleagues, as well as our witnesses today--Ms. Gomez and Mr. 
Rodriguez--for your thoughtful answers. I look forward to 
working with both of you once you are confirmed to help our 
families and our workers and our retirees across the Country.
    For any Senator who wishes to ask additional questions, 
questions for the record will be due tomorrow, on October 8th, 
at 5 p.m. The hearing record will remain open until then for 
Members who wish to submit additional material for the record.
    With that, the Committee stands adjourned.
    [Whereupon, the hearing was adjourned at 11:37 a.m.]

                                   [all]