[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 11 (Tuesday, February 8, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 8, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
  TRAINING PROGRAMS SHOULD REMAIN IN REGIONS HARD HIT BY UNEMPLOYMENT

  (Mr. OWENS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, in the current budget there is a 
recommendation to eliminate certain programs for the training of the 
unemployed. Programs which offer training for only 6 months have 
finally been declared unworkable by the Secretary of Labor.
  For many years we have been saying to the Secretary of Labor and 
everybody else concerned that programs which offer only 6 months of 
training did not work. We wanted a minimum of 1 year for training 
programs. Now they have discovered it does not work, but instead of 
replacing the unworkable programs in communities like mine, where there 
is high unemployment, the unemployment rate is three times the national 
average for adults. Instead of replacing the unworkable programs with 
programs that do work by offering 1-year training, they are moving the 
programs out and taking them to places where defense workers are being 
laid off.
  Mr. Speaker, I am all in favor of training and retraining workers who 
have been laid off in defense plants, but do not take the money away 
from the high unemployment area.
  There are programs in the allied health professions which guarantee a 
job after completing them, if you do it for 1 year or 2 years. These 
programs already exist in Downstate Medical Center, located in my 
district. We can guarantee a job to every person who goes through a 1-
year training for certain jobs and 2-years training for other jobs. 
Unemployment in my district can be resolved to some degree by just 
funding the program in the area, in this program that already exists.
  Mr. Speaker, it will be unjust and unproductive to move funds out of 
poor areas to provide for training in defense conversion. We can take 
the money out of the defense budget, provide more money for training 
for everybody, and not rob Peter to pay Paul.

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