[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 18 (Thursday, February 17, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1657-S1658]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. FEINGOLD:
  S. 444. A bill to establish a demonstration project to train 
unemployed workers for employment as health care professionals, and for 
other purposes; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, today I am introducing the third in a 
series of bills intended to support American companies and American 
workers. Earlier this week, I introduced S. Con. Res. 12, which would 
set some minimum standards for future trade agreements into which our 
country enters, and S. 395, which would strengthen the Buy American 
Act. Today I am introducing legislation that would help workers who 
have lost their manufacturing or service sector jobs to be retrained 
for jobs in high-demand health care fields.
  According to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, 
Wisconsin has lost nearly 80,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000. 
Nationally, the country has lost more than 2.5 million manufacturing 
jobs since January 2001. In addition to the loss of manufacturing jobs, 
I am deeply troubled by the Bush administration's contention that the 
outsourcing of American service sector and other jobs is good for the 
economy. I am concerned about the message that this policy sends to 
Wisconsinites and all Americans who are currently employed in these 
sectors.
  There is something of a silver lining to the looming cloud of 
manufacturing and other jobs loss: the country's workforce development 
system.
  In spite of stretched resources and long waiting lists for services, 
our workforce development boards are making a tremendous effort to 
retrain laid-off workers and other job seekers for new jobs. And this 
effort is clearly evident in Wisconsin, where my State's 11 workforce 
development boards are leading the way in finding innovative solutions 
to retraining workers for new careers on shoestring budgets.
  I strongly support the work of these agencies and have urged the 
administration and Senate appropriators to provide adequate funding for 
the job training programs authorized by the Workforce Investment Act. I 
regret that the administration's budget request for fiscal year 2006 
does not provide adequate funding for WIA, and I will continue to work 
to ensure that the workforce development boards in my State and across 
our country receive the resources they need to help job seekers get the 
training they need to be successful.
  I am committed to finding resources to retrain those who have been 
laid off from the manufacturing and service sectors and who wish to 
find new jobs in high-demand fields such as health care.
  As most of my colleagues know all too well, we are facing a 
significant shortage of health care workers. Congress has made some 
progress in addressing the nursing shortage, but we need to expand our 
efforts. Shortages of health professionals pose a real threat to the 
health of our communities by impacting access to timely, high-quality 
health care. Studies have shown that shortages of nurses in our 
hospitals and health facilities increase medical errors, which directly 
affects patient health.
  As our population ages, and the baby boomers need more health care, 
our need for all types of health professionals is only going to 
increase. This is particularly true for the field of long-term care. 
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we are going

[[Page S1658]]

to need an additional 1.2 million nursing aides, home health aides, and 
other health professionals in long-term care before the year 2010.
  As our demand for health care workers grows, so does the number of 
jobs available within this sector. Currently, health services is the 
largest industry in the country, providing 12.9 million jobs in 2002. 
It is estimated that 16 percent of all new jobs created between 2002 
and 2012 will be in health services. This accounts for 3.5 million new 
jobs--more than any other industry.
  According to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, the 
surging job growth within health care will translate into a real need 
for workers) and real opportunity. In Wisconsin alone, there will be an 
additional 67,430 health care positions by 2012. This represents a 30 
percent increase in jobs in health care, over twice the rate of growth 
for Wisconsin jobs overall.
  Mr. President, workforce development agencies in my home State of 
Wisconsin are already working to support displaced workers in their 
communities by training them for health care jobs, since there is a 
real need for workers in these fields. These agencies are helping 
communities get and maintain access to high-quality health care by 
ensuring that there are enough health care workers to care for their 
communities.
  As the executive director of one of the workforce development boards 
in my State put it, ``[t]here are simply not many good quality jobs to 
replace manufacturing jobs lost to rural communities. The medical 
professions, by offering a `living wage' and good benefits, provide an 
excellent alternative to manufacturing for sustaining a higher, family 
oriented standard of living.''
  I believe we need to support our communities in these efforts by 
providing them with the resources they need to establish, sustain, or 
expand these important programs. For that reason, today I am 
introducing the Community-Based Health Care Retraining Act. This bill 
would amend the Workforce Investment Act to authorize a demonstration 
project to provide grants to community-based coalitions, led by local 
workforce development boards, to create programs to retrain unemployed 
workers who wish to obtain new jobs in the health care professions. My 
bill would authorize a total of $25 million for grants between $100,000 
and $500,000, and, in the interest of fiscal responsibility, it ensures 
that the cost of these grants would be offset.
  This bill will help provide communities with the resources they need 
to run retraining programs for the health professions. The funds could 
be used for a variety of purposes--from increasing the capacity of our 
schools and training facilities, to providing financial and social 
support for workers who are in retraining programs. This bill allows 
for flexibility in the use of grant funds because I believe that 
communities know best about the resources they need to run an efficient 
program.
  This bill represents a nexus in my efforts to support workers whose 
jobs have been shipped overseas and to ensure that all Americans have 
access to the high-quality health care that they deserve. By providing 
targeted assistance to train laid-off workers who wish to obtain new 
jobs in the health care sector, we can both help unemployed Americans 
and improve the availability and quality of health care that is 
available in our communities.
  I am pleased that this bill is supported by a variety of 
organizations that are committed to providing high-quality job training 
and health care services, inc1uding the National Association of 
Workforce Boards, the Wisconsin Association of Job Training Executives, 
the Wisconsin Hospital Association, the Northwest Wisconsin 
Concentrated Employment Program, the Northwest Wisconsin Workforce 
Investment Board, the Southwestern Wisconsin Workforce Development 
Board, the West Central Wisconsin Workforce Development Board, and the 
Workforce Development Board of South Central Wisconsin.
  Mr. President, in order to ensure that our workers are able to 
compete in the new economy, we must ensure that they have the tools 
they need to be trained or retrained for high-demand jobs such as those 
in the health care field. My bill is a small step toward providing the 
resources necessary to achieve this goal. I will continue to work to 
strengthen the American manufacturing sector and to support those 
workers who have been displaced due to bad trade agreements and other 
policies that have led to the loss of American jobs.
                                 ______