[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 100 (Tuesday, July 7, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H7712-H7713]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1415
              NATIVE AMERICAN IRON WORKER TRAINING PROGRAM

  Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 1129) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to provide 
an annual grant to facilitate an iron working training program for 
Native Americans.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 1129

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. IRON WORKING TRAINING PROGRAM FOR NATIVE 
                   AMERICANS.

       (a) In General.--To the extent funds are made available for 
     this purpose, the Secretary of the Interior, acting through 
     the Bureau of Indian Affairs, shall annually provide a grant 
     to an eligible entity to provide an iron working training 
     program for members of federally recognized Indian tribes. An 
     eligible entity that receives a grant under this section 
     shall provide a program that meets the requirements of 
     subsection (b) and may require such other criteria of the 
     program and participants of the program as the eligible 
     entity considers appropriate to further the goals of the 
     program.
       (b) Requirements.--A program funded by a grant under this 
     section shall--
       (1) provide specialized training in iron working skills to 
     adult members of federally recognized Indian tribes;
       (2) provide classroom and on-the-job training; and
       (3) facilitate job placement for participants upon 
     successful completion of the requirements of the program.
       (c) Eligible Entity.--To be eligible for a grant under this 
     section, an entity shall--
       (1) have proven experience in providing successful iron 
     working training programs to Native American populations; and
       (2) have the facilities necessary to carry out such a 
     program with a grant provided under this section.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
Guam (Ms. Bordallo) and the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) each will 
control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Guam.


                             General Leave

  Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and to include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Guam?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1129 would authorize appropriations 
for an Interior Department program that makes grants available to fund 
a Native American ironworker training program. The appropriations for 
this program have been made for many years, and this program provides 
both classroom and on-the-job ironwork training for members of 
federally recognized Indian tribes.
  This program would also facilitate job placements for those tribal 
members who successfully complete the requirements of the program.
  With unemployment rates rising to a staggering rate of over 80 
percent on some Indian reservations, this program is desperately 
needed. The ironworker training program provides Native American 
participants with the knowledge and the ability to join a skilled labor 
force as a career.
  I want to commend our colleague Mr. Lynch of Massachusetts for his 
hard work and dedication to this legislation, and I ask my colleagues 
to support its passage.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1129, which will create an 
ironworking program for Native Americans. The manager for the majority 
has effectively explained the bill, but I would like to make a few 
additional comments.
  This country is suffering from record unemployment, but few areas are 
feeling the effects of job loss worse than Indian country. I hope that 
when Native Americans complete the training available through this 
program that we're authorizing today in this bill, jobs will be 
available for them.
  Unfortunately, if the Environmental Protection Agency has any say, 
there will be a lot fewer jobs. One of the first major actions taken by 
the EPA under the Obama administration was to seek to revoke a key 
permit issued in 2008 to

[[Page H7713]]

the Navajo Nation for the construction of a 1,500-megawatt power plant 
employing the most advanced clean coal technology available today. This 
is the Desert Rock project.
  Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley said that Desert Rock would 
create ``500 permanent jobs at union wages on a reservation with an 
unemployment rate hovering around 50 percent.''
  This is an example that every community in America should follow, but 
it's an example lost on the Democrat leadership of this House. I hope 
my friends on the other side of the aisle consider that job training 
makes sense only when those jobs are available.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
sponsor of this bill, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch).
  Mr. LYNCH. I thank the gentlelady from Guam for yielding me this 
time. I also would like to thank our chairman, Nick Rahall, and Ranking 
Member Doc Hastings of the Natural Resources Committee for their 
cooperation in allowing this bill to move forward.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1129, legislation to authorize 
the Secretary of the Interior to provide annual grants for the 
development of regional ironworker training programs for Native 
Americans. Notably, an identical version of this legislation passed the 
House of Representatives under suspension of the rules by the 110th 
Congress by a vote of 302-72.
  Currently, only one ironworker training program that is specifically 
geared towards Native Americans exists in the United States, and that 
is the highly successful National Ironworkers Training Program for 
American Indians based in Broadview, Illinois. The Broadview program 
has stemmed from a strong and enduring partnership between the Federal 
Government's Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Ironworkers International 
Union, one that has lasted over 35 years.
  Working in conjunction with the International Association of Bridge, 
Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, the Broadview center provides 
highly specialized training in ironworking skills and related 
fabricating and welding shop classes and on-the-job education to Native 
American Indians from across the United States.
  Upon completion of the program, each student possesses essential 
knowledge in union structure and history, OSHA safety regulations and a 
variety of ironworking skills, including blueprint reading and related 
math, arc welding and the erection of structural steel. Broadview 
graduates are subsequently placed as apprentices at local ironworker 
unions nationwide and, as a result, are afforded the opportunity to 
pursue productive and high-quality construction careers.
  H.R. 1129 will build upon the success of the Broadview, Illinois, 
program by facilitating the establishment of regional ironworker 
training centers for Native Americans across the United States through 
the authorization of annual Interior Department grants. Mr. Speaker, 
the impetus behind the legislation is to provide occupational training 
to Native Americans residing in economically depressed communities, to 
accord them the opportunity to secure good jobs in the ironworking 
trade and ensure a solid future for themselves and their families.
  H.R. 1129 also stems from and expands upon the ironworkers 
longstanding relationship with the Native American community. As a 
structural ironworker for 20 years, I have been a member of Iron 
Workers Local 7 for 30 years, and I am actually past president of that 
union. I am well aware of a longstanding contribution made by Native 
Americans to the ironworking industry.
  As noted by the Ironworkers International Union and its president, 
Joe Hunt, Native Americans have been a part of ironworker history since 
1886, when the St. Lawrence River was bridged on tribal land in Quebec 
and ironworkers' foremen first hired Native Americans as ironworkers.
  In my own role here, as an ironworker apprentice, I worked under a 
number of Native American foremen and general foremen. It was a number 
of Native American journeymen ironworkers who taught me how to weld and 
gave me a chance at that trade. As an ironworker foreman and a general 
foreman myself, I had an opportunity to have a lot of young Native 
American Indians working in my crews, not only in the Boston area, but 
out in Indiana and Illinois, as well as New Mexico and Arizona.
  And I have had a long relationship with members from the Navajo 
Tribe. I actually lived for a while on the Navajo Reservation, and I 
count those men and women as some of my closest friends, and I am 
greatly indebted to them. I also worked with members of the Apache 
Tribe and Mohawk Tribe in the New England area. This will really, I 
think, give a wonderful opportunity to Native Americans who have sort 
of adopted the ironworking industry as a family business. And it was 
not uncommon for me to be, as a Caucasian, a minority on a lot of the 
construction sites that I worked on in New Mexico and in other parts of 
the country where American Indians really provided the majority of the 
working members on those jobs.
  Again, I would like to thank Chairman Rahall and Ranking Member 
Hastings for their wonderful support on this legislation, also, Member 
Dale Kildee, who has also put his shoulder to the wheel on this bill.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 1129.
  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I again urge Members to support this bill.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from Guam (Ms. Bordallo) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 1129.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Ms FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a 
quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not 
present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.
  The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.

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