[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 49 (Tuesday, March 16, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1549-S1551]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
JOBS Act
Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I am here on the floor today to talk
about workforce training, a critical issue always but particularly now
as we get to the point where we are coming out of the COVID-19 crisis,
the economy is picking up, and we need more workers in this country.
It is a significant issue to be able to help individuals to be able
to achieve their God-given potential in life, but also it is really
important to our economy because workforce is one of the big challenges
we have. So to be able to get good-paying benefits for those workers,
it is important but also to help our economy fully recover from the
effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It has been over a year now since the pandemic changed all of our
lives. In the early weeks and months of that crisis, it looked like
things were going to continue to be really tough. I stayed in touch
with business owners and workers across my home State of Ohio to hear
how they were handling the closures, the layoffs, the other painful
side effects of the crisis in those early months. Finally, things are
getting better, and we are beginning to see more reopenings.
In Ohio, we just learned that people are going to be able to get
vaccinations if they are 40 years old or older versus 60 years old and
older as of the end of the week. And within another 10 days, everybody
16 years and up will be able to get a vaccine. And we have opened up
some wonderful mass vaccination centers. I volunteered at one on
Saturday. I spent 5 hours directing people and heard a lot of emotional
stories about people really excited about getting back to their
families--grandparents being able to see their grandkids for the first
time in a year and the opposite, children being able to visit their
parents or grandparents for the first time since the COVID-19 crisis
hit, and people excited about getting back to work and back to school.
So we are going to be able to see this because of Operation Warp Speed
and the heroic efforts of our medical researchers and begin to help
move our economy forward.
In fact, we just found out that the economy added a healthy 379,000
jobs in February. That was encouraging. And more and more businesses,
again, are reopening and replacing the signs that said ``Closed Because
of COVID'' with signs that now say ``Help Wanted.''
I was at a hearing today, and the representative from the National
Association of Manufacturers told us that there are over 500,000
manufacturing jobs that are being offered right now. In other words,
there is a shortage of manufacturing skills right now. So that is a
good thing in the sense that that means there will be opportunity, but
we have to have the skills to be able to fill those jobs.
Perhaps most promising, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office,
called CBO--it is a group around here that gives us advice on the
economy--said that even without the most recent spending package, the
$1.9 trillion package, that the economy is going to recover to where it
was prepandemic by midyear. So by June 30, they think the economy will
be back to where it was prepandemic. And we had a good economy then. In
February, a year ago, we had the 19th straight month of wage growth of
3 percent or more. We had 3.5 percent unemployment, a 50-year low. We
had historically low unemployment for Blacks, Hispanics. We had the
lowest poverty rate we had in 60 years. Things are going well, not just
for the economy but bringing people out of the sidelines and in to
work. But, obviously, the pandemic hit hard. And, now, as the economy
begins to recover again, we have to be sure that people have the skills
they need to take advantage of a growing economy.
The pro-growth policies that we have had along the way, including the
tax cuts, tax reform, regulatory relief, had helped to make sure that
economy was not just strong but also inclusive. So we have to keep that
up as well
But just as the biggest challenge pre-COVID, when we had a strong
economy, was finding workers with needed skills, we are back there
again. So if we want to get back to the kind of economy we all want,
the workforce challenge has to be addressed.
In fact, again, I think it will be an even bigger challenge now
because during COVID-19, there has been a dislocation in the economy.
Some jobs have been lost, and people have to find new jobs and develop
skills. Some are going to have to leave the hospitality industry, for
instance, and they might want to go into the tech sector or go into the
manufacturing sector or the healthcare sector. So that ability to shift
jobs and develop skills is more important than ever.
I am hearing it from employers all over Ohio; that as unemployment
continues to fall, there are thousands of job openings for positions
like welders and machinists in our manufacturing plants. I mentioned
the national figure of 500,000 jobs are available right now, so we are
certainly seeing that in Ohio in our factories, medical technicians in
hospitals, a lot of interest in techs and in people who are willing to
work in healthcare to help others, computer programmers, coders. Almost
every sector of the economy is looking for people who have coding
skills. So these are the kinds of jobs that economists call the
midlevel skills; you know, they need more than a high school degree,
for sure, but don't need a college degree. And they actually are jobs
that pay quite well with good benefits. So these are the kinds of jobs
that we need to be sure that we are providing out there.
The supply of skilled workers in that category, students pursuing
post-high school certificates in one of these skilled areas, falls way
short. They call it the skills gap. And it is holding back our economy
from reaching its potential, just as it is holding back individuals
from achieving their potential.
There was one study from 2019 that found that the skills gap could
cause us to miss out on nearly $1.2 trillion of economic output over
the next, at that point, 10 years. So, unfortunately, that skills gap
hasn't been closed. In fact,
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again, I think it is more important than ever that we address it.
The best option, I think, is to tackle it head-on by getting more
people enrolled in these programs that can provide the skills training
and equip them with the specialized skills that they need.
When people hear the words ``skills training,'' their first thought
is often of career and technical education, CTE. There are some great
CTE programs around the country. Some in my generation called it
vocational education, but this is not your father's Oldsmobile. This is
not the same old vocational education; this is high-tech stuff. It is
really exciting what is going on. These programs are run by middle
schools and by high schools that teach students an incredible variety
of skills: health sciences, business management, culinary arts,
manufacturing skills. By the way, they are incredibly popular. The good
programs are really oversubscribed.
One data point that I found interesting said that 92 percent of high
school students are taking at least some kind of skills training course
from the CTE programs. That doesn't mean 92 percent are enrolled full
time in CTE but taking at least some of those courses.
I have visited those schools all over Ohio. Again, they are exciting.
They are specialized high schools that offer students a more
specialized path than the traditional path that many students are
encouraged to take, which would be to try to get a 4-year college
degree.
By the way, again, this path, this specialized path, where you get
these skills, leads to no student debt--assuming you could find a way
to pay for the skills training, which we will talk about in a second--
and a good job with good pay and good benefits, as opposed to many
people who go to college and end up having a lot of debt and not having
a degree that enables them to get the kind of job that they want. So it
is a great option to do CTE and to get the skills training.
I am cofounder and cochair of what we call the Senate CTE Caucus,
Career and Technical Education Caucus, with my colleague Senator Tim
Kaine of Virginia. And we have worked to strengthen CTE programs, made
them more accessible, made them more affordable, provided more Federal
help for them. We have gone now from 2 to more than 29 Senators in our
CTE Caucus. Our goal is to increase awareness of these CTE programs and
the skills training they provide and get students interested in that
kind of career training, provide the resources and opportunities that
will then provide them what they need for good jobs with good pay.
We have also worked together on bipartisan legislation to make sure
that the Federal Government is a better partner to States and local
communities as they work to ensure these young people have the skills
to find good jobs.
But CTE at the high school level alone isn't going to solve our
workforce needs. Most industry-recognized certificates require more
than the CTE training. They require a higher level of training. And CTE
programs, as outstanding as they can be, are usually inaccessible to
Americans who are no longer of high school age but would stand to
benefit greatly from these skills programs. So people who are out of
high school, adults, to get that more advanced certificate or to help
older learners, the best option is to instead attend a certificate-
granting technical workforce training program, the kind offered by your
community college or your technical school.
These programs are outstanding. At Ohio technical schools, like the
Eastland-Fairfield Career Center, the Vantage Community College, the
Delaware Area Career Center, Stark State, and others, I have spoken to
students in technical programs who tell me how excited they are to put
these skills to work. Unfortunately, individuals potentially interested
in these programs often cannot afford to make the investment in that
education without some financial assistance.
I talked to Dr. Para Jones today. She is with Stark State in Summit
County, Akron, OH. She told me an interesting story. She said that they
have a real need in that area of Ohio, and, frankly, around the
country, for truckdrivers. So for people to have the certificate, which
is called a CDL--commercial truckdrivers license--they had openings in
their courses, but it was $5,000. It cost $5,000 to get a CDL. And even
though these students would be making that $5,000 and more in the
coming years because truck driving is going to be quite a good career
for them--50-, 60-, 70,000 bucks a year, plus benefits, depending on
how much they are willing to drive--the 5,000 bucks was just too much
of a burden, too high a hurdle So her view is: You guys have to help us
to be able to help students get into the programs they want to get
into.
I remember talking to a welder at a career and technical high school
program. It was a woman, 1 of 2 women in a class of 12 people--10 guys,
2 women. She was doing some pretty sophisticated welding, but she said
she wanted to take it to the next level; she wanted to be an underwater
welder, which pays a lot. We are talking over a hundred thousand bucks
a year, easily; yet she couldn't get the skills at the high school
level.
And when she was offered a Pell grant to go to college, she decided
to take that instead, even though she wanted to be a welder. The
government couldn't help her go to welding school. And this welding
school was expensive. It makes the $5,000 for getting the CDL look like
nothing. So it was tens of thousands of dollars to get this advanced
certificate.
But she was offered the Pell grant to go to college, so she was going
to college, even though she would rather be a welder. By the way, these
welders are highly sought after by the energy industry and others.
So it is one of those examples where, if we could direct some of
these Federal resources, not taking it away from colleges or
universities but into our training programs, it would make so much
sense, particularly for low-income students. And that is how I get to
the Pell grants.
So Senator Kaine and I have introduced legislation that is called the
Jumpstart Our Businesses by Supporting Students Act, or the JOBS Act.
So we came up with an acronym so we could end up with the JOBS Act.
It makes all the sense in the world. It says that instead of getting
a Pell grant that can only be used for going to a college or
university, you should be able to get a Pell grant to get one of these
shorter-term, industry-recognized certificates. They have to be high-
quality, industry recognized. I think it would be much better for the
students and certainly much better for the economy. Those are the
middle skills that we need so desperately. Yet we are not supporting
those students.
By the way, of those students who end up going to college with a Pell
grant, they say that fewer than half end up getting a college degree in
the end. Why? Well, the Pell doesn't pay for your full expenses. There
are very few colleges in Ohio where you can use a Pell and get through
without having significant additional expenses on top of that.
It is tough, and a lot of people drop out to be able to go back to
work, as opposed to these career and training programs where, No. 1,
you are looking down the tunnel and you can see the light at the end of
the tunnel. You have got 10 weeks in this training program. You can get
there. And you see at the end of that--to mix my metaphors here, you
see the rainbow at the end of that, which is a job, a great job, with
good benefits. Plus, the $6,400 from the Pell Program pays for it. For
the most part, these programs are fully paid for by the Pell grant. So
it is a really good idea.
And the JOBS Act is something Senator Tim Kaine and I have introduced
before and we are introducing again this week. We want these low-income
students to be able to get what they need to be able to get the good
jobs, and we want our economy to be able to get those positions filled
so that we can continue to grow our economy as a country.
By the way, it doesn't mean these students aren't going to go on to a
college or university. I was in a CTE program several years ago talking
to some students, one of whom was going to a local manufacturer who was
a supplier to GE Aviation, which makes aircraft engines. He ended up
going--50,000 bucks a year at the time, good benefits--to this
manufacturer. He was learning welding and other skills.
Well, that company ended up paying for his college later, which I
later
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found out, which is not atypical. So it is a good example of where it
doesn't mean you are not going to go to college. Some people will want
to, and some people won't. This young man wanted to get an engineering
degree, and the company was happy to help him do that to be able to
come back to that company and to provide those skills.
So whether it is learning how to conduct HVAC installation, how to
operate factory machinery, how to program computers, these programs
teach students practical, transferrable skills to be able to keep our
economy moving.
Increasing access to the skills training through the JOBS Act can
also serve to lend a helping hand for those who have lost their jobs
due to COVID-19. As I said earlier, many jobs have come back and are
continuing to come back as we reopen our economy, but we are still down
about nine, nine and a half million jobs from before the pandemic.
Some are at businesses that are now closed or in industries that have
struggled and may be fundamentally changed as a result of the pandemic.
In other words, some of these jobs won't come back, so people need to
re-up their skills training. Folks who had those jobs, giving them the
option to invest in a new skill set through technical education funded
by a Pell grant is a ray of hope, a chance for them to get back on
their feet, to find new, exciting, good-paying jobs.
I am pleased to say the JOBS Act has been endorsed by the National
Skills Coalition, the Association for Career and Technical Education,
the Association of Community College Trustees--in fact, last year, it
was their No. 1 priority, among the community colleges--the American
Association of Community Colleges, and other groups.
The reason the JOBS Act has this kind of strong support is it is the
best proposal out there that will help fill the skills gap we have
right now. It will cover programs that, at a minimum, require 150 hours
and 8 weeks to complete. Alternative proposals severely limit the
programs by requiring them to have too many hours, 320 hours. Ohio
community colleges have told me none of their short-term training
programs would qualify under that higher number of hour requirement.
Programs like welding, precision machining, and electrical trades--we
need the JOBS Act now. As we work to get our economy back up to speed,
passing the JOBS Act is a top priority for Senator Kaine, for myself,
and for other Members on both sides of the aisle.
Let's be sure that we work together to get this legislations across
the finish line. It just makes too much sense. It is going to help tens
of thousands of people have better opportunities. It is going to help
our economy fill the critical jobs it needs to recover.
We need to seize this opportunity, seize it now, get this economy
back on track, and ensure Ohioans and all Americans have this
opportunity to develop the skills to grow in the career of their choice
and fulfill their potential in life.
I yield back.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
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