[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,

[[Page S1550]]

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

[[Page S1551]]

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.

                          ____________________