[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17585]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            JOBS, JOBS, JOBS

  (Ms. WILSON of Florida asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. WILSON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, last week there was a ribbon 
cutting at Miami International Airport for 36 new customer service 
kiosks. While this was greeted as good news, there is still a great 
unanswered question: What happens to all the customer service workers 
that machines like this replace?
  It is the same story at grocery stores, drugstores, toll booths, and 
so on. Customer service jobs that used to be gateways to the middle 
class are increasingly being replaced with technology.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not bad news. Time-saving technologies must be 
created, constructed, maintained, and repaired--and this takes human 
labor as well, but we must train our workforce to perform these jobs. 
This is the essence of the skills gap that is afflicting our 
communities. By cutting job training programs, reckless budget cuts 
like the sequester are making it harder to close the skills gap and, in 
turn, reduce unemployment. The mantra of this Congress should be jobs, 
jobs, jobs.

                          ____________________