[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3370]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       LET'S PASS THE SKILLS ACT

  (Ms. FOXX asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, today, millions of Americans are looking for 
work. At the same time, there are 3.6 million jobs sitting vacant, in 
part because there aren't enough qualified applicants to fill them.
  What can we do to erase the skills gap? Washington has tried, to the 
tune of $18 billion, to run more than 50 different workforce education 
programs that are supposed to be teaching job seekers the skills and 
expertise required to compete for jobs.
  Despite the hefty price tag, only a fraction of job seekers are 
completing these programs and many more are getting slowed in a maze of 
duplication and one-size-fits-all mandates. In 2012, President Obama 
said:

       I want to cut through the maze of confusing job training 
     programs, so that people have one program, one place to go 
     for all the information and help that they need.

  The SKILLS Act is the only plan on the table that treats job seekers 
as individuals and brings us closer to the President's stated target.
  Let's pass the SKILLS Act.

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