Jake Ellzey Asks Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer About Efforts To Expand Registered Apprenticeships

7 months ago

During a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-TX) questioned Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer about registered apprenticeships.

Transcript

00:00The chair recognizes Representative Elsie.

00:04Thank you, Madam Chair, Ranking Member.

00:07Madam Secretary, it's good to see you again.

00:08Nice to see you too, Congressman.

00:10We were on the same hallway up in Longworth on the seventh floor,

00:13and it's good to see you back in an even greater position.

00:19You know, I'm going to use a little sarcasm here.

00:22You've been on the job for 66 whole days.

00:25How do you not know everything already?

00:27I'm shocked and I'm saddened that you don't know everything right now.

00:33I'm grateful not to.

00:3466 days.

00:34I mean, we interviewed the Secretary of the Navy yesterday.

00:36He'd been on the job for 50 days.

00:38I want to say, other than him, you might be the most traveled secretary

00:43because the President has sent you all across the country to actually do your job.

00:47How many days have you been traveling in the last 66?

00:49Oh, gosh.

00:50We've been on the road.

00:51We've visited eight states, and I don't know the exact number of days,

00:54but I was just back from a 12-day.

00:57Well, that's a lot of travel.

00:58You're not spending time in the office, decorating the office.

01:00You're out in the workforce doing your job,

01:04and I think that you need accolades for that instead of criticism for it.

01:09You were raised, was your dad a single father?

01:12No, no.

01:12My parents were married and are still married.

01:14I think they celebrate 60 years, but my dad was a teamster and worked hard.

01:17And that was in Hanford, which was where I was stationed,

01:19so we have that in common.

01:21Hanford in the Central Valley of California, where there's a lot of agriculture,

01:26and he worked hard to raise you.

01:28That's right.

01:29And I think that our colleagues on the other side need to recognize that you're probably

01:35the most well-rounded Secretary of Labor that has been on both sides,

01:39has had a difficult upbringing, has had a life in which you had to work,

01:44and you are perfectly suited for this job.

01:48And I think that everybody should want to work hard with you on this venture of making life

01:53better for the American worker.

01:56The American workforce is facing a growing skills gap in infrastructure-critical industries

02:00across the nation's economy.

02:02The return on investment for a four-year college, as we've discussed,

02:05has decreased to the point Americans have been discouraged by the prospect of having to go to school

02:10and have too many in loans.

02:11For too long, we've emphasized this as the sole path to the middle-class American dream,

02:15but I think we're getting away from that now.

02:17So community colleges and trade schools provide hands-on, specialized training

02:21directly relevant to the job market.

02:23So it's great to hear from your testimony that almost 83,000 new apprenticeships have been registered.

02:28I'm currently working on legislation called the Apprenticeship Infrastructure Tax Credit Act,

02:33say that three times fast, incentivizing more apprenticeships across the board

02:37with an additional focus on recent military and military spouses.

02:41The president's goal of creating one million new apprenticeship opportunities is noble.

02:46So how might a targeted apprenticeship tax credit for employers complement the department's efforts

02:51to expand registered apprenticeships?

02:53Well, certainly we want to remove all barriers, and I think that that's something that we hear

02:57across the board from.

02:58And so I look forward to hearing what, you know, this type of legislation that you'll work with your colleagues on,

03:05because, again, we want to grow the workforce.

03:08And oftentimes, at least in my past experience, certainly in Department of Education and Labor,

03:15oftentimes it was accessed because of funding.

03:17And we see that across the board, whether it's expanded Pell Grants or any of those types of things,

03:22anything that we can do to grow that workforce and not make people make a decision where they want to continue

03:27or have to stay where they are, but they have options.

03:29And so I look forward to offering, again, that technical assistance that you may need

03:34in order to work with your colleagues if Congress so chooses to do that build.

03:37I think that would be, you know, something that could be definitely beneficial to the workforce as well.

03:42Well, I think that's great because employers, employers, not the federal government,

03:46but employers make the biggest investment in apprenticeships through the payment of wages and paid training.

03:51And what policies outside the current grant appropriations is DOL considering supporting?

03:57Well, anything that we can do to assist the public-private partnerships.

04:03And, again, as I meet with either business owners, employees, unions that come into the Department of Labor,

04:10the goal is to how can we get to yes?

04:13I mean, for far too long, the government has – we don't want them to be an adversary.

04:17We want them to be an ally.

04:18How can we assist and how can we help?

04:20And at the direction of the president, it is to go out there and get to a yes in growing this workforce

04:25and protecting our American workers and at the same time fulfilling, again,

04:29the mission of the Department of Labor, which is protecting those wage earners,

04:32those job seekers, and those retirees as they move through their entire continuum of being in the workforce.

04:38Thank you, Madam Secretary.

04:39Appreciate it.

04:40Appreciate it.

04:40Madam Chair, I yield back.

Jake Ellzey Asks Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer About Efforts To Expand Registered Apprenticeships

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