National Apprenticeship Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, we all want to help. We all want to help the people in our community find their way; do better for themselves; seek the opportunities that support themselves, their dreams, and their families.

Now, this bill establishes ratios of journeymen and apprentices on the job.

What does that mean?

That means you have to have somebody watching when somebody is pulling wire, you have to have somebody watching when somebody is learning to sweat joints because you have got to make sure it is done right, you have got to make sure it is done safely. And that is great. That ratio is going to be established by the Department of Labor based on something--hopefully by people in the trade that know what they are doing.

But this is what it also does: It says that if you have a collective bargaining agreement, you don't have to worry about those ratios. You can make your own up. So the union and the business can make their own, but everybody else has to use the Department of Labor standards.

Ladies and gentlemen, one standard for all. If it is good for the goose, it is good for the gander. This is picking winners and losers. This is saying, if you are not in a union, you have got to have a different standard. Oh, by the way, the different standard is it is always more expensive for you than it is for the union. Oh, by the way, we see that all the time.

Additionally, this bill prevents entities not affiliated with the union from obtaining Title II grants, the grants we are talking about in this bill. They can't get them. You have to be in a union.

Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you see what this is. It is okay for me, but not for thee. It is the same old thing in Washington, D.C., and it is the same thing we are seeing around the country: If you are hooked up with the elite, if you are hooked up with the entitled class, you get the fruit. If you are not, you get punished, you are left out in the cold.

Ladies and gentlemen, we want to see one standard. We all want to help our friends and we all want to help the people in our community realize their dream. But picking winners and losers, which is exactly what this does, actually keeps people out of work, increases the price, and picks winners and losers. That is not what our Government is supposed to be doing. That is not what we are supposed to be doing.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote on this bill.

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