Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Agriculture, Rural Development, Energy and Water Development, Financial Services and General Government, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. ISSA. Madam Speaker, I thank everyone here for giving serious consideration to amendment No. 24 to H.R. 4502.

Madam Speaker, I speak today with my colleagues to support an expansion that was done under the last administration that has had a profound and positive effect on apprenticeships.

The amendment would simply allow funding to be available for the implementation of the Department of Labor's Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs, otherwise known as IRAP.

In 2017, former President Trump acted to enhance the skills and training options for all Americans so they may compete in today's jobs. IRAP expanded high-quality apprenticeship programs with a focus on rapidly growing industries like healthcare and STEM-based positions.

IRAP apprenticeships were unique from the traditional government programs in that they were designed to be more nimble and responsive to the changing workforce that we find ourselves in today. Engaging in learning with new programs doesn't fit the old model, and the IRAP expansion is extremely important for the following reason. I support the apprenticeship programs that all of us are familiar with, the skilled trades and the like; but, in fact, today there are new skills that are being developed in which the curriculum must be nimble and must change.

In just 4 months of operation, the program had 131 new offerings in the healthcare field alone.

What better time than in the middle of a pandemic would there be to try to enhance nursing and nursing-like skills to be advanced?

This is a time in which we are critically short in these areas, and with the return of a new variant of coronavirus we could well find ourselves in desperate need of a quick turnaround of new apprentices. If we permit this program to continue, it will eventually support 2 million new apprenticeships.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to look at this in the most open and positive way, nothing could be more important today--particularly to the healthcare community--than, in fact, to expand flexible apprenticeships.

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