Blunt Rochester discussing jobs package in Newark.
This week, Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) this week unveiled a Jobs Agenda designed to strengthen Delaware’s workforce, address workforce shortages, fix supply chains, spur American manufacturing, and create more available and affordable housing.
The package includes seven separate pieces of legislation.
A large number of officials from the education, government, and private sectors were on hand for the announcement.
“From my time as Delaware’s Secretary of Labor, Head of State Personnel, and CEO of the Wilmington Metropolitan Urban League, to my time in Congress, there’s always been one word that has described and animated my work – jobs,” said Blunt Rochester. “That’s why I was so thrilled to join with leaders from across Delaware to unveil my comprehensive Jobs Agenda. The reality is that so many policy areas are connected to our ability to create jobs and for workers to fill them from creating available and affordable housing to giving justice-involved individuals a second chance and a clean slate to creating the workforce training programs of today and tomorrow and fixing our broken supply chains. There’s no one solution to unleashing the full potential of the American economy – which is why I’m proud to unveil this comprehensive package of bills, many of which are bipartisan and bicameral. I look forward to continuing my work in Congress to get the Jobs Agenda to President Biden’s desk.”
Agilent Technologies, which manufactures medical and scientific measurement equipment in Delaware, noted the it supports one of Blunt Rochester’s pieces of legislation, The Supply Chains Act.
The company issued the following: “This legislation is an important step forward in addressing our nation’s vulnerabilities to supply-chain disruptions and shortages, which were exposed during the COVID pandemic. The creation of a new office in the Department of Commerce to lead a government-wide effort to strengthen supply chains is critical to our economic competitiveness and national security,”
The Blunt Rochester Jobs Agenda includes:
- The JOBS Act
- This bipartisan and bicameral bill would expand eligibility for federal Pell Grant programs to individuals interested in pursuing short-term, high-quality education and training programs to address the worker shortage by closing the skills gap.
- The Housing Supply & Affordability Act
- This bipartisan and bicameral bill would create a new Local Housing Policy Grant (LHPG) program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
- The Clean Slate Act
- This bipartisan and bicameral bill would remove major barriers for many Americans in finding employment, securing housing, and accessing education by automatically sealing the federal records of individuals convicted of low-level, nonviolent drug offenses after they successfully complete their sentence.
- The Building Resilient Supply Chains Act
- The legislation authorizes $41 billion of funding for fiscal year (FY) 2024 through 2028 to support grants, loans, and loan guarantees that support the development, diversification, preservation, improvement, restoration, and expansion of supply chains and the domestic manufacturing of critical goods, industrial equipment, and manufacturing technology.
- The Supply CHAINS Act
- This bill creates a dedicated supply chain office led by an Assistant Secretary in the Department of Commerce, requires the Assistant Secretary to map and monitor supply chains to identify vulnerabilities, directs the office to establish standards and best practices for U.S. companies to address supply chain vulnerabilities, and commissions an independent study to determine whether a grant and loan making authority is warranted.
- The Immersive Technology for the American Workforce Act
- This bipartisan bill would amend the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) by creating a 5-year grant program at the Department of Labor to support community colleges and career and technical education centers in developing education and training programs for workforce development utilizing immersive technology.
- The National Nursing Workforce Center Act
- This bipartisan and bicameral bill would establish a 3-year pilot program through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to support state-based nursing workforce centers. The legislation would also broaden HRSA’s authority to establish Health Workforce Research Centers on any program under the Public Health Service Act and give HRSA clear authority to establish a nursing-focused research and technical assistance center under the Health Workforce Research Center Program.
