▶ 0:16:46Chair Cassidy: The senate committee on labor, education and patients. The republican dais will be returning to the white house and showing up shortly. In the next 10 years the U.S. is predicted to facing 6 million workers. Americans are retiring at unprecedented rates and we do not have enough people to replace them.
▶ 0:17:12Chair Cassidy: And I talked to my staff about this and I said, you know on the one hand we see ai replacing workers, and yet here we say we do not have enough people for the jobs. And, I guess the way I understand it is that ai does not swing a hammer. And it is not in a craft. And, there are other things that we will want to try and address that are a little bit beyond the reach of ai at this point.
▶ 0:17:40Chair Cassidy: And so I think this is a pertinent panel for the health, education, labor, and pensions committee. In medicine, I am a physician and I know firsthand that the shortage is impacting the health an aging population except for us, and more patients to treat and fewer to treat them. We need to modernize and expand the imprinted ship model connecting workers with skills for the future.
▶ 0:18:09Chair Cassidy: According to the department of labor and this is real money, apprentices earn a starting salary of $80,000 per year, well above the median individual income. Republicans and democrats strongly support a print and ships bipartisan. Pro-worker, pro-business and profamily.
▶ 0:18:29Chair Cassidy: President trump and secretary chavez know the power of apprenticeship in empowering workers and president trump set out a bold vision to create one million new active apprenticeships. In august the department of education, labor and commerce published a roadmap outlining on how to accomplish myth -- accomplish this and as a health care, I am working hard to expand apprenticeship opportunities.
▶ 0:18:58Chair Cassidy: Employers want to participate but the current system, so workers and employers want to do this. But the current system is burdensome, there is inconsistent state laws which can fruit -- confuse workers and businesses. If we will increase this number we must simplify the registration process making it faster and easier for employers to offer.
▶ 0:19:20Chair Cassidy: The federal government, state government and industry should work together and come up with an approach to scale up of trades to reach new industries like advanced technology. Employees and employers need more input into the design of apprenticeships, lowering the costs and increasing flexibility to choose the standards that work best and they should be guided by those on the ground and not a government bureaucrat.
▶ 0:19:44Chair Cassidy: By implement in commonsense reforms we can achieve the goal to strengthen the american economy and give more americans a path to the american dream. I think our witnesses for being here and I look forward to discussing your ideas. Senator sanders is not here. And so, senator baldwin or anyone else who is subbing for him? I mean, I'm sorry?
▶ 0:20:11Chair Cassidy: What I will do is introduce the witnesses and when senator sanders comes we will allow him to make his opening statement. Ok. [laughter] so, I will introduce each of you as you make your statement, and if you can keep your statement to five minutes.
▶ 0:20:36Chair Cassidy: We are joined by josh laney, the vice president of the print and save up and worked at it at the competency-based education network. He previously led the alabama office of apprenticeship where he expanded it to fields like nursing and launch an interactive dashboard for prospective apprentices to explore opportunity. I know that coach turberville is at the white house and not here, but he has a graduate of auburn university and I look forward to hearing tape -- hearing from you today.
▶ 0:21:08Mr. Laney: Thank you chair, ranking member sanders, when he arrives and members of the committee, thank you for arriving -- thank you for the opportunity and it is a privilege to provide information and to share insights from my experience leading imprinted ship advancement.
▶ 0:21:29Mr. Laney: I am a fourth generation alabama cattle farmer from a family of public school educators and until recently I served as the inaugural director of the alabama office of apprenticeship. Alabama has been first in more than the alphabet when it comes to apprenticeship. We went from about 6% female participation to over 20% and an upcoming report finds that alabama has more degree bearing apprenticeships in the other state. We have the first statewide apprenticing mastership -- apprenticeships.
▶ 0:22:01Mr. Laney: We achieve these because a commitment to an employer driven model of development. In 2023 I extended -- I attended a conference to step in for my friend and I spoke about the collaboration with seabed -- c-ben and our work with the talent triad. It took me a couple of days of listening to realize these were not typical higher ed people and they were talking about a new way of doing higher education that aligned with the principles of apprentices.
▶ 0:22:30Mr. Laney: They must view apprentices as employees coming for professional development and not just students for whom they are seeking occasional work experience. When I recognize this it was like the old reese's commercials and they got peanut butter in my chocolate and I got chocolate my peanut butter.
▶ 0:22:46Mr. Laney: For years we have tried to transform education through competency-based learning and our mission is to centered learning on what they know and can do and connect education to workforce needs and ensure that they work for learners and employers. Cookie-cutter degrees do not serve students and cookie-cutter apprenticeships do not serve employers.
▶ 0:23:06Mr. Laney: If we are serious about reaching that goal, I estimate we will need 45,000 more employers that will only be possible if we build programs that will work for modern lawyers and employers. President reagan said the best social program is a job, unfortunately the country is still below the pre-pandemic labor market participation rate.
▶ 0:23:28Mr. Laney: Our national success depends on creating death -- debt-free paths for entering the workforce and in my new role I lead the national project on apprenticeship standards. This is a national project funded by the U.S. department of labor and establish the right cooperate agreement.
▶ 0:23:49Mr. Laney: It is a state let approach to modernize and scale of print and ship by enhancing the quality and consistency of trading, increasing the transparency of what apprentices know and do and improving the affordability. In addition, there are several legislative actions that I would ask you to consider as independent items or a potential national apprenticeship act. First about scaling.
▶ 0:24:14Mr. Laney: We should move from our current bifurcated system of oversight to fully state apprenticeship system. We would find it odd if it was directly overseeing a high school so why should the U.S. department of labor be engaged on apprenticeship sponsors from pay scales to printing completion certificates. I ask you to implement a formula funding model, something akin to the perkins model.
▶ 0:24:40Mr. Laney: It is impossible to build a cohesive system when the participants are chasing grants to keep the lights on. Need your help to reduce bureaucracy by requiring the recalibration of counsel authorities. Over the decade some councils have taken on and over program approval responsibilities originally designated to the state and not to the council and into many cases they have become barriers, acting in ways that are self-serving and I would ask you to support interoperability
▶ 0:25:11Mr. Laney: In any legislation. Reciprocity is ill-defined in its pursuit and a major frustration for employers and interoperability is the only way to move forward towards a goal. A few ideas about quality. We must remove time gating and move to competency models and there is nothing magical about the minimum of 2000 hours in time does not measure scale. Do not look at your colleagues but I bet everyone of you can think of a person who has been on the lot -- has been on the job a long time and is pretty bad about it.
▶ 0:25:40Mr. Laney: [laughter] we must recognize that every job does not require an apprenticeship and that is ok. Any new national apprenticeships use a high occupation assessment and not all apprenticeships recognize the same depth and breadth of competency and some are more like a diploma and a masters degree which is why I ask you to direct a process to codify apprenticeships.
▶ 0:26:06Mr. Laney: In closing, they should be about the development and demonstration of competency because demonstrated skills and competencies are the indicators of talent that employers need and learners deserve. Thank you for your invitation to speak and I would be pleased to answer any questions.
▶ 0:26:20Chair Cassidy: What I like to say anything about your fellow war eagle or condolences? Ok. I think senator kaine will introduce Dr. mccain.
▶ 0:26:37Sen. Kaine: It is my great pleasure to introduce Dr. latitia mccane. She serves as the director of education for the apprentice school at newport news shipbuilding, which is almost the premier apprenticeship program in the united states. It is -- we have had a chance to work together since she came to that role in 2018, just in time to help the apprenticeship school celebrated its centennial.
▶ 0:27:06Sen. Kaine: She is responsible for the overall leadership, vision and strategic direction for craft training, delivery services, of improvement and athletics for 800 folks. Most of the students have previous college experience before they arrive. Many have previous military service, so it is a special group of students.
▶ 0:27:29Sen. Kaine: Before arriving, she had leadership positions at two different community colleges in alabama, which I guess is a theme. She earned her degrees in urban higher administration and administration from jackson state university and lacrosse university. And I am so happy she could share her expertise with the committee today.
▶ 0:27:48Dr. Mccane: Thank you and roll tide. Just for the auburn fans. Chairman cassidy, thank you for the opportunity to speak to the committee and ranking member sanders, who just joined us, thank you for being here. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on registered apprenticeships.
▶ 0:28:11Dr. Mccane: My name is t chabrol at -- latitia mccane so I oversee the apprenticeship school and what is so great about hii is that we spend over 100 million annually on workforce development training and education from pre-k to k-12, colleges and universities, that is our investment into our community, company and people. That is what is so amazing about hii.
▶ 0:28:43Dr. Mccane: The apprentice school was founded in 1919 and has been around for 100 plus years. And what is so amazing about that is that we are actually not only have articulation agreements with colleges and universities but our own faculty and staff. They provide the related technical instruction as well as providing on-the-job training for our 800 plus students.
▶ 0:29:12Dr. Mccane: We are accredited by the state council of higher education of virginia. We award associates and applied science degrees and are accredited on the council of occupational education and registered with virginia works as well as the department of labor for our certifications. We receive about 3000 applications for 250 positions. Though, we are a really -- we are an apprenticeship program that people want to come to.
▶ 0:29:42Dr. Mccane: As a matter of fact, two weeks ago I had 150 students and their parents at the apprentice school wanting to learn about the program, traveling from all over the country to find out about the apprenticeship program. What is amazing is that the students dragged their parents to be a part of it. Most parents had never heard of it and it was like I saved money -- I save money for college and you want to go to the apprentice school?
▶ 0:30:12Dr. Mccane: What is it about it? And so to be able to see that, we have -- our country is at a point in workforce development where young people are making a decision that they want to go to the workforce and be a part of apprenticeship programs. They want to be able to start their career at age 18. 52% of their students come in at age 18. They are walking into middle-class jobs.
▶ 0:30:41Dr. Mccane: And when chairman klatt -- cassidy said they are making upwards of $80,000. We have a four and five year apprenticeship. And when they complete they are making 80000 and many are walking into leadership roles. We also have a sister apprenticeship program in pascagoula. I grew up in mobile, alabama.
▶ 0:31:02Dr. Mccane: To be able to have so many of my relatives to call when I first got this job saying could you get me into the apprentice school at ingles and I am like I am at newport news and not ingalls. But to be able to see the hunger and desire of parents and students wanting to be a part of the program is pretty amazing. I believe that we have what I call best practices around apprenticeships as a company.
▶ 0:31:33Dr. Mccane: We have all sorts of businesses and people coming into know how they want to grow their apprenticeship program and what to do in their space. So, that is what makes us special. Enhancing and expanding the apprenticeship programs is vital to this effort and so to achieve this I have a few recommendations. We need to simplify the registration process for new programs.
▶ 0:32:01Dr. Mccane: We need to encourage the use of intermediaries to be able to connect small businesses with the apprenticeship pathways and for them to understand how to register their programs. We need to be able to connect them with community colleges to provide that related instruction that is needed in apprenticeships and to provide occupational registration flexibility.
▶ 0:32:24Dr. Mccane: To think outside of the box of our traditional apprenticeships, putting so many other things, like teacher education did some years ago. I also think we need to implement workforce grants that would be very important. It seems as -- as if my time is up and thank you and I look forward to answering questions.
▶ 0:32:43Chair Cassidy: Thank you. We will recognize senator sanders for an opening statement.
▶ 0:32:47Sen. Sanders: Thank you and my apologies for being late. I will be brief. Thank you to all of the panelists were being here. We all know and I can tell you that in vermont we have brought billions of dollars into the state to rebuild our comfort -- crumbling infrastructure and we do not have the skilled workers to actually do the work. And I suspect all over the country you need a plumber and electrician, hard to find them.
▶ 0:33:13Sen. Sanders: So, and I will tell you another story, I was at a school in central vermont and the kids were all smiling and I was wondering what was going on and they were really happy. It turns out they have a program where half of the day these kids are going into the real world and working, earning a good paycheck, and then they come back to school and they feel better about the academics in school. It was a win-win.
▶ 0:33:39Sen. Sanders: I think there is bipartisan support with the understanding that we need to go forward aggressively to give millions of young people the opportunity to get their hands dirty and to do important work to make a good living and do the work this country needs. Thank you very much for calling this hearing.
▶ 0:33:54Chair Cassidy: With that I will introduce gardner carrick the chief program officer at the manufacturing institute. It facilitates public-partnership -- public-private partnerships. He is creating a new recognition program for industry-based credentials and manufacturing programs. He is a graduate of carnegie mellon university and thank you for being here.
▶ 0:34:17Mr. Carrick: Thank you. Chairman, ranking member, and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify on behalf of the 240,000 companies and 14 million men and women who make things in america. It is an honor to share our insights and experience. I am pleased to join four individuals who have done so much to make apprenticeship and registered apprenticeship successful. Thank you for your efforts.
▶ 0:34:46Mr. Carrick: I am here representing the manufacturing institute, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit workforce development and education affiliate of the national association of manufacturers. Through our work, and management of the federation for advanced manufacturing education, we bring decades of policy and field experience to this conversation. This is a multi employer apprenticeship model which produces global best technicians.
▶ 0:35:15Mr. Carrick: It is a network of nearly 500 companies operating in 43 locations across 16 states and employing more than 1100 court -- current students and 2700 graduates. The outcomes include an 83 percent on-time completion rates, a 95% full-time employment rate sponsoring companies and 88% three year retention rate for graduates. Those are the numbers, but let me tell you the story.
▶ 0:35:45Mr. Carrick: Just this week I saw a news report from louisville, kentucky that interviewed a second-year student who said honestly, this program changed my life. It was the exact same thing I had heard two weeks earlier when I visited the new chapter in fresno, california. A student told me that it had honestly change their life. He is only two months into the program. Apprenticeship does change lives.
▶ 0:36:11Mr. Carrick: We achieve these levels of success because the model is employer lead, meaning that we teach the skills that employers demand. Yes, that includes the skills to fix the machines and keep them running, but the critical thinking skills, the professional presentation skills, to show up every day on time skills.
▶ 0:36:32Mr. Carrick: It also means creating a culture, a safety culture where students believe responsibility is mine and every accident is present -- is preventable where students eliminate non-value added work. And a problem-solving culture where students do not just fix the machine but solve the problem. All of this is done while teaching students the technical skills to excel in their jobs, which keep american manufacturing running. This is what it means to be employer led.
▶ 0:37:01Mr. Carrick: Today's hearing is about expanding registered apprenticeship. Across our network only about 15% are registered apprentices, why? The simple answer is that most employers find registered apprenticeship non-value added work. We are successful with or without registered apprentices. One company that has been without -- with us for 10 years said that they have 39 out of the 42 students that went through still with the company.
▶ 0:37:33Mr. Carrick: Another company tells us that there graduates reach leadership positions much faster than other hires. There are dozens if not hundreds of similar stories. We work for the manufacturers, creating a pipeline of skilled technicians that they need to succeed. It works for the participants as well. Students started a wage of $20 an hour and complete the program around $30 an hour. And most of the students are 20 to 21 years old when they graduate.
▶ 0:38:05Mr. Carrick: The study is a little dated, but opportunity america and the brookings const -- institution found that five years after graduation they were earning just shy of $100,000. The program works of 83% of students who graduate launching them in a career of economic success. Registered apprenticeship has the opportunity to play significant role in the growth and scaling of the apprenticeship model.
▶ 0:38:31Mr. Carrick: But the program must be value-added, which in manufacturing means employer led, offer a sensible balance between balanced -- employments and cost and support the needs of our education partners to deliver the skills that manufacturers are actually asking for. We know apprenticeship works and I see it every time I look at the outcomes and hear it every time I listening to companies describe their success and I feel it every time I visit students as they describe how it has changed their lives.
▶ 0:39:03Mr. Carrick: Thank you for inviting me to testify, chairman. And I am happy to answer questions when the time comes.
▶ 0:39:08Chair Cassidy: I defer to senator sanders to introduce his witnesses.
▶ 0:39:12Sen. Sanders: Thank you. I would like to introduce john downey, the general president for the international union of operating engineers. He joined in 2002 after organizing his fellow coworkers in eastern pennsylvania and was elected president in january of this year and represents four thousand 10 workers. Thank you for being with us.
▶ 0:39:34Mr. Downey: Good morning chairman cassidy, ranking member sanders, and members of the health committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the international union of operating a. As Mr. sanders says, it represents tends that -- over 10,000 operating engineers and is one of the largest construction unions.
▶ 0:40:01Mr. Downey: Our union represents members who mainly work in construction and maintenance sectors. We are heavy equipment operators, mechanics, surveyors and stationary engineers that maintain commercial buildings, hospitals, high-rises, petrochemical facilities and more. Each year we invest $180 million in trade.
▶ 0:40:25Mr. Downey: With our signatory employers we sponsor 100 apprenticeship training programs across 107 sites including more than 80 registered apprenticeship programs in the united states. Our commitment to training is embodied in our two hundred million dollar international training education center located just outside of houston, texas. This state-of-the-art 200 acre world-class campus provides comprehensive learning environment with over 8100 square feet of conference space.
▶ 0:40:55Mr. Downey: Modern classrooms and 12 plus crane paths, simulators, heavy equipment mechanic shop and a central utility plane for hands-on trading. We have over 150 pieces of equipment for trading purposes -- training purposes. Hitec includes a fitness center, full dining facilities, supporting multi-day and multi-week courses.
▶ 0:41:21Mr. Downey: It was built to supplement and strengthen our trading centers and is pivotal in enhancing the skill development for a skilled, safe and productive workforce across various industries. Our members receive training on the newest equipment from leading manufacturers, ensuring they learn on the same machines and software used by today's jobs. This enables us to train on brand-new, donated, or leased equipment.
▶ 0:41:52Mr. Downey: From building offshore wind turbines to high-speed rail in california to pipelines like the willow project and maintaining iconic sites like the power plants and data centers nationwide, the international union of operating engineers leads away by the workforce to build and maintain critical infrastructure.
▶ 0:42:12Mr. Downey: I would like to highlight the unique relationship between labor and management and our role in training our skilled workforce and how policy and legislation that sparks job creation aids in the recruitment and development. First, in collaboration with our contractors has established a highly successful and self-sustaining apprenticeship and career development system recognized nationwide. These programs are accountable and deliver measurable results without taxpayer burden.
▶ 0:42:44Mr. Downey: Our comprehensive training initiatives are designed to prepare the next generation ensuring that they are proficient with the latest technology and skills, through coordination with our signatory partners and we can address the evolving needs of the construction industry as identified by our national board, which is equally composed of labor and employers. This partnership enables us to offer specific training when necessary. This trains to real career so we do not flood the market with underprepared workers who finish training without a job.
▶ 0:43:15Mr. Downey: We are doing our part to address the need for more skilled workers across the building, operation, and maintenance sectors. Last year we delivered 167,000 training hours and we are on pace this year to exceed that number. We have 11,000 active apprentices including 3200 in the past year -- in their first year. Last year 3400 members trained at no cost to them.
▶ 0:43:44Mr. Downey: Secondly, the benefit of a labor-employer partnership is both sides have a sense of future workforce needs which allows us to recruit and train accordingly with the understanding that apprentices will start their career and have a job waiting for them. Our model works best when there is funding for projects that put our members to work, for instance the federal highway administration claims that a $1 billion investments in roads directly leads to 1300 jobs not counting those directly
▶ 0:44:15Mr. Downey: Associated with world bit -- roadbuilding. If we want to strengthen recruitment history shows the best strategy is to fund the projects to create the very jobs we are training today. This is why we do not over trained but strategically train to build skilled workforces and ensure we have the right number of operating engineers to meet the construction industry's needs. I would like to understand and appreciate what we have accorded industry partnership we can meet the challenges of training workers to be the world's best skilled trade workforce.
▶ 0:44:46Mr. Downey: Thank you for the opportunity to testify and I look forward to answer your questions.
▶ 0:44:49Sen. Sanders: Thank you very much and I would like to introduce brent booker, the general president of the laborers international union of north america. He has a third-generation leader and has served at -- third-generation member and has -- and currently serves 30,000 workers.
▶ 0:45:10Mr. Booker: Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you. I am the general president of the laborers international union of north america where we represent 530,000 of the most productive, skilled, and safest workers in the industry. Thousands of members are currently at work at tunnel and energy projects like gateway. They are working on power plants including renewable, nuclear, and fossil fuels.
▶ 0:45:42Mr. Booker: Demolition jobs, water systems, wind and solar industry. And the intel semi conductor factory. Registered apprenticeship allows our union to deliver the skilled labor required to complete this essential construction. Our training system is a product of collaboration. Why would a contractor invest time and money when they can just jump to the competition who invested nothing?
▶ 0:46:08Mr. Booker: Our model ensures this does not happen to contractors by providing collective funding for a large pool of skilled apprentices available as needed to all employers who participate. This has been the gold standard for decades. North america's building trades offer the largest training system adding an average of roughly 73,000 new apprentices each year since 20 to 18 and investing over $2 billion in training programs.
▶ 0:46:36Mr. Booker: The only enemy that -- entity that I'm aware of the trains more people than we do is the united states military. This is a private-sector solution to the workforce challenges. Our programs are funded through collectively funded agreements and our members elect to have their money going to training programs instead of on their check.
▶ 0:46:56Mr. Booker: Even the curriculum and schedules are developed in collaboration with contractors who have the best understanding of skills required from their workforce and the specific project demands which enables us to plan a year or more in advance of labor demand. Apprentices are only as good as the program they are in and successful on the amount of work they can find employment. Quality registered apprenticeship is fundamentally about supply and demand. Not me speak about the demand side.
▶ 0:47:24Mr. Booker: In the wake of historic public and private investment the demand grows substantially in the recent years. The number of active apprentices increased 33%. We have 35,000 apprentices hoping to become a journey worker -- a german -- journey man worker. In construction nothing kills work more than chaos and uncertainty.
▶ 0:47:47Mr. Booker: Chaos like canceling the gateway project and 20 $4 billion of department of energy projects set to be built by skilled apprentices. Chaos like canceling major energy products that -- projects that are already complete and major hydrogen hubs in pennsylvania. When the industry has no confidence in the economy ,banks do not lend and most importantly, our members do not go to work.
▶ 0:48:13Mr. Booker: And when they do not work they do not earn a paycheck and they lose contributions to their retirement and health insurance coverage. It can become difficult for members to provide for their families when this happens. In the last few years our members and employers have gone from infrastructure construction boom to an unpredictable series of shutdowns.
▶ 0:48:34Mr. Booker: This hurts the system and this industry needs predictability and they workforce they can rely on to ensure the critical infrastructure gets built by highly skilled and trained workers. The industry and the american economy need stability and now for the supply side. The supply is safe and skilled workers is our business and require significant investment and a commitment to excellence in partnership with the business community.
▶ 0:48:58Mr. Booker: We applaud the executive order calling for the goal of one million new active apprentices in the system and agree that assistance is needed for emerging industries that wish to build their workforce development model and self -- efficiencies that we can find and no shortcuts. There is no need to reinvent the wheel when the current system is growing. Maintaining the quality of the system is of the highest priority.
▶ 0:49:24Mr. Booker: We believe strongly in the model and emphasize the investment a private dollars that drive real workforce development. Employers unwilling to put skin in the game are showing their hand and they won a free ride for taxpayers for their own private benefit. If we do not fill gaps in industries such as construction and energy U.S. risks using -- losing global competitiveness and leaving workers without viable pathways to living wage jobs.
▶ 0:49:49Mr. Booker: There might be no greater management success story than the vibrant apprenticeship -- apprentice management system. We commit to helping other industries launch a model to enhance their employers and the workers for whose benefit the registered apprenticeship was established. We do not need more chaos and uncertainty about reliability and predictability. Thank you and I look forward to any questions you might have.
▶ 0:50:15Chair Cassidy: Thank you and I will defer to coach turberville.
▶ 0:50:20Sen. Tuberville: Thank you everybody and what an important hearing this is. How are you doing?
▶ 0:50:26Chair Cassidy: Is your microphone on?
▶ 0:50:30Sen. Tuberville: It is. Can you hear me now. I was getting too comfortable. Your apprenticeship program for nurses in alabama is uniquely successful and we are at national security risk now with our shortage. How come it is so unique?
▶ 0:50:56Mr. Laney: I think the program is unique mainly because it was built with our employers and we spoke with the alabama hospital association and nursing association and they are the one driving this because they are feeling the pinch because I do not have people at the bedside.
▶ 0:51:15Mr. Laney: They went and worked directly with the alabama community college system and board of nursing and I have found that our board of nursing and I did not know at the time was much more curb -- progressive than across the country and created a nurse-apprentices license that designates the scope of practice so you do not have confusion about what is a person allowed to do and not do.
▶ 0:51:39Mr. Laney: It was designed that way and employers are going to work and they get a return on the investment they are making. It is an investment in the people. So the employers are seeing the investments and the value add to that and you can have -- and we only have the statewide model with 28 colleges and universities.
▶ 0:52:06Sen. Tuberville: Most employers have skin in the game?
▶ 0:52:09Mr. Laney: Everyone in alabama. We have the last dollar scholarship policy and we do not allow an apprentice to incur any debt. If there is a bill left over or whatever gift aid that we can find. We try to bring the price down as much as we can but if the bill is left over it goes to the employers and we were worried that it would balk at that but they have not. They see the value and they pick it up.
▶ 0:52:39Sen. Tuberville: Thank you. Dr. mccain, glad you are here. Can you tell us what we can do for a federal level to help with the community college system apprenticeships?
▶ 0:52:49Dr. Mccane: Absolutely. One of the things that we need within community colleges, intermediaries to be able to go out and bring the businesses where they are able to work with the community colleges and a lot of times they do not have the bandwidth to be able to reach out to businesses.
▶ 0:53:10Dr. Mccane: They have workforce development departments and people working at workforce development, but how do we ensure that what the small businesses need especially around related technical instruction, a lot of businesses do not know what that looks like. They do not know -- they know what on-the-job training looks like. But how could we get more of the infrastructure around community colleges and that done through giving them those intermediaries to work with them.
▶ 0:53:39Sen. Tuberville: Thank you. You mentioned in your testimony that 15% of the students participate registered apprenticeships. Can you speak on my employers choose not to register for the program?
▶ 0:53:52Mr. Carrick: Sure. When you look at the registered apprenticeship model, it is designed with a lot of compliance elements to it.
▶ 0:54:06Mr. Carrick: Manufacturers are able to defiant -- design a program where they can work directly with the community colleges and recruit students and trained them as they need and allow them to earn the associate's degree and pay them along the way and set them up to be global best entry level maintenance technicians and we do not need that system to do that. In some cases, and some states, the balance between cost and benefit falls in favor of the registered program.
▶ 0:54:34Mr. Carrick: North carolina is the best example where the state offers a number of incentives in the minds of the evaluation of employers that lead the program and they decide that participating made sense in that case. It is really an evaluation of the balance between the cost and benefits. Unfortunately at the federal level, that balance tends to build -- canon -- tend to be a little bit out of whack.
▶ 0:55:00Sen. Tuberville: Thank you.
▶ 0:55:01Chair Cassidy: Senator sanders.
▶ 0:55:03Sen. Sanders: Thank you. Let me just start off with a question that is on the minds of many people. This committee had a hearing on artificial intelligence and I would throw in robotics. Let me start with you. You are involved in manufacturing and many of us want to see manufacturing grow. From a workers' perspective it does not mean much of the work is done by robots.
▶ 0:55:30Sen. Sanders: What impact will robotics have on manufacturing and the ability of young people to get decent paying jobs in manufacturing?
▶ 0:55:37Mr. Carrick: Two points and thank you for the question. I believe that robotics already plays a significant role in manufacturing. Some of the best jobs in manufacturing are those that are operating the robots and maintaining those robots and fixing them when they break.
▶ 0:55:58Mr. Carrick: It is a pretty significant element already and then when you layer in ai, and that has also been a significant element of manufacturing through vision systems and machine learning and as we look at gen ai and how that intersects, when we talk to manufacturing executives, they believe the best use case is actually in the technician workforce.
▶ 0:56:21Sen. Sanders: You are looking at the positive aspects and there are other people who say that the day might come when there will be very few human beings in a factory, true?
▶ 0:56:30Mr. Carrick: I do not believe so.
▶ 0:56:32Sen. Sanders: I want to ask other questions and it is ok for difference of opinion says. What impact are you seeing in terms of job creation and any concerns about ai or robotics.
▶ 0:56:45Mr. Booker: Look. That is part of why the registered apprenticeship system works for us because we are in collaboration with the employers. As technology happens we get to embrace it. There is some fear of ai taking over humans in the workforce and I am here to represent our members and our future members.
▶ 0:57:03Sen. Sanders: You are for the humans.
▶ 0:57:05Mr. Booker: Every time.
▶ 0:57:08Sen. Sanders: Let me ask again to the union guys. President trump has canceled about 100,000 clean energy jobs, and that includes $7.5 billion for 223 clean energy projects. What does that mean to decent paying jobs?
▶ 0:57:30Mr. Downey: Thank you. Though, those clean energy jobs are real earners for us. We have done tens of millions of hours due to the labor standards tied to the inflation reduction act. So the shutting down of those projects were a direct hit to our members' earning wages.
▶ 0:57:51Mr. Booker: Chaos and uncertainty. When you look at people who talk the rib -- you had people on barge on friday and they got a stop order and they do not know when their check is coming. Imagine you do not knowing when that check is coming.
▶ 0:58:14Mr. Booker: I have met members who had a 10 year plan who were going to go to solo project to solar project and who had bought a house and was raising his kids there who does not know after he finishes this job if you will have the next job and where that will come from. Imagine the stress and you do not get your pension benefits or health care and the stress that you have as an individual to provide for your family is overbearing.
▶ 0:58:36Sen. Sanders: Mr. laney, tell us how expensive is the nursing crisis in this country?
▶ 0:58:43Mr. Laney: Massive. It is everywhere. And it is not just nurses. Hospitals and nursing homes are facing shortages of tax and all sorts -- techs at all sorts of things.
▶ 0:58:56Sen. Sanders: If I can interject, what will massive cuts in medicaid means to nursing homes?
▶ 0:59:02Sen. Sanders: If they do not have money they cannot pay people, simple as I can make it. I do not track medicaid payments very closely.
▶ 0:59:11Sen. Sanders: Let nursing coat -- homes are highly dependent.
▶ 0:59:14Mr. Laney: As far as I understand.
▶ 0:59:16Sen. Sanders: You will make it harder for nursing homes to survive. Go on, talk about the nursing court -- shortage and how do we solve it?
▶ 0:59:26Mr. Laney: By establishing scalable and competency-based programs directly tied to the skills that the person needs on the job and then make those programs affordable in nursing and teaching. People are expected to go to work for free for a period of time and that blocks out a lot of people from participating.
▶ 0:59:45Sen. Sanders: One of the problems we are having in vermont and I think it is national, we do not have enough nurse educators, people to train nurses. Is that a problem you are addressing?
▶ 0:59:56Mr. Laney: You have to get them in as nurses before they are nurse educators so we look at the full pipeline.
▶ 1:00:02Sen. Sanders: Are you raising salaries so they will stay in education rather than going into a hospital?
▶ 1:00:08Mr. Laney: It is the other way around. We do not raise salaries and it is up to the employers. But one of the problems is that there are so many higher-paying jobs beyond the bedside that people are pulled up out of that. So employers are having to pay more those people beside the bed. But you cannot pay her way out of a skills gap, you have to train. We look for those opportunities to create options for people to afford to go into this.
▶ 1:00:37Sen. Sanders: Thank you.
▶ 1:00:39Chair Cassidy: For the record, I will note that the one big beautiful bill did not affect nursing homes, just to say that.
▶ 1:00:47Sen. Sanders: For the record it devastated nursing homes.
▶ 1:00:50Chair Cassidy: For the record we can do that because it is a medic -- matter of fact but I will challenge you to bring that up.
▶ 1:00:58Sen. Sanders: When you make big cuts to medicaid and nursing homes put on that you devastate medicaid.
▶ 1:01:10Chair Cassidy: Senator marshall.
▶ 1:01:15Sen. Marshall: We preserve that for nursing homes and that is exactly what we did in the bill, not to mention that we got rid of the nurse mandate as well to protect the nursing homes. Have I ever mentioned that I graduated from a community college and my wife graduated from a community college? Once or twice. I am so proud of the work that community colleges and technical colleges are doing in kansas. They are the bright star of education in kansas.
▶ 1:01:42Sen. Marshall: They have been working to better align the registered apprenticeship program with higher education institutions including implementing pathways tied to occupations and we are creating a pathway for union apprentices for an associate bachelor's degree. Nearly all of our community and tech colleges are acting as group sponsors providing strong support for employers to start new programs. I will have the same program for all of you.
▶ 1:02:12Sen. Marshall: How do you see perkins and other federal funding initiative supporting these efforts and probably briefly.
▶ 1:02:19Mr. Laney: Perkins is a very easy fat. I heard mention of 18-year-olds working in manufacturing as a registered apprentice at 16 and that is where a lot of that overlap occurs, where we start our high school students in youth apprenticeship programs which still needs to be a registered apprenticeship with all the same requirements and safety but there is no reason to wait until they are out of school. People have a tendency to continue doing what they started to do.
▶ 1:02:48Mr. Laney: But if we get the students engaged in work-based learning we will keep them there.
▶ 1:02:51Dr. Mccane: I think the perkins funds could be used for infrastructure purposes on community college campuses, especially equipment needed. There is a lot of technology now and we build ships for the navy. There is a lot of technology. Because the technology changes, we need more of the infrastructure within the community college so we can use our funds for that.
▶ 1:03:16Dr. Mccane: We also need pell grants for students to pay for the related technical instruction and the tuition to do that. As well as when you think of on-the-job training. Some of those dollars can be used for on-the-job training as well. I think it is very important that we have all of these dollars together to be able to help not only with infrastructure but students as well.
▶ 1:03:38Sen. Marshall: In the big beautiful bill we added flexibility to the perkins grants which can be used in these apprenticeships as well. Mr. kerrick, you are next.
▶ 1:03:47Mr. Carrick: I would reiterate the infrastructure. The average manufacturing lab has over $1 million of equipment. So being able to outfit that with the latest technology to ensure we are staying current would be top priority.
▶ 1:04:01Sen. Marshall: Whether it is the nursing programs are learning to run big equipment, today's hvac systems are not my grandfather's . Welding is so much different than the shop class I took in my grandfather's barn. In each high school cannot afford the investment. These located tech company -- tech colleges and community colleges can make an investment. I will follow-up with Mr.
▶ 1:04:29Sen. Marshall: Downey and Mr. booker. I am so proud of the union engagement across the state of kansas and their own apprenticeships and then using them to engage with our community colleges and technical colleges. How are your unions engaging with higher education so the members can take full advantage of the pathways?
▶ 1:04:50Mr. Downey: We are affiliated with the houston community college and accredited. We have outreach throughout the country with many community ecology programs -- community college programs and started our own programs to reach out to the high school level so we can capture them at that level. We have a couple programs affiliated with community per object -- colleges in missouri and kansas and have spread out for their -- from there.
▶ 1:05:21Sen. Marshall: Mr. booker, go ahead.
▶ 1:05:24Mr. Booker: I would like to focus on high school. We put in curriculum to learn the trades in high school setting so college is not for everybody so those want to continue into the trades they get in through there.
▶ 1:05:39Mr. Booker: Once you are in the registered apprenticeship, a lot of our programs partner with the community product -- community college where you are handed a two year associates degree that will set you up to either continue your skill set, applying your skill set or building our nation's infrastructure or continuing and higher it education but you earn while you learn.
▶ 1:06:01Sen. Marshall: I want to brag that the world champion welder is from southeast kansas community college. World champion welder and another one of their students when they finished high school had completed the welding program at that community product -- college and his starting salary is $100,000 a year and it is not angry new energy but on a an oil pipeline -- green new energy but it oil pipeline as well.
▶ 1:06:29Sen. Marshall: I would like to talk about the salaries of oil and gas projects as opposed to the green energy jobs you were talking about. I am out of time.
▶ 1:06:38Chair Cassidy: Senator baldwin.
▶ 1:06:41Sen. Baldwin: Thank you and thank you to all of our witnesses. I am a huge fan of registered apprenticeships. I will share that I have bragging rights as a senator from wisconsin. We were the first state to pass an apprenticeship law back in 1911. And it is certainly a model for other programs across the country.
▶ 1:07:12Sen. Baldwin: It was none until 1937 that the U.S. followed suit and passed the national apprenticeship laws. And they have not particularly been modernized since that time. I lead a bipartisan bill to do that. But, look, to grow our economy and expand the middle class and to meet workforce demands, we need to make sure that workers have access to the skills training to land these jobs.
▶ 1:07:42Sen. Baldwin: And registered apprenticeships will be a centerpiece for that. But, continued growth and success of apprenticeship programs depend on their being job openings for apprentices to fill. And, I want to shine a spotlight, again, on the unprecedented uncertainty that we are seeing right now associated with federal funding.
▶ 1:08:11Sen. Baldwin: This uncertainty directed by the trump administration is completely unacceptable. Even grants for infrastructure and energy projects that have already been awarded are no longer a sure thing, putting the jobs created in jeopardy. The administration's stated goal is to enroll one million new apprentices. If they want to reach that goal then sign me up.
▶ 1:08:37Sen. Baldwin: But, we will not get there by canceling billions of dollars in projects and scrapping tens of jobs. As just one example, the city of milwaukee lost $34 million in funding and 450 jobs because republicans voted to rescind a grant for streetscape improvements in their big ugly bill. President booker, you talked a little bit about this.
▶ 1:09:05Sen. Baldwin: So I will first ask president downey to sort of talk a little bit more about the example I gave in milwaukee. How does this current uncertainty related to federal funding impact registered apprenticeships programs.
▶ 1:09:24Mr. Downey: Thank you for the question. The one great thing about our apprenticeship programs it is allow -- is that it allows to scale or pullback as we look at the forecast of work upcoming. My own local eastern pennsylvania is probably similar experience or example that you just said. Huge project in an area that is pretty rural.
▶ 1:09:49Mr. Downey: Our local ahead of time with our partnership with our employers to look at the work forecast and knew that this big 25 billion dollar project is in the pipeline. We have raised our levels by 65% two years in a row to be prepared to do that.
▶ 1:10:08Mr. Downey: So, the uncertainty that it creates, just in the construction industry when a job like that is pulled, it has that ripple effect because now we have a bunch of students in our apprenticeship program that we are trying to find work for. And if we do not find work for them they go out of the progress -- program and that is not good for the industry.
▶ 1:10:29Sen. Baldwin: I appreciate that explanation. Another issue that endangers the growth of apprenticeship programs is the actions against those who face barriers to employment. Earlier this year we fought against the attempts to eliminate job core, which can provide students with pathways into apprenticeship programs through partnerships with labor unions.
▶ 1:10:54Sen. Baldwin: The department of labor recently published a proposal to eliminate the equal appointment opportunity requirements that apply to registered apprenticeship programs, which are designed to ensure that underrepresented individuals and apprenticeships including women have a fair shot at participating.
▶ 1:11:16Sen. Baldwin: The department claims that the proposed rule will "streamline and simplify sponsors' obligations." but workforce advocate show how it is necessary to expand apprenticeships and are not a high burden on program sponsors. What are your views on the administration's proposal and how will the rollback of protections impact the goal of reaching one million new apprentices?
▶ 1:11:45Mr. Booker: We oppose that role because our programs are designed to bring people into them. And we have specific programs to bring veterans, underserved communities, minorities and women into the program. I do not want constraints because I want to lift people up and that is the whole idea of our union, which is to let people live the american dream and teach them skills that will last a lifetime and let us not have constraints.
▶ 1:12:12Mr. Booker: Once they are in the door they have to pass different levels and skill sets and different requirements to get there, but let us do what we can to open to as many people as we can without restrictions to teach them the skills to let them live the american dream.
▶ 1:12:25Sen. Baldwin: Thank you.
▶ 1:12:27Chair Cassidy: Senator husted.
▶ 1:12:31Sen. Husted: Thank you to all of you for joining us. I have this is actually a topic I have been involved in because I lead workforce development efforts while I was in ohio as lieutenant governor. Ohio has the third most apprenticeships of any state in the country. Over 26,000 in our state. Number three. Number one in the midwest.
▶ 1:12:56Sen. Husted: We know that the changing work environment is a place where employers value skills over degrees. So, helping more individuals become apprentices and earn credentials, certainly very good. What I love about the model is the earn while you learn aspect of it. People do not have to pay tuition to get a job.
▶ 1:13:25Sen. Husted: They get paid to learn and go to work, which is a model that I think america would benefit from, even in ohio. We created that process for teachers to do an apprenticeship into becoming a teacher, writhing -- rather than getting a four year degree. One other thing we did was workforce pell, allowing pell grants to be used for workforce credentialing and we did that in the budget reconciliation bill.
▶ 1:13:56Sen. Husted: All of those things are progress but we could even dig into high schools. High schools and I have been to many high schools and career centers where we have students already partnering with labor and business to earn credentials and to begin that pre-apprenticeship process while they are in high school. I will talk with you, Mr. downey, because I have had a great relationship with the operating engineers in ohio.
▶ 1:14:26Sen. Husted: And, senator sanders raised this about technology. But when I visit rated the operating machinery and equipmet operating machinery and equipmeu operating machinery and equipme. To me about the process you used to do some really high tech training for operating engineers that go into the worksite. >> thank you, senator. We want to be in that space.
▶ 1:14:53Sen. Husted: We have relationship not only with our signatory employees -- employers but the manufacturers. We are doing our best to get in on the ground floor as they develop that and there take input from our union because they know we are the best skilled operators in the world. We have partnerships with some equipment manufacturers for that equipment.
▶ 1:15:19Sen. Husted: The businesses are helping you?
▶ 1:15:23Mr. Downey: They need the talent.
▶ 1:15:28Sen. Husted: How can we do more in the space? Any quick thoughts on that?
▶ 1:15:31Mr. Downey: I think it is still pretty new. I'm not seeing a whole lot of autonomous stuff. I think it is coming but I think it is going to need humans. There's a big safety factor there. Chairman cassidy made a remark about we are not going to replace people swinging hammers. It would be naive to say it is not going to happen eventually. Who knows if it is.
▶ 1:16:00Sen. Husted: I want to ask another question and that Mr. booker answer a couple of questions because I know we worked very well with the laborers in ohio, ralph cole and glenn powell who leads the locals -- clinton powell who leads the locals. One of the things we did in ohio is offer direct injury using previous desk entry using previous experience account for your printer ship.
▶ 1:16:28Sen. Husted: I said, across the country and can we do more of that?
▶ 1:16:31Mr. Booker: It is, and that -- people who have experience in the construction industry, we don't want to set them back at a scale that doesn't make sense for their skills. We bring them into our world-class training facility. We have our instructors who get their direction from both labor and management. They assess the skill sets and say, know what? You have the skills to be a level 3 out of 4 and you earned that money and you do your hours and you show your skill sets and you progress quickly through the apprenticeship if you have the skills.
▶ 1:17:01Sen. Husted: And earning while you learn?
▶ 1:17:05Mr. Booker: You have to learn on the job and make money and then as part of the making money that you're doing, we elected to put money back into the training center to fund the training.
▶ 1:17:15Sen. Husted: I will conclude -- I wanted to share this because I had great relationships in seeing this happen. I think we should do this with more of our education system, not just go away to college and have an unconnected to a job and work experience, that we have people who are earning and learning and doing that right through high school, into that post secondary world that doesn't have to be college but could be if people wanted to.
▶ 1:17:46Sen. Husted: It is that connection between education and work experience that we have lost that we have to get back. Thank you.
▶ 1:17:50Chair Cassidy: Now senator kaine.
▶ 1:17:53Sen. Kaine: What a great panel. I'm glad you are here. I am the son of an ironworker. My dad ran a shop. A lot of folks would come through the apprentice programs with the ironworkers. Saw the value of the public, private management labor model. I associate myself with senator sanders questions as well as the promoter in career and technical education.
▶ 1:18:19Sen. Kaine: Kids in high school who are in career and tech programs, they love their academic subjects better because it turns out in the classroom, they realize it is not just about the memorization of facts. It enables them to see these are not just facts, they have real-world applications. I am glad we are focused on this topic. Dr. mccane, I am familiar with the upper initial program but you said something that interested me. -- the a partnership program that you said something that interested me.
▶ 1:18:51Sen. Kaine: I imagine you must work with guidance counselors and local school systems, folks who may not consider technical or apprenticeship type careers. We need to broaden their aperture. Describe how you make the case of two parents, guidance counselors, and others.
▶ 1:19:07Dr. Mccane: We started a program and realized we needed to go back into k-12 and invite parents to be along in the process. And so to be part of the apprenticeship program, have to bring your parents to get an overview of what the program is all about.
▶ 1:19:26Dr. Mccane: Once parents come in and a lock into what we are doing, and understanding that we are giving their students augmented and virtual reality around shipbuilding, understanding shipbuilding -- we also allow the parents to be able to go to the training as well. To be able to bring the parents along with the students, we have guidance counselors that actually come to our school. We actually have a whole day where we expose the guidance counselors to shipbuilding and what we are all about.
▶ 1:19:54Dr. Mccane: To be able to bring all of the stakeholders to the table to be a part of the journey with the students, get them on board early, we found that to be very, very essential for the growth of our school.
▶ 1:20:06Sen. Kaine: Thank you. Mr. booker a Mr. downey, thank you for your important leadership. You talked about the chaos factor. I want to focus on that. President trump has canceled a ton of economic developer projects in virginia. My suspicion is, I wish it was otherwise, I don't think he liked the fact it was a joe biden bill.
▶ 1:20:28Sen. Kaine: I don't really think he is intentionally trying to hurt the economy -- that is what he's doing -- but I think these projects are being canceled because they were part of a b iden bill. The economy is all kinds of smoke coming out of it and red lights flashing right now in these projects need to be done. Here is an opportunity for president trump and congress in a bipartisan way, we did the bipartisan infrastructure law in november 2021. Five your investment.
▶ 1:20:58Sen. Kaine: $1.2 trillion of infrastructure money. About $750 million -- about $750 billion was existing but it was an additional add on a 550 billion over five years. Many of the projects you're describing the operating engineers and laborers working on have been funded because of that money. The revenue service in the program expires november 2026.
▶ 1:21:24Sen. Kaine: He would be an excellent opportunity with bipartisan, president trump congress, democrats and republicans, should not let those revenue sources expire. We should continue them. And the president trump can focus on a number of his own upper structure priorities to start, for example, modernizing the air traffic control system. That is not cheap.
▶ 1:21:50Sen. Kaine: Would you be a good idea for the folks you guys represent if congress in a bipartisan way or work together with president trump to extend that bipartisan infrastructure for another five years? >> absolutely. It will create jobs. Senator marshall left and I want to circle back on one of the things he said of what is the scale of the labor on an oil and gas project versus solar project because of infrastructure bill and the ira and because of the chip spell, it was the same.
▶ 1:22:19Sen. Kaine: Those laws make sure they were high scale, living wage jobs.
▶ 1:22:25Sen. Kaine: As far as you're concerned, they are all good.
▶ 1:22:27Mr. Booker: Because people are firmly in the middle class. If we let the infrastructure bill expire, if we let the ira -- with the ask -- what the bill did with taking the tax credits away from the ira, it means it will be unscrupulous contractors going back into these markets. If congress works together into what they did before in a bipartisan way, transportation bills come infrastructure is always been bipartisan.
▶ 1:22:52Mr. Booker: Let's lift up our citizens and lift up our members and lift up americans to build our nation's energy and physical infrastructure.
▶ 1:22:59Sen. Kaine: Thank you. We could do this together and be a big win not only for workers of the economy but for president trump because he has some key priorities that will need that funding in order to enable us to get there. I hope we can work on that between now and next november to get it done.
▶ 1:23:15Chair Cassidy: There are so many bipartisan bills on this. We can actually do this piece of legislation. I want to stress that because when we were doing the preparation -- there's a lot of overlap. Mr. booker, started off by saying, my gosh, you want a pipeline discontinued and restored and discontinued. That was the -- senator kim, I apologize, I am going to go this time. Mr.
▶ 1:23:45Chair Cassidy: Downey, you submitted comments to the biden apartment of labor saying curriculum design should be left to plan sponsors who are the best position to craft a curriculum deficit or industry. Very briefly, of a bunch of questions, why are program sponsors in the best position to craft that curriculum and how can the federal government promote lux ability for industry and programs? Be tight with your answer, please.
▶ 1:24:15Mr. Downey: You what the perspective from the contractors out there doing this work?
▶ 1:24:20Chair Cassidy: I want your perspective.
▶ 1:24:23Mr. Downey: Can you repeat the question then?
▶ 1:24:25Chair Cassidy: International union submitted comments to the biden department of labor proposed rules on registered apprenticeships saying curriculum design should be left to plan sponsors who are in the best position to craft curriculum fitting their industry.
▶ 1:24:42Mr. Downey: You get the worker and employer's perspective creating a curriculum.
▶ 1:24:47Chair Cassidy: So not somebody in washington, D.C. come imagining what might be the best fit but rather you guys deciding what the best fit would be?
▶ 1:24:53Mr. Downey: Because we are in that business, correct.
▶ 1:24:57Chair Cassidy: Mr. laney, registration requirements are inconsistent state to state. To what extent does this deter registration at state levels, how can and should this be streamlined and standardized?
▶ 1:25:11Mr. Laney: It makes registration very difficult. Similar to how there are -- you need to be close to the workers and close to the employer's understand what the curriculum needs to be, also need to be close to the people in the states to understand what those local differences are, whether it is prevailing wages or apprenticeship ratios or whatever.
▶ 1:25:34Mr. Laney: We are advocating to move away from the concept of reciprocity that would ask alabama to just accept a set of standards walk in the door from pennsylvania or something like that and move toward interoperability where we make the description of the work and the description of the training, that is the part we need to look at, the meat and potatoes, pre-vet though so an employer can go in and pulled on a set of standards off-the-shelf as you will and know that the standards can be acceptable in the state they moved to.
▶ 1:26:04Chair Cassidy: I once had a patient who taught me the southeast united states is like a walk bowl in terms of job in lake charles, louisiana, and the worker -- and then there's a job on the nuclear plant in georgia and they go there. But the flexible it would be needed across all states. That makes sense to me.
▶ 1:26:24Chair Cassidy: Let me ask this, where you strike the balance between creating standards flexible enough to meet the workforce need but uniform enough to encourage the apprenticeship program registration?
▶ 1:26:35Mr. Laney: You strike at the employers and workers. You go to this people and ask them what needs to be done. You mentioned earlier in previous comments about not starting in D.C. and then telling of her buddy what needs to be in a training outline. Our project is working --
▶ 1:26:51Chair Cassidy: Would that restrict that particular employee to particular hunting and eagles for example? I'm just asking, I am curious, if the industry establishes what it is, could the employee then go someplace else with? The same training? Maybe the eagles, I don't know, what you think?
▶ 1:27:07Mr. Laney: We not nailing the step to something done at that particular place. These are the broad skills and abilities of that person so they are portable and transferable between employers. The worker's mobility but also on the whole, just like the example you give, I don't need shipbuilders right now but summed on the other side of town does. We both have satisfied our work requirement because we built these training outlines in a way that are applicable across the board.
▶ 1:27:34Chair Cassidy: Dr. mccane, registered to partnership programs currently must fall under a dol approved occupation code before an apprenticeship can be registered. But these occupations are evolving. So do these requirements give you the flexibility to position a worker to succeed in an occupation and if the occupation evolves, etc., etc.?
▶ 1:28:05Ms. Mccane: No, it does not. Because it is so restricted, a lot of times for small businesses, they can't fit their program within the partnerships, are already registered. So how do we come up with your -- new apprenticeship programs? We need the flexibility because right now it is too restrictive.
▶ 1:28:22Chair Cassidy: Mr. booker, I am very impressed with the work you and Mr. downey are doing. The occupation is evolving. How do you or Mr. downey, how do you all handle this? Desert need to be more flexibility?
▶ 1:28:38Mr. Booker: Specific to the code, I can't answer that but practically, when it changes, we say, here is what the skills of the labor come in general labor classification and we get that squared away. There is flexibility within the current system that we use today as our careers and our classifications evolve over time.
▶ 1:29:02Chair Cassidy: Mr. downey, I have to hold on you.
▶ 1:29:08Senator Kim. Sen. Kim: Thank you. Thank you all for coming here. Mr. downey, I wanted to start with you. I was struck by something in your testimony. You said, "our model works best when there is funding for projects that put our members to work. If we want to attract and train more skilled trade apprentices and strengthen equipment, history shows the best strategies to fund the project that create the very jobs they are trying to do.
▶ 1:29:36Senator Kim. Sen. Kim: This is why we don't over train." what I take away from that, is the importance of that calibration. That sense of making sure the pipeline as they are so that you can ensure there is a job ready for them afterwards. Is that right? >> that is correct. The system is designed today to be able to have enough people in the workforce when they are needed.
▶ 1:30:05Senator Kim. Sen. Kim: When they are not needed, we are not bringing new apprentices in and they are not working.
▶ 1:30:09Sen. Kim: In your work, there needs to be in terms of calibration, or assessing what are the needs that are out there and trying to understand and meet where the number of jobs need to land to be able to meet those needs, right? Mr. downey: that's right. We do it with all stakeholders. We get input directly from the owner client community as well
▶ 1:30:33For Some Sen. Kim: What I take away is not just in terms of, yes, we need to be able to do more to increase that demand come efforts like what we did with the bipartisan infrastructure law, but you also talk about uncertainty in both you and Mr. booker have talked about this. For instance, I think about in terms of my own home state.
▶ 1:30:53For Some Sen. Kim: Right now if the largest construction project in our region is there but there is a lot of uncertainty about the gateway tunnel project right now because we are just not certain what exactly is happening when the president says he wants to terminate it. When we hear from the department of transportation that things are hopefully going to continue on. We have workers from both unions working on that on a day-to-day basis. I'm trying to do everything I can to make sure that is keeping forward.
▶ 1:31:20For Some Sen. Kim: I will be honest, the uncertainty is deeply frustrating. I wanted to ask you, Mr. downey, when you are seeing that kind of uncertainty, when you see this type of just politicization sometimes of our infrastructure, how does that affect your calibration? How does it affect your ability to try to understand what the needs are?
▶ 1:31:41Mr. Downey: I think it really -- when we are having the discussion that we want to attract the younger generation into our field where our line of work, when they see that instability, I think it makes them move somewhere else. It creates not necessarily a roadblock but some apprehension when they want to consider what career path to head down.
▶ 1:32:08Sen. Kim: It is affecting recruitment. When people are looking, is this going to be a steady job, something I can count on? Deck is a little shaky? -- that gets a little shaky? Mr. booker, you currently have 35,000 apprentices and barking with the futurist looking more uncertain how to use the word "chaos" several times.
▶ 1:32:29Sen. Kim: How does that affect your mind when you are saying things like this uncertainty around the gateway tunnel project, again, many of your members are working.
▶ 1:32:39Mr. Booker: It creates an environment where people don't want to enjoy the trades. We do a lot of community organizing, a lot of member outreach. We go visit them in their neighborhoods and see where they are at. When they're in their community, they talk about a steady job.
▶ 1:32:56Mr. Booker: When you turn on the news and the job you're on, everybody's talking it is going to be terminated, canceled, held in limbo during the negotiations and then the human capital that is being played here should never happen. We should fund a project, permit a project, let our members go to work. When you don't do that, creates a negative strain against registered apprenticeship and trying to bring in the next line of workers.
▶ 1:33:23Sen. Kim: I had the chance to sit down with some laborers in new jersey working on these products up north like the gateway. They talked about in terms they have built a life of the whole family up there. Something like the gateway, we are talking about 13 years worth of work here. That is generational in terms of the amount of support. It is not just about the recruitment, it is also about the people that are there that are trying to know whether or not they're going have steady work going forward for the families and the kids I've got in school.
▶ 1:33:52Mr. Booker: There are fathers/sons working on that project. Imagine that stress on your family if you brought your son into this industry, worked on a project you thought you would be working on for the next 10 years and now yet to turn on the national news to see them talking about whether it is terminated or not.
▶ 1:34:13Sen. Kim: I will say we deserve -- the workers deserve certainty about this. I will continue to fight to get that certainty about gateway as well as these other projects around the country.
▶ 1:34:22Chair Cassidy: Senator murkowski.
▶ 1:34:29Sen. Murkowski: Thank, ladies and gentlemen, for your contributions here before the committee. I wasn't here when senator baldwin was asking her question but we visited outside and I felt both of us made some pretty good progress with the national apprenticeship act we had worked on in the previous congress.
▶ 1:34:50Sen. Murkowski: One of the things that I had really taken away from the lead up to the introduction of that bill, I reached out to our unions around the state of alaska. I reached out to those who have partnership programs. I said, what is really the big challenge here when it comes to apprenticeships in a state like alaska that is done only rural, it is really rural?
▶ 1:35:21Sen. Murkowski: One of the things we heard, and we heard repeated, was a shortage of what will call wraparound services. It is everything from childcare, every thing I need to take care of an aging parents, it is education, it is housing. It is all the things that go into those barriers that keep someone from completing their apprenticeship training.
▶ 1:35:48Sen. Murkowski: I throw this out -- you have shipbuilding, different interests represented. You have some of our unions here. Is this an issue beyond just the state of alaska? Can the federal government be helpful in ensuring those who have the interests, those who that the talent will be able to participate in some of these programs or do you just have to figure it out on your own?
▶ 1:36:17Sen. Murkowski: And if you're lucky enough to be able to do that -- but if you all can weigh in on that? I'm not going to identify anyone to go first. Whoever wants to weigh in, go ahead. Mr. downey?
▶ 1:36:29Mr. Downey: I will point out two areas I think the federal government can help. It has already been discussed today. That would be in the pre-apprenticeship world where we could attract younger generation to come into the trades. 70 mentioned job corps -- somebody mentioned job corps. We had 300 graduates last year. Of those, we put 40% into our apprenticeship programs.
▶ 1:36:57Mr. Downey: There is an opportunity there to attract younger people.
▶ 1:37:03Mr. Laney: I would say alabama has a lot of similarities. We are not as roving as alaska but we do pay some of the challenges in wraparound services. The integration of registered partnership is the only program that automatically qualifies -- we have atpl. Integration is not effective right now. There is money. It is too difficult for the employers access.
▶ 1:37:31Mr. Laney: Many would not full with that because the juice is not worth the squeeze we say. We need to work on those integrations of existing programs so we can take advantage of we know it is there for wraparound services, registered apprenticeship doesn't need to try to take that on independently. We need to address that with the existing programs.
▶ 1:37:50Sen. Murkowski: Go ahead. >> the wraparound services, child tax credit is hopeful to get people to allow to afford childcare where there gone. We as a union have embraced and embarked upon providing maternity leave policy for our female laborers who have been working to make sure they don't have a choice between they or their baby's health in their career, that we will pay for them while they are out. Sign a collective bargaining agreement.
▶ 1:38:17Sen. Murkowski: There's no disparity between a man and woman, race, color, creed when you're working under a collective a barge -- when you're working under collective bargaining, that is a pathway to participate.
▶ 1:38:29Sen. Murkowski: Let me ask another question. We are a state where we have been very keenly focused on oil production and that has been our backbone for a while. But we are also a state that recognizes that we have gotten all of the above energy opportunity. How we build out that workforce.
▶ 1:38:54Sen. Murkowski: So you have workers who are very skilled in the oil and gas field, but we also need them to be equally skilled when it comes to wind turbines, solar projects .
▶ 1:39:13Sen. Murkowski: How do we make sure that you have got this nimbleness, I don't know if that is a word, the ability to be nimble between the training programs for what we would say all of the above in the energy world? Mr. booker?
▶ 1:39:30Mr. Booker: We have a joint training facility in fairbanks that is specific to pipeline.
▶ 1:39:40Sen. Murkowski: We are very pleased about it.
▶ 1:39:43Mr. Booker: I was there in february.
▶ 1:39:49Sen. Murkowski: It just proves what metal is.
▶ 1:39:52Mr. Booker: Yeah those facilities -- you have those facilities in our training curriculum is based off training labor to be effective in all fields of construction. So a construction craft labor gets training across industries so that they do have the skill sets they need whether they're going to work on a pipeline or work on a wind or solar farm, they can go back to the school if they need a very specific 20, 30, 40 hour class most of the general apprenticeship class is they are well-rounded in skill level that can perform, produce
▶ 1:40:25Mr. Booker: Safely, productively and quickly across the industry.
▶ 1:40:29Chair Cassidy: Can I just say state a partnership agency. -- state apprenticeship agency. People in alaska are looking at this are dia -- this idea already. So you in alaska can say, these are our unique challenges with registered partnership program. That is what we need across the country. Every state needs to be in control of their own destiny for these things.
▶ 1:40:55Sen. Murkowski: . Thank you.
▶ 1:40:57Chair Cassidy: Senator. >> in delaware was a former secretary of labor and house of representatives I was the founder of the bipartisan future work caucus. But more important than any of that, I am the granddaughter of two steelworkers, lillian lucille jackson and floyd julius jackson.
▶ 1:41:23Chair Cassidy: Folks that were able to working in a steel ball bearing plant make a good living for my family and uplift them into the middle class. I can say I am a witness to the importance of apprenticeship opportunities in connecting people to good work and also building a skilled workforce for our country.
▶ 1:41:49Chair Cassidy: I am also proud that in delaware, we continue to invest in partnership system, especially -- apprenticeship system especially when it comes to young people. For me, some of my proudest moments in delaware in recent years have been working with our building trades and seeing shovels go in the ground on these massive programs.
▶ 1:42:12Chair Cassidy: I actually said at one of our press conference is when I hear beep, beep beep, somebody is working. For me, what you're doing is critically important and this conversation is as well. We also know if there are no jobs, what happens is that these apprentices are on a path to unemployment. This conversation is important.
▶ 1:42:35Chair Cassidy: We know right now our economy, we have seen worse job market since the great recession in 2008. Amazon just laid off 14,000 people. Yes, amazon just laid off 14,000 people. Basically, ai, while that is not necessarily the cause, they're saying they're not going to replace people because of it.
▶ 1:43:02Chair Cassidy: Do you think that the skilled jobs your apprentices and members perform are resilient in the face of the I-related automation?
▶ 1:43:12Mr. Booker: There is a certain extent of resiliency. We look at data centers, someone has to build them. It takes skilled hands to do that. That is what we pride ourselves in doing, actually have the people to do that. At the end of the day, though, if these data centers and this ai has the ability to take human capital away -- which I think that is a future -- we have to figure that out.
▶ 1:43:38Mr. Booker: That is not a partisan issue, that is an american worker issue that we have got to figure out collectively how do we protect jobs, how do we protect people while embracing the future and appraising technology? I don't have the answer but I do know if you train people, they are going to be able to participate in this economy, live the american dream, be able to provide for the family.
▶ 1:44:00Mr. Downey: I would like to add we have been around for 129 years and we have evolved from steam to diesel to hydraulic, gps equipment. We are going to continue to evolve and be right there as technology changes.
▶ 1:44:20Sen. Rochester: I'm going to shift briefly to Mr. downey -- two Dr. mccane. Owned emphasize our workforce is truly the back bone of our industrial base. Without skilled men and women to build the ships and maintain the fleets, we will not sustain a competitive advantage. Dr.
▶ 1:44:43Sen. Rochester: Mccane, with automation advanced materials and digital design changing the nature of shipbuilding, what skill sets are most urgently needed in today's workforce?
▶ 1:44:53Dr. Mccane: We definitely need students with science technology, and churning, math background. We realized that so that is why we have invested in our pre-apprenticeship program giving those math skills and the technology skills. We invite them to come on our campus and we train them and give them those opportunities before they are actually employed, so we move them from pre-apprenticeship and to apprenticeships.
▶ 1:45:23Dr. Mccane: It is amazing to see the maturation of that. Now they are into jobs they can actually handle and they can handle the technology.
▶ 1:45:30Sen. Rochester: Last question to Mr. booker, delaware is working to expand apprenticeships to nontraditional fields like community health workers. In her testimony, you mentioned that assistance is needed for emerging industries looking to develop apprenticeships. What lessons learned can you share with emerging industries who want to build successful apprenticeship programs that maintain high standards for both workers and employers?
▶ 1:45:57Mr. Booker: I think it is collaboration with your management partners. Putting employees or workers in with employers and management is the first step, figure out how you're going to fund it yourself. Don't look for a government handout. Don't look for corporate bailout. This figure out how to fund this ourselves, come up with the curriculum, real relationship or path forward.
▶ 1:46:20Sen. Blunt: Register I will be asking questions because I want to hear from the nursing perspective. We will be asking more questions for the record. Thank you to the witnesses.
▶ 1:46:30Chair Cassidy: Thank you. Senator hickenlooper.
▶ 1:46:36Sen. Hickenlooper: Thank you for being here great I appreciate your work on this issue that is so important. Let me start with Mr. downey Mr. booker. Their president has canceled billions of dollars worth of energy infrastructure projects and investments just in august, the department of transportation terminated $679 million in funding for upgrades in 12 -- 12 ports to support wind projects offshore.
▶ 1:47:03Sen. Hickenlooper: They have issued stock work orders in rescinded permits for nearly almost every offshore wind project. Earlier, you shared with these cuts, apprenticeship cuts, apprenticesh drop out of the program. What impact will this have ultimately once the industry inevitably needs more workers and students drop out?
▶ 1:47:30Mr. Booker: We spent a lot of time and resources in developing the curriculum for offshore wind to make sure our members were going to work on the water which is extremely dangerous that had the skill sets they need, the safety training, the global wind organizations, the safety credentials to get out there in addition to a skill set they haven't done before because we haven't built must -- much offshore man.
▶ 1:48:00Mr. Booker: The curriculum costs tens of thousands of dollars that we have trained with this group of people together that, yeah, they might finish this job but there's so much uncertainty in offshore wind, how are we going to get the next group of workers with it comes back? That is more of that uncertainty that it is an investment we made not only in dollars and cents but actually human beings, people come to teach them skills that aren't going to be able to apply those skills and provide for the family going forward?
▶ 1:48:26Mr. Downey: The only thing I would add is the disruption, the way our programs work is over time we develop through the curriculum a bigger workforce. We have more people to be able to put to work. We will have that cap with this work stopping so it will be like starting all over again with our membership.
▶ 1:48:48Sen. Hickenlooper: Dr. mccane, fantastic model, integrating education directly with high skilled careers we had one challenge is the average age and apprentice nationally is 30. I think we are generally missing an opportunity with students while they are still in high school.
▶ 1:49:15Sen. Hickenlooper: The apprentice school offers opportunities. What have you found to be the most successful strategies in recruiting high school students in your programs and how do you break through to the students and to their parents that this is the right direction?
▶ 1:49:30Dr. Mccane: I think the best thing we've been able to do is offer them our academic courses, what we call related technical instruction, while they are in high school. So they could an opportunity to interact with our faculty, chance to interact with our technology. We bring them to our campus once a month. We direct with him on a weekly basis where we are preparing them. It is required cap to bring her parents in order for you to be a part of the career apprenticeship program.
▶ 1:50:02Dr. Mccane: You have to bring your parents to be able to sign you up. Of course, there are 16, 15, right? We want those parents in the space as well to understand who we are because we're competed with colleges and universities. So how do we make and ensure that parents understand that actually in a good place? They're going to walk in a high paying jobs. They are going to own their own house by the time they're 21. And they don't have to sleep on your couch.
▶ 1:50:30Dr. Mccane: Those are the things we tell parents and then they jump on board.
▶ 1:50:33Sen. Hickenlooper: I like that argument. Mr. downey Mr. booker, that urgency I feel that we have so -- so many youth out there that aren't getting into apprenticeship, do you see a pathway for federal support to complement and strengthen the overall pipeline for funding youth apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships provided they adhere to robust quality and the high standards in terms
▶ 1:51:03Sen. Hickenlooper: Of safety?
▶ 1:51:09Mr. Downey: I think there's an opportunity for the government to look at the pre-apprenticeship model. We do some things we funded our self where we guarantee entrance into our apprenticeship programs at the high school level when they complete classes designed for heavy equipment operation. If they complete that class come there guaranteed a spot in the apprenticeship. I think there's opportunity for the government on a pre-apprenticeship level to attract the youth.
▶ 1:51:38Mr. Booker: The only thing I would add to that, look, I think the federal government should help us create the jobs to have our apprentices go to work anther infrastructure come through the different things they have the control over. We figured out registered apprenticeship as an industry for decades we know how to train people. We pride ourselves on that. I would ask for the federal government, let's go find some jobs and let us figure out how to train people to do it.
▶ 1:52:06Chair Cassidy: Senator banks.
▶ 1:52:09Sen. Banks: Thank you. In indiana, 25,000 people participated in apprenticeships last year, nearly a million nationally. A partnership programs are helping hoosiers fill electricians, boilermakers, operating engineers, metalworkers in the building trades.
▶ 1:52:30Sen. Banks: Those who complete a registered apprenticeship program earn an average salary of $70,000 a year , that is $30,000 more than the average starting salary for a worker with an associates degree. Hoosiers enrolled in registered apprenticeship programs earn an average wage of $20.28, earning while they learn vertical skills. Mr.
▶ 1:52:54Sen. Banks: Kerrick, will agree a partnership programs have huge benefits for workers and employers but government bureaucracy is holding registered partnerships back. -- registered apprenticeship back.
▶ 1:53:15Mr. Carrick: There are significant, very significant. On just a straight paperwork side, small and medium-sized manufacturers are not set up for that level of compliance. They just want to train the next generation of workers and have them fill the jobs they have open.
▶ 1:53:35Mr. Carrick: So rightsizing this regulations to ensure that those companies and the sector as a whole are able to meet the quality standards yet not be burdened with undue paperwork is significant. On the educator side, we have hundreds of thousands of men and women that have decades of experience in manufacturing.
▶ 1:53:58Mr. Carrick: We would love to teach the next generation we had accreditation rules require specific credentials and degrees in order to do so. How we lightness could really free up significant teacher workforce.
▶ 1:54:10Sen. Banks: Your organization is operating in 16 states. But only 15% of your students participated in registered apprenticeships because of that regulatory burden. How can we cut red tape for those programs and make them more workable for employers?
▶ 1:54:29Mr. Carrick: I think it is a balance. Number one from the cost of compliance. We talked about ratios, we talked about some of the eo actions, we talked about the process schedules -- all of that is paperwork. Any changes then requires permission from the government. Allowing employers to run the best way for us what they need. Is ideal for manufacturing.
▶ 1:54:56Mr. Carrick: The apprentice and the company of the same goal, which is create the best possible come in this case, technician, that you can because we want to keep them at the company for the long-term.
▶ 1:55:07Sen. Banks: You mentioned how it can be a struggle to find qualified instructors. How should the accreditation process change to allow people with deep industry experience but not a formal degree to train apprentices?
▶ 1:55:25Mr. Carrick: Really a skills-based model. It is not about which piece of paper compass about what you know. It is able to align your expense with the skills required to teach becomes I think keystone for this.
▶ 1:55:40Sen. Banks: Great conversation. Thank you.
▶ 1:55:44Chair Cassidy: Senator markey.
▶ 1:55:47Sen. Markey: Thank you. Donald trump has waged an all-out assault on union clean energy jobs. In massachusetts alone, 17 projects $8.6 billion, of investment and almost 17,000 clean energy jobs have been axed or stalled and just nine months.
▶ 1:56:13Sen. Markey: Because of donald trump's attacks from canceling permits to repealing inflation reduction act tax credits, union workers are saying job offers evaporate and work sites shutter. A portobello project in salem with hundreds of union jobs under a project they were agreement axed. A cable manufacturing in somerset that would have created hundreds of human jobs, axed.
▶ 1:56:43Sen. Markey: 3000 good jobs from another program that trump cut ,axed. The offshore wind projects up and down the massachusetts coast which were going to have thousands of union workers putting those workers out there in an industry, they are all in the crosshairs to be axed.
▶ 1:57:07Sen. Markey: So far, we have lost nationwide 158,000 clean energy jobs in just nine months. That is an economic record. Look at that destruction. That is the most destruction that anyone has ever taken to one industry in such a brief period of time. That is trump's record. Union workers start seeing the unemployment line for the first time in decades.
▶ 1:57:35Sen. Markey: It is shameful situation and aye 's attacks will have -- trump's attacks will have a chilling effects for years to come. Union partnerships require high quality commitment toward on-the-job experience. With trump and republicans shuttering these worksites, apprentices cannot train. How are president trump's attacks on clean energy sector affecting your workers including your apprentices?
▶ 1:58:05Sen. Markey: >> is the chaos, uncertainty, inability to recruit new members into it. It is the inability to have our current members who are in the system not be able to graduate the system because they don't have a job to go to. They're going to finish their current job. They're not going to have the next job so there is chaos and uncertainty that is creating an environment where it is going to be very hard to bring people back into the construction industry at a time where it should be bringing people into registered apprenticeship.
▶ 1:58:37Mr. Downey: I would echo the same sentiments from president booker red one other piece I guess I would add is we put a lot of time, energy, effort, resources and the to do this offshore work. That all just came to a screeching halt. Now have a bunch of members with a bunch of credentialing and we don't know if we are going to put them back to the work -- put them back to work in the future.
▶ 1:59:03Sen. Markey: There's a world-class apprenticeship program that includes training on asbestos abatement. Many old buildings were constructed and renovated with asbestos laden products were industry-standard including the white house.
▶ 1:59:20Sen. Markey: Are you aware of any permits or other indications that the white house, the president trump, took any of the appropriate safety steps when trump demolished the east wing of the white house to protect against asbestos exposure?
▶ 1:59:36Mr. Booker: I'm not aware.
▶ 1:59:39Sen. Markey: So the white house could have exposed workers and passersby to deadly asbestos?
▶ 1:59:44Mr. Booker: They could have. I can tell you had to been a union workforce, we would have access to that. This administration chose to use a nonunion workforce to do that on a unit project, one of the first things we teach in our apprenticeship is have your brother and sisters back. If you see something, say something. Something is unsafe, you can stop the work. This is not union so I have no idea what is going on.
▶ 2:00:08Sen. Markey: Though safety standards exist for reason, to protect workers, innocent people may be nearby, even working in the white house of exposure to asbestos. Those standards just don't disappear on the whim of president trump. They are there because of all of the lessons we have learned -- especially because of asbestos workers died at an unbelievably high workers before we put protections in place.
▶ 2:00:36Sen. Markey: That is why I wrote to the contractor who tore down the east wing to the event answers on whether and why workers were put at risk for trump's big donor ballroom. It is just another example of how trump is the most antiunion president, anti-safety president in history. And that is something that absolutely we have to get to the bottom of.
▶ 2:01:03Sen. Markey: I have received no answers yet in terms of any asbestos protections, any other safety protections put in in order to ensure the workers were not unnecessarily exposed to health endangering situations. I think you for your work on these issues.
▶ 2:01:19Chair Cassidy: Every shop I visited the sizes it takes great pride upon their safety record. They are subject to the same osha regulations and maintaining exposure to asbestos or anything else. Just for the record.
▶ 2:01:36Sen. Markey: I agree but just the president think he can waive all regulations because it is the white house and not any other property in the united states?
▶ 2:01:45Chair Cassidy: I asked for unanimous consent to enter letters into the record pertaining to the issues today discussed from the associated builders and contractors. Fraidy senator wishing to ask additional questions for the record, they will be due 5:00 p.m. Thursday, november 20. Thank you for being here. A good, informative panel. I think there's a real opportunity for bipartisan work and each of you have contributed. Thank you very much. The committee is adjourned.