Thank you for yielding. All over the country, we’re beginning to see the perception around skills-based education evolve. For far too long, there was a stigma surrounding skills-based education. There was a misconception that a baccalaureate degree was the only viable pathway to a good job and a successful life. But as the national skills gap of more than seven million unfilled jobs has widened, p... Read more »
Thank you for yielding. While we agree that federal labor law is in need of reform, the title of today’s hearing is premised on a fallacy: that workers’ right to organize and join a union is, in some way, in jeopardy. Federal law protects workers’ right to unionize, point blank. Becoming a union member is an important personal decision and Republicans and Democrats alike respect the right of emplo... Read more »
Thank you for yielding. As a dad to three young kids, today’s topic is a tough one to discuss. No child should ever have to endure the pain of abuse or neglect by a parent or caregiver, and that’s why today’s hearing is so important. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is the key federal legislation that helps states combat child abuse and neglect. This legislation, which was enac... Read more »
This hearing cuts to the heart of why postsecondary education reform is necessary and why it is so difficult to accomplish. It’s necessary because college is so increasingly expensive. For decades, tuition and fees have risen higher than the cost of inflation. Because costs have always varied between different types of institutions, it’s often hard to know what option would provide the best value ... Read more »
Thank you for yielding. I’d like to thank my colleagues across the aisle for holding today’s hearing. Before coming to Congress, I served as Kentucky’s Agriculture Commissioner where I worked with school food service personnel from school districts across the commonwealth to promote initiatives including the Farm to School Program, encouraging fresh, “Kentucky Proud” foods to be served in local ca... Read more »
Thank you for yielding. The looming insolvency of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) multiemployer insurance program is one of the greatest challenges facing American workers who participate in multiemployer pension plans. Collectively, 95 percent of multiemployer plan participants are in plans that are less than 60 percent funded. This large-scale breakdown of the multiemployer pla... Read more »
What happened to liberal pragmatism? Truly, I’m asking: what happened to it? In the past, I could appreciate the positions of my colleagues across the aisle, and I understood their reasoning for much of the legislation they proposed. I disagreed with many of those proposals, but the arguments followed some degree of logic. There is no logic in this legislation. We’re here to mark up a socialist ca... Read more »
Thank you for yielding. Ask any parent, grandparent, teacher, or volunteer who has been entrusted with caring for more than one child at a time, and they will tell you that every child is created to be unique. They’ll also tell you that that uniqueness can sometimes present challenges, especially when it comes to maintaining a sense of order and safety in a classroom. When an authority figure in t... Read more »
Thank you for yielding. Allow me to begin this afternoon by saying that protecting the safety of health care and social service workers is not a partisan issue. It doesn’t take having a liberal or conservative bent to appreciate the hard work and empathy that hospital workers and community caregivers demonstrate every single day on the job. Their dedication to caring for the most vulnerable member... Read more »
I wish we could outlaw stupidity. I really do. Discrimination on the basis of sex is wrong, and it is illegal. Paying women less than men for equal work performed is wrong, and it is illegal. Bad managers who try to get away with it anyway are wrong. They’re breaking the law. They’re also stupid. They are stupid for not recognizing the value of every employee, especially working women. They are st... Read more »
