[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
PUTTING AMERICA BACK TO WORK: THE ROLE OF WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT AND
SMALL BUSINESS REHIRING
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INNOVATION AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD
JULY 16, 2020
__________
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Small Business Committee Document Number 116-087
Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
41-298 WASHINGTON : 2021
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
NYDIA VELAZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman
ABBY FINKENAUER, Iowa
JARED GOLDEN, Maine
ANDY KIM, New Jersey
JASON CROW, Colorado
SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
KWEISI MFUME, Maryland
JUDY CHU, California
DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois
ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
ANTONIO DELGADO, New York
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio, Ranking Member
AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, American Samoa, Vice Ranking Member
TROY BALDERSON, Ohio
KEVIN HERN, Oklahoma
JIM HAGEDORN, Minnesota
PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee
ROSS SPANO, Florida
JOHN JOYCE, Pennsylvania
DAN BISHOP, North Carolina
Melissa Jung, Majority Staff Director
Justin Pelletier, Majority Deputy Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Kevin Fitzpatrick, Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Hon. Jason Crow.................................................. 1
Hon. Troy Balderson.............................................. 2
WITNESSES
Dr. Demetra Smith Nightingale, Institute Fellow, Urban Institute,
Washington, DC................................................. 5
Ms. Kelly Folks, Arapahoe/Douglas Workforce Director, Workforce
Center, Centennial, CO, testifying on behalf of Workforce
Boards and Centers and the Rocky Mountain Workforce Development
Association (RMWDA)............................................ 6
Mr. Joe Schaffer, President, Laramie County Community College,
Cheyenne, WY, testifying on behalf of the American Association
of Community Colleges.......................................... 8
Ms. Kelly Moore, Vice President, GKM Auto Parts Inc., Zanesville,
OH............................................................. 10
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Dr. Demetra Smith Nightingale, Institute Fellow, Urban
Institute, Washington, DC.................................. 21
Ms. Kelly Folks, Arapahoe/Douglas Workforce Director,
Workforce Center, Centennial, CO, testifying on behalf of
Workforce Boards and Centers and the Rocky Mountain
Workforce Development Association (RMWDA).................. 26
Mr. Joe Schaffer, President, Laramie County Community
College, Cheyenne, WY, testifying on behalf of the American
Association of Community Colleges.......................... 33
Ms. Kelly Moore, Vice President, GKM Auto Parts Inc.,
Zanesville, OH............................................. 40
Questions and Answers for the Record:
Questions from Hon. Balderson to Ms. Kelly Folks and
Responses from Ms. Kelly Folks............................. 41
Questions from Hon. Balderson to Mr. Joe Schaffer and
Responses from Mr. Joe Schaffer............................ 44
Questions from Hon. Balderson to Ms. Kelly Moore and
Responses from Ms. Kelly Moore............................. 46
Additional Material for the Record:
International Franchise Association (IFA).................... 49
PUTTING AMERICA BACK TO WORK: THE ROLE OF WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT AND
SMALL BUSINESS REHIRING
----------
THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2020
House of Representatives,
Committee on Small Business,
Subcommittee on Innovation and Workforce
Development,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 1:00 p.m., via
Webex, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Jason Crow [chairman
of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Crow, Finkenauer, Kim, Davids,
Houlahan, Balderson, Hern, and Chabot.
Chairman CROW. Good afternoon. I call this meeting to
order.
I want to thank everyone for joining us this afternoon for
our Committee's official remote hearing. I want to make sure to
note some important requirements of this hearing according to
the House rules.
House regulations requires that members be visible through
a video connection throughout the proceedings. Please keep your
cameras on. Also, if you have to participate in another
proceeding, please exit this one and log back in later.
Remember to remain muted until you are recognized to minimize
background noise.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, technological
advancement and changing trends in the labor market were
disrupting jobs and the skills needed to perform them. The
coronavirus pandemic has in many ways accelerated these changes
and highlighted the urgent need for workers to have the
knowledge, skills, and abilities needed in the 21st century
economy. Workers and businesses in every industry, especially
those hardest hit by COVID-19 must figure out how they can
adapt to these changing conditions. In particular, all firms
have a harder time finding the employees that fit their needed
skillsets. However, as we all know, all businesses will need to
play an outside role in getting the country back to work.
Before the pandemic, small firms accounted for 99 percent of
all private sector employers and created nearly two-thirds of
all new private sector jobs. Even when unemployment was low and
there were still underlying problems, like a growing skills gap
that severely undercuts its public workforce system.
The Federal government was failing to prepare our people
for the future workforce even as our workforce was evolving.
This chronic underfunding of our Nation's workforce development
program not only hurt the ability of many workers to get ahead;
it neglected the growing needs of our Nation's small businesses
as the driver of economic growth and job creation.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 45
million workers have filed for unemployment. The unemployment
rate stands at 11.1 percent, and experts say that in reality it
is higher than that. This unemployment crisis is particularly
hurting young people, women, and people of color.
Retail clerks, restaurant servers, housekeepers and
hospitality workers are now out of job and may not have jobs to
go back to. Some experts estimate that upwards of 42 percent of
jobs that disappeared during the pandemic may never return.
And this is why we are here today, to discuss at length how
our Nation's workforce gets the skills needed for the 21st
century to help small firms rehire and retain more employees.
In the midst of this unprecedented crisis, we must be bold in
preparing our people for the future of work and that will only
happen if we have ``an all hands on deck'' approach. That
includes extending access to new and innovative job training
programs like remote apprenticeships. It means we must
facilitate intense collaboration between Federal, state, and
local government, the private sector, and our Nation's colleges
and universities to determine what skills need to be trained
and how to help employers find talent.
That means we might to rethink incentives we provide
employers, especially for small businesses so they are able to
invest in the workforce that meet the needs of their particular
industry.
I look forward to hearing from our expert witnesses who
will be able to talk much more about the changing nature of
work and the skills necessary to get ahead in the 21st century,
as well as the way the local workforce boards, community
colleges and Federal policy can help smaller firms find the
workers they need to grow and once again become the driver of
economic growth and job creation.
Again, I want to thank the panelists for joining us here
today, and I now yield to the Ranking Member, Mr. Balderson,
for his opening statement.
Mr. BALDERSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this
hearing today.
The coronavirus has dealt a devastating blow to our Nation.
Neither our people, nor our economy, is immune to its negative
impacts. However, Americans are resilient and strong. Our
healthcare providers have fought tirelessly to save lives. Our
school systems have rapidly evolved to meet remote learning
demand. Many of our small businesses from restaurants to
manufacturers have adapted to overnight challenges, loss of
revenue, and ever-shifting local and Federal guidance.
I am inspired by the flexibility, agility, and creativity
of small businesses in my district and across this country to
demonstrate the confidence we need during the recovery phase.
According to the Department of Treasury, the Paycheck
Protection Program, also known as the PPP, supported 51 million
jobs. This means PPP supported over 80 percent of all small
business employees nationwide. I was proud to work with
Congresswoman Angie Craig, who also serves on this Committee,
to ensure the program would remain available through August
8th.
As states continue to move into the next phases of this
public health emergency and lift restrictions, Congress must do
more to prepare to protect small businesses and their
employees. Many are facing atypical expenses such as the
purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE) to safeguard
employees and customers and on top of recent unexpected
declines in revenues.
To meet the burden, I introduced H.R. 7216, the Small
Business PPE Tax Credit Act with my fellow Small Business
Committee Representative Joyce of Pennsylvania and two partners
from across the aisle, Representative Brenda Lawrence of
Michigan and Representative Mike Quigley of Illinois. Under the
Small Business PPE Tax Credit Act, certain small businesses and
nonprofit organizations will qualify for a tax credit of up to
$25,000 for the purchase and installation of PPE intended to
reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
In addition to the PPE, new and returning employees will
need training on social distance requirements and other
coronavirus related changes, procedures and regulations. Both
employers and employees will need clear guidance and acceptable
resources from the local, state, and Federal government.
Here is another opportunity for us to work together. Our
workforce has the flexibility, agility, and creativity to meet
the demands of our new normal now. It just needs Congress to
support them in this effort.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Balderson. I appreciate your
comments and all of your hard work and the work you are doing
on both sides of the aisle to rep this issue.
I would like to take a moment to explain how this hearing
will proceed. Each witness will have 5 minutes to provide a
statement, and each Committee member will have 5 minutes for
questions. Please ensure that your microphone is on when you
begin speaking and that you return to mute when you are
finished. That might be the most important thing. It happens
all the time.
With that, I would like to thank our witnesses for taking
time out of their busy schedules to join us.
Our first witness today is Dr. Demetra Smith Nightingale.
Am I pronouncing that right? Is it Demetra or Demetra?
Dr. NIGHTINGALE. Demetra.
Chairman CROW. Demetra. Dr. Demetra Smith Nightingale, an
institute fellow at the Urban Institute where her research
focuses on social, economic, and labor policy issues. She was
chief evaluation officer at the U.S. Department of Labor from
2011 to 2016 where she developed what is recognized as one of
the premier evaluation units in the Federal government. Prior
to that she taught graduate courses in social policy and
program evaluation at Johns Hopkins and was currently a
professorial lecturer at the Trachtenberg School of Public
Policy and Public Administration at George Washington
University. Thank you, Dr. Nightingale for being here today.
Our second witness is Ms. Kelly Folks, the director of
Arapahoe Douglas Workforce Center. She has over 20 years of
experience working to develop innovative workforce throughout
the programming specifically designed to serve both jobseekers
and business and industry. She is viewed as a local, regional,
state, and national leader in workforce and economic
development. Ms. Folks is the president of the Rocky Mountain
Workforce Development Association, serves as a board member of
Region 8 with the National Association of Workforce Development
Professionals, and serves as the Region 4 liaison for the
National Association of Workforce Boards. Thank you, Ms. Folks,
for being here today.
Our third witness is Dr. Joe Schaffer. Dr. Schaffer is
currently the president of Laramie County Community College,
Wyoming's largest community college. He considers himself a
community college evangelist after an associate degree changed
his life for the better. Prior to joining LCCC, he spent nearly
a decade at Montana State University-Great Falls, serving in a
variety of academic and administrative roles. At age 34, he was
appointed the dean and CEO, becoming one of the youngest
college executives in the Nation at the time. He is currently
serving on the Board of Directors of the American Association
of Community Colleges and sits on their Commission of Small and
Rural Colleges. Thank you, Dr. Schaffer for being here today.
I will now yield to the Ranking Member, Mr. Balderson, to
introduce our final witness.
Mr. BALDERSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
It is with great pleasure for me today, a personal friend,
to introduce, and we have known each other since they came into
our local community since 2004 when her husband and I and her
sons have chased each other through the woods on motorcycles.
So it is always good.
Our final witness today is Kelly Moore. Kelly is the vice
president of GKM Auto Parts, which is based on Zanesville,
Ohio. In 2004, the opportunity presented itself for Kelly and
her husband Greg to purchase their first two Auto Parts
locations. They began by employing 16 workers, as well as
several family members. In 2006, they bought two additional
stores for a total of four with locations in Zanesville,
Dresden, Conshohocken, and West Lafayette. Additionally, Ms.
Moore currently serves on our 12th Congressional District Small
Business Advisory Board, comprised of small businesses from
every county in the district and representing many industries.
There, she helps me, informing on challenges small businesses
face on the ground. Thank you for taking the time out of your
busy schedule to join us today, Ms. Moore, Ms. Kelly Moore. I
look forward to hearing your testimony and great to see you.
Thank you.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Balderson. And thank you all
for being here today.
I would like to now begin by recognizing Dr. Nightingale
for 5 minutes. Dr. Nightingale, you can see the timer on the
screen here. We look forward to your comments.
STATEMENTS OF DEMETRA SMITH NIGHTINGALE, INSTITUTE FELLOW,
URBAN INSTITUTE; KELLY FOLKS, ARAPAHOE/DOUGLAS WORKFORCE
DIRECTOR,WORKFORCE CENTER; JOE SCHAFFER, PRESIDENT, LARAMIE
COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE; KELLY MOORE, VICE PRESIDENT, GKM AUTO
PARTS INC.
STATEMENT OF DEMETRA SMITH NIGHTINGALE
Dr. NIGHTINGALE. Thank you, Chairman Crow, Ranking Member
Balderson, and members of the Committee. I appreciate the
opportunity to testify before you today on the workforce
development system and small businesses.
The Nation's public workforce development system is a
partnership of Federal, state, and local governments charged
with providing employment-related services to both workers and
businesses and serve over 2,000 local one-stop career centers,
also called American job centers, the system which is
authorized in the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act and the
Wagner Peyser Act, operates a free labor exchange nationwide.
One goal of the system is to help anyone find a job,
especially the unemployed and underemployed, and dislocated
workers. Another goal is to help businesses by matching skilled
job seekers to businesses that are hiring. Most local job
centers also make space available to businesses to conduct
interviews. They hold workshops for jobseekers and conduct
various types of training assessments for workers.
So what works in hiring and skills training? Evaluation
suggests four points that I would like to make.
First, public investment in training fills an important
gap. Employers, of course, provide most job training in the
United States. Small businesses are less able than large
corporations to invest much in training, even in good economic
times. The public workforce development system helps fill the
training gap by focusing on smaller businesses and low to mid-
level workers. The system's very limited funding, though, as
the Chairman just mentioned, covers only a small fraction of
the hundreds of millions of businesses and workers in the
Nation.
The second point is that training connected to work has the
most positive effect. Not all training is the same, and not all
training, whether it is public or private, is effective. But
evaluations show that the most effective job training is that
which is connected directly to real work, real jobs, rather
than standalone training not aligned with jobs that are in
demand. This includes integrated training models, such as
apprenticeships and on-the-job training with public subsidies.
The third point that I would like to make is that
individualized staff-assisted coaching and career services are
important. Several evaluations are now finding that the types
of staff-assisted coaching and services that local one-stop
career centers provide and sometimes provide virtually are
important. Trainees who receive assistance in selecting their
training do better than those who make choices on their own
without coaching.
The fourth point is that comprehensive and integrated
models work equally well for youth and that as with adults,
training that is work-based is most effective for youth,
especially those who have less than college and those who are
just coming out of high school or college.
There are at least three ways that small businesses can
connect and avail themselves of services in the workforce
system. First, it is important for all businesses to stay
abreast of the shifts in demand or of skills in the labor
market and the state labor market information system which uses
the Bureau of Labor Statistics methodology and updates the data
regularly. As we have already heard, there have been changes in
the demand for technology and virtual skills, accelerated by
the COVID crisis in telemedicine, virtual customer service,
delivery, transportation, retail, and online support. Training
workers now can have longer term payouts and investment in the
future.
Second, small businesses can partner directly with
workforce development systems for training. Many Federal grants
require employer partnerships and small businesses can be those
partners. And third, businesses should prepare for a long-term
period of unemployment, high unemployment and hopefully from
additional funding that helps to expand the services that are
available.
In conclusion, the workforce development system trains
workers who might not be otherwise able to receive it and
provides support and assistance to businesses that might not
have all the resources to do it on their own. Businesses can
and do play a critical role, and small businesses can be
prepared to expand their role by actively partnering and
connecting with the local workforce development system and be
aware of new funding as it becomes available. Thank you.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Dr. Nightingale. Perfect timing
as well I will add. I appreciate your comments very much.
Ms. Folks, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF KELLY FOLKS
Ms. FOLKS. Good afternoon. I want to thank the Subcommittee
for the opportunity to discuss the needs of the workforce
system. Although WIOA has not been cut at a national level,
unfortunately, the current formula utilized for allocating
funding to states and then lags with the market and the current
demands, therefore it makes it very difficult at a local level
to provide the level of service delivery needed, especially
during times such as this. The WIOA system has not been funded
nationally over the past several years at a level to keep up
with the demand or the speed of the market.
In order for the workforce system to meet the demands of
the jobseekers and business during the pandemic, the system
needs resources and funding. During the Great Recession, the
workforce system was put to the test, receiving an influx in
funding to serve the communities through a variety of
mechanisms. The system as a whole rose to that challenge. This
type of bold and decisive action is needed even more today with
the current economy devastated by the pandemic. Please consider
additional resources added to the overall WIOA and Wagner
Peyser funding streams, additional resources for youth
employment programming, and additional resources for local
areas to be able to provide more robust business service
delivery which allows for the innovation needed to meet the
demands of business; in particular small businesses.
Our response to COVID-19 has taken the workforce system
nationally and within Colorado to the next level. When the
State of Colorado shut down for several weeks during the height
of cases in our state, we had less than 48 hours to get all of
our services remote and virtual. Many local regions in Colorado
developed and implemented local call centers to assist the
state with the influx and demand on the unemployment calls to
the system by jobseekers and businesses. All services went
virtual with absolutely no stop in service delivery to the
jobseekers or the businesses.
The offices have reopened; however, due to the positive
results in offering virtual service delivery, both service
models continue to date throughout the state. The current
trends that we are seeing nationally, within the State of
Colorado and at a local level include people not going back to
work with the company that they were furloughed from due to the
company either closing, or if the particular job is no longer
available. The need for layoff aversion methodologies and
incumbent worker training availability to be put in place with
more flexibility to ensure that businesses can continue to
retool and skill up their current workforce rather than lay
off.
Although work-based learning is a key factor in being able
to put funding into local businesses, right now businesses are
having trouble with having the time to look into developing
apprenticeship programs or allow for on-the-job trainings. They
do not have the bandwidth. Flexibility in being able to pay 100
percent for a period of time of a jobseeker's on-the-job
training is needed.
A need for more flexibility in the formula funds so that
local communities can build the programming needed to put
people back to work quickly. And public service employment
should be re-examined to be able to place unemployed
individuals in opportunities which assist both our local
governments with recovery and their families with a paycheck.
Some examples of innovative business practices during the
pandemic include virtual business roundtables and conferences
with topic areas driven by the business community.
Another example, the Close the Gap Program, an initiative
with the Arapahoe/Douglas Workforce Board and one-stop,
Arapahoe County Government and Arapahoe Community College
utilizing CARES Act funding. A very significant technology gap
was realized in the height of the pandemic. This program closes
the technology gap for low-income individuals. Once the
individual completes the program successfully, they will
receive a laptop in order to be able to accept work-from-home
employment opportunities.
Some additional innovative best practices that have been in
place within the State of Colorado pre-COVID and continue to be
very relevant during the pandemic are virtual hiring events
through the Connecting Colorado platform utilized statewide,
the establishment of the Business Service Alignment Group,
which representatives from each local area and the Colorado
Department of Labor and Employment. This group works to align
business practices to ensure business and industry receive the
same services and messaging and the formation of a data expert
group with representatives from each local area who work to
respond to data requests for business and industry, education,
economic development, chambers, nonprofit, and other government
agencies, as well as reporting the ROI of the workforce system
for Colorado. The Nation's workforce system has the components,
partnerships and infrastructure in place which will make
certain that the current unemployment crisis from the pandemic
can be addressed.
In short, the workforce system stands ready to put America
back to work. Thank you for your time.
Chairman CROW. Thank you for your opening statement, Ms.
Folks.
Dr. Schaffer, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF JOE SCHAFFER
Mr. SCHAFFER. Good afternoon, Chairman Crow, Ranking Member
Balderson, and members of the Committee. It is an honor to be
here representing my college, Laramie County Community College
(LCCC), about 100 miles straight north of the good Chairman's
district. But also to be here on behalf of the American
Association of Community Colleges that has more than 1,000
members.
As you heard, I have been working with a commission on
small and rural colleges for the past few years and that will
likely cover my testimony today.
Mr. Chairman, there are not many things that are more
American than its community colleges for our small businesses.
Unfortunately, we work hand-in-hand, whether it is through
hunting resources like small business development centers, four
chapters or business retention and expansion programs, or it is
central for our mission providing customized training and
workforce development programs tailored to the needs of our
community's businesses.
Today, I want to touch on four specific ways community
colleges support America's Main Streets. And while we have many
examples, I want to be clear that we need to be doing
substantially more in these areas. And selfishly, I believe we
need a specific focus on helping our rural communities ramp up
these efforts.
The first is entrepreneurship and small business start.
Community colleges have a rich history of developing and
delivering programs that prepare jobseekers for real
opportunities within their communities, states, and regions, so
I believe we need a fundamental shift from focusing on just
developing jobseekers, equally emphasizing development of job
creators. As you likely know, between the late 1970s and 2012,
the share of young businesses, those a year or younger declined
by more than 40 percent. Currently, census data paints a pretty
scary picture for America, one where more businesses are
closing to new ones opening. The business recruitment model has
sort of been the holy grail of economic development. We need to
shift our focus from business recruitment of the primary
economic development strategy to a mindset focused on
entrepreneurship and public community colleges are helping
drive the shift.
The second thing is small business growth and expansion. As
you stated, Mr. Chairman, small businesses have accounted for
the majority of new private sector jobs.
But this growth does not come without intention and
support. Community colleges have and continue to play an
instrumental role in the growth and expansion of small
businesses. One of the reasons we collectively support the
Department of Education's Reimaging Workforce Preparation
grants that include business incubators as one of the program's
two primary priorities. Helping small businesses move from
start-up to sustained, stable growth should be a policy
priority for us all.
The third area is technical assistance. Small businesses,
by their very nature, are small. Owners and employers wear
multiple hats and they seldom have in-house access to technical
assistance, professional development, R&D, or other
professional and scientific services. Community colleges have
historically stepped up, and stepped in, to help small
businesses in this area, either through the direct provision of
assistance or through the coordination with community partners.
The last area, and probably the one that we are most well-
known for is workforce development. Community colleges have
perhaps been the most progressive and instrumental in
supporting small business in the realm of workforce
development. Workforce development has been a hallmark of the
community college mission for nearly 100 years. But there are
two primary challenges that we face with workforce development.
The first is the sheer lack of individuals available for work,
especially in rural areas. Aging populations, lower birth
rates, and issues with immigration policy have all impacted the
availability of workers.
And as you said, Mr. Chairman, the other one is the skills
gap. You stated numerous times that there are jobs available
but not the people with the skills necessary to successfully
fill them. I am proud of LCCC's work and really being at the
helm tackling this challenge, our partnership with the
Department of Labor on expanding community college
apprenticeships or tailored short-term certificate programs,
one of the things that we believe is essential and why we
support short-term Pell or the alignment of our degree
certificate programs that support workers and employers
directly.
And there are policy things that can help us along this
way. We know that there is a skills gap, and one of the issues
with the skills gap is insufficient support for workforce
education at community colleges and other entities, especially
so in rural areas. That is why we support establishing a major
community college job training program to help the country move
beyond and through the pandemic.
Mr. Chairman, I want to conclude with just two other real
quick thoughts that I think are germane to the conversation and
they deal with this increasing divide between rural and urban
America. We know that the formula for prosperity in rural areas
is simple: economic activity plus economic opportunity equals
community prosperity. We now have to start considering policy
that helps us redistribute population and redistribute jobs out
of our metro areas and back across rural America if we want to
see this country and its small businesses continue to thrive.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my remarks. I look forward to
and stand ready for questions. Thank you.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Dr. Schaffer. I appreciate your
opening remarks.
Ms. Moore, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF KELLY MOORE
Ms. MOORE. Thank you very much, Chairman, and Ranking
Member Balderson for inviting me to give testimony.
I live the dream. I am a small business owner and operator
of a family-run business which Troy earlier described.
As a small business, our 19 employees are a valuable asset
to our company. Well trained, knowledgeable employees, those
are the keys to the success, stability, and growth potential
for any business, especially our business.
In the past few years, it has been challenging for
businesses to fill open positions with quality candidates.
There is a shortage, particularly in our region, of qualified
candidates for highly skilled positions. The National
Federation of Independent Businesses reported results of a
member survey in 2019 that 22 percent of small employers who
have hired an employee for their most skilled position in the
last 2 years lowered the minimum qualifications for applicants
that they previously required, and 24 percent lowered them for
the most common, less skilled positions.
As a leadership member of NFIB, I hear firsthand that
hiring and retaining qualified employees, particularly in the
technical and mechanical trades in our region, is hindering the
operations of small businesses. When a less than qualified
candidate is hired, improving that employee's skills puts a
strain on the tight margins with which small businesses
normally operate and puts a strain on the timeframe of
production. Money in the budget which could be spent on
expanding the business and hiring additional employees is spent
on training the less than qualified new hires. Finding the time
to train is also a significant burden to the small business
owners.
I just have a quick anecdotal account of a conversation
with a local garage shop owner that illustrates this issue.
I was dropping off parts. He asked me if we knew of any
mechanics looking for work. I asked if he had tapped into the
recent grads from the local tech program. He said he had worked
with a highly recommended grad the year before, but the tech
was inadequately trained in the basics. The shop owner said he
spent too much time retraining him on basics such as a simple
oil change. He was not able to stay on his schedules and it was
damaging the customer relationships, so they parted ways.
This challenge has become more pronounced post COVID-19
pandemic. Small businesses who furloughed workers in order to
stay solvent during work shutdowns and slowdowns are reporting
that some workers are slow to return and credit this primarily
to the Federal stimulus that has enhanced their unemployment
benefits. The investment in time and treasure in these
employees' training is a significant loss when they will not
return to the workforce. It is creating a strain on the
companies when they can least afford this strain.
Local education, at all levels, primary, secondary and
post-graduate, is focused on developing the skills needed for
the jobs available in my area of Ohio. The recent state budget
decreases to schools in Ohio due to the pandemic will impact
this goal. When schools can achieve this goal of marketable
skills of students, the financial burden on an employer is
eased and the employee would enter the job with the skill set
at a level to be productive and to earn better wages. Training
budgets could then be spent on boosting employees' skills or on
wages or benefits to retain that employee, which would benefit
both the employee and the employer.
Also valuable to small businesses is a focused and robust
retraining program available to assist the displaced workers
and adults with a desire to learn a new trade of which we in
the small business community feel there will be a significant
number. A larger investment in this arena would reap benefits
not just to the employer but to the quality of life for the
employee and the community. I believe a consolidated effort
between Federal and state agencies related to training and
vigorous marketing to those small businesses regarding these
programs would be most helpful.
Thank you very much for your time.
Chairman CROW. Thank you very much.
So there is an awful lot to talk about with everything that
you all mentioned in your opening statements. There is a lot of
content here on a very important topic right now.
So I am going to begin by recognizing myself for 5 minutes
for a few questions before we go to the other members.
So I am going to begin on the issue of the technical skills
and trade apprenticeships because I know there are
apprenticeships that could be virtualized, that we can make
virtual, but it is awfully hard to train somebody to be a
pipefitter, an electrician, a plumber, a diesel mechanic in a
virtual setting. So I would really love to hear from you, how
are we doing that? Are we going to be able to do that in part
virtually but also do in-person resident training programs? I
would love to hear your experiences with those programs in
particular.
Maybe we will start in reverse order from order of the
statements. So Ms. Moore, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Ms. MOORE. What I am hearing from our customers in the
diesel mechanic area particularly is that what is being
addressed is how to break an engine down, how to refit the
complicated processes in diesel mechanics. What the business
owners tell me is that they need them to have a good set of
basic skills so they can build on that with training. They
often do not take somebody, a recent grad, and ask them to tear
apart an engine and put it back together. But they do need the
employees to have a firm understanding of basic skills. Thank
you.
Chairman CROW. Thank you.
Dr. Schaffer, I mean, you are very much at the front lines
of this issue. How are you doing in your college?
Mr. SCHAFFER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a very astute
question. Certainly during the pandemic I would say we were
challenged in many ways this past spring as we shifted to a
virtual delivery of our instructions. Really, to find ways to
do that in the technology trades and healthcare areas. I would
say I was quite pleased and impressed when I think across the
Nation we saw some great innovation come out of our
instructors. I have a great story of my automotive tech faculty
member strapping a GoPro camera to his head and doing virtual
real-time labs with individuals from their home or in their own
garages, at their own shops. So there are things we can do, but
I will be honest; you simply cannot replace the value of hands-
on interactive learning that happens either in the shop, in the
lab, or through apprenticeship programs, and we found quickly
that we had to do that and create unique ways for us to in a
safe way bring our diesel technology students, our welding
students back to campus to carry those out. And this is the
same with the apprenticeship programs. We had to work closely
with our employers and small businesses to find ways for them
to be able to see value in having the apprentice in their
environment while they were facing shutdowns and all the issues
associated with the pandemic. And so it is not idea. There are
ways we can do it, but I would say we simply cannot replace the
opportunity for that in-person, hands-on interactivity in these
areas. And I would say if we do not figure that out, we will
further restrict the pipeline of new people coming into these
valuable programs and leading to the critical careers that they
represent.
Chairman CROW. Thank you.
Ms. Folks?
Ms. FOLKS. Thank you.
Yes, I would agree with Joe in the matter that it is very
difficult when it is not in person for the trades, but what we
have been doing as a workforce system is working hand in hand
with our community colleges and our trades, different trades,
to look at how do we work through the social distancing, no
different than us coming to work ourselves. So how do we work
through the different social distancing guidelines? How do we
make sure we make it safe so that we get them back into
training and get them back into the shop so that they can get
that on-the-job training? Lockheed Martin actually uses all
technology to train, and we have been able to keep that
apprenticeship program going through this through utilizing
those methodologies.
Chairman CROW. Thank you.
Dr. Nightingale?
Dr. NIGHTINGALE. There are a number of creative examples.
You have heard of some of them through community colleges
specifically. And I will just highlight that the Urban
Institute has a forthcoming report that will be available
shortly, in a couple of weeks. It has some examples of sort of
combining virtual and staff-assisted. So they would come from
some of the studies done over the past decade.
Chairman CROW. Great. Thank you.
My time has now expired. I think I will have some
additional questions, but I do want to make sure we get to all
the other members first.
So let's begin with the Ranking Member, Mr. Balderson. You
are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Balderson, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BALDERSON. Thank you, Jason. Sorry about that. I lost
everybody for a second.
My first question is to the full panel, and whoever wants
to jump in, jump right in. Every community has felt the ripple
effects from the government-mandated closures. Why is workforce
development a key aspect to our recovery at the community,
state, and national level?
And no particular order. If anybody wants to answer that,
go right ahead, please.
Mr. SCHAFFER. Mr. Chairman, Representative Balderson, Joe
Schaffer here. I will take a stab at that.
I think we can take and learn some lessons from the Great
Recession that is far too close to this. You know, the next
thing that is going to impact us is COVID-19. During the Great
Recession what we saw were significant numbers of individuals
displaced at that time. The jobs they left were not the jobs
that were there as we recovered, and we are seeing a very
similar trend here. As those jobs disappear, while we will
preserve some of them in the service sector, employers are
being forced in many ways to innovate and rethink how they meet
their business model, their business expectations. That means
we will have millions of Americans that will be looking for new
opportunities and will require training for the jobs that will
be here as we come out of this pandemic. And it is what makes
training and workforce development so absolutely essential
right now. And as I would say, that is especially important in
rural America where there is a substantial need for those folks
to find new opportunities for fear that they leave and further
exasperate the problem of a shrinking population.
Dr. NIGHTINGALE. If I could answer that. In the Great
Recession, the recovery funds, the supplemental funds were
important for a couple of reasons. One, as the additional
funding that went into the local employment services allowed
for expanding employment services into remote areas. We saw an
increase in use of mobile job centers, libraries, and other
community places were outfitted to allow better access in some
of the remote areas. But it also was a source for connecting
subsidized jobs, workers into subsidized jobs in the private
sector and expanded the OJT type of contracts. And third, we
know that as we start coming out of the recession, there are
going to be more people who are looking for jobs and they
transverse to some of the local employment offices that are
available. So it is but it is the community for locale or
rehiring.
Mr. BALDERSON. Thank you.
Ms. MOORE. I would just like to add, as a small business
owner, the Great Recession and the pandemic have diverted our
funds. We have very limited funds. And so they are diverting
them away from the requirements of training and more towards
the requirements to stay in business with PPE, with decreased
revenues, and with the inability to secure funds otherwise
right now through banks, just as we had a problem during the
Great Recession.
Mr. BALDERSON. Thank you.
Ms. FOLKS. And if I could just add, this is Kelly with
Arapahoe/Douglas Workforce, who runs a true one-stop center,
you know, what we saw, the big difference we are seeing now,
when we saw at the highest point in the Great Recession, for
example, Colorado was at an 8.6 percent overall unemployment
rate. We are seeing in May of 2020 during this COVID at a 10.2
percent. We have millions of Americans as was stated already
that are underskilled, underemployed. We had that even when our
economies were good. We were still getting people coming into
our workforce center and we were working with businesses to try
to fill their hardest to fill positions because there really,
truly was a skill and training gap there. And so that is where
workforce development and the boards can, in partnership with
the community colleges, can really put that training back into
play and be able to help the small businesses and medium
businesses to get people back to work.
Mr. BALDERSON. Thank you, Ms. Folks.
Mr. Chairman, how am I doing? I cannot see my timer.
Chairman CROW. Fifteen seconds.
Mr. BALDERSON. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman CROW. The gentleman yields back. Thank you for
those comments. The gentleman yields his time back.
Now I would like to recognize the gentlelady, Ms. Davids
from Kansas for 5 minutes.
Ms. DAVIDS. Thank you, Chairman Crow, and to Ranking Member
Balderson for having this hearing today focused on the economic
recovery that our communities are going to need so badly and
that, you know, to recognize the workforce skills gap and
really the workers that we are going to need is something that
we really need to be thinking about long term.
As states and communities are reopening across the country
and we learn more about coronavirus and how small businesses
are going to be able to at least partially reopen doors, I know
that that has been helpful for some folks but things still are
far from normal and we are still figuring out how this is going
to impact workforce development.
Dr. Schaffer, I want to start with you, partly because I,
myself, am a community college graduate. I went to Johnson
County Community College here in the district that I now get to
represent, and I spend a lot of time visiting with folks there
and at the Kansas City Kansas Community College here, too. And
I know that the education and training opportunity the colleges
provide are important, essential, and actually a lot more
innovative than I think people usually recognize and kind of
mainstream.
So I am curious. I know you had mentioned the GoPro
technique and some of the other things that folks are trying to
do right now for the current students. I am curious what it is
looking like for people who are reaching out and might be
interested in enrolling. I guess I am wondering, what are folk
saying to you? Are they asking you how you are adapting? Are
they asking what you see as the biggest needs? I am just
curious what folks are asking about.
Mr. SCHAFFER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Representative
Davids. Yes, Johnson County Community College, one of the
finest community colleges in the Nation. It is great to hear
that you are an alum and support that institution and others.
You know, it is one of the challenges we face right now. I
think there is a great uncertainty about what fall looks like
in education, certainly in K-12. Community colleges are no
different. For the high demand programs and high demand
careers, many that we are talking about today in health care
and the tech and trades areas, those require some type of face-
to-face interaction. And I think as the colleges are waiting
for perhaps better guidance, perhaps we are all waiting for
better guidance on how we safely operate in this environment,
so are people. And what we hear mostly from individuals is I
know it is an opportunity for me to come back. There may even
be money on the table to encourage me to come back to college,
but I can only do that if it is truly safe. And so I think a
lot of folks are waiting to see what the reopening plans of
higher education and community colleges are looking like.
To give you a quick number, our applicants are
substantially up for fall. Our enrollment is substantially
down, which tells us many individuals are waiting to see
essentially what happens. The other issue is like our biggest
opportunity for retraining is adults in this country at this
point, especially adults without a post-secondary credential,
using them to find a way to navigate their own personal lives
right now and the economic and social pressures on them and
come back to college. I tell you, it is a significant list, but
it is one we have got to figure out.
Ms. DAVIDS. And then, I appreciate that. And you mentioned
earlier the idea of supporting job creators, in addition to
figuring out ways to help us get to a workforce that meets that
skills gap that we keep seeing.
Dr. Nightingale, I am curious from your perspective what
you are seeing in terms of the entrepreneurial movement and
that sort of thing, big picture going into all of this. I do
not know if folks are looking at that sort of thing, but I
would be curious.
Dr. NIGHTINGALE. There are two points that I would make.
First, certainly, entrepreneurial, sort of like self-employment
and new business development is critical, but it is not
necessarily for everybody. And so it has to be very carefully
planned so that there is a real business plan and understanding
of what it takes. People sometimes think it is easy to start a
small business, but I know that the small business owners here,
Ms. Moore and others will agree, that it is not easy. You have
to have a lot of planning.
The second thing is that there are probably more
opportunities for entrepreneurial endeavors today because of
the technological advances that are available. So there are
some opportunities----
Chairman CROW. The gentlewoman's time has expired, so I
apologize. I am going to have to move back to that point at a
different time.
Ms. DAVIDS. Thanks, Chairman. I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you.
Now I would like to recognize the gentleman from Oklahoma,
Mr. Hern. Mr. Hern, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. HERN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member
Balderson. It is great to be here today and great to see the
witnesses. I apologize. I had to step away for another
simultaneous meeting so I did not catch all the witnesses'
testimony but certainly being a small business owner for over
35 years, and this will be the fourth of these type of
catastrophic events. Obviously, the ``best,'' and I will put
that in quotes, is the last. And so we always learn from these
type of events. Or we should be learning, and those who learn
come out stronger and those who do not usually do not come out.
We talked a lot about what you all are doing, or really
kind of put a lot of onus on that. I want to get to that in a
second. But we, in Congress, and this is a very bipartisan
Committee, and we recognize the importance of small business
and those entrepreneurs that create so many jobs in America,
and we have put a lot of money into, I will call it ``the
system,'' the economy over the last 3 months, 3-1/2 months,
particularly money into individuals' pockets. An extra $600 a
week that expires in a couple of weeks. Direct stimulus checks.
I have conversations on both of those next week. What have you
seen from citizens? You can go recruit all day long but if
there is not an initiatives by people who are getting this
extra money to see something beyond 2 weeks, what are you
seeing from folks that are levying one job that says, hey, this
is my opportunity. I am no longer working there right now. I am
furloughed for an indefinite period. I am going to go get
retrained in another area. Are you seeing that kind of intake
from your particular educational institutions?
We can start wherever. Ms. Nightingale?
Dr. NIGHTINGALE. We do not have a lot of hard data on that
right now, but we know that the training programs that are out
there are having difficulty in two ways. One, recruiting and
getting trainees to come in. The other is retaining
partnerships with employers for some of the reasons that we
have already heard. So it could be that we are in a little bit
of a lull right now and as the economy starts improving, we may
see more of an uptick on that. But from what I am hearing is
that some of the training programs are having difficulty
finding trainees and keeping employers engaged.
Mr. HERN. Mr. Schaffer, in Oklahoma we have 29 career
centers. I left Ohio a number of years ago, 30 years ago, I
think. And so one of the best examples is a career center in
the upper part of my district where they actually go out and
talk to businesses and create programs to match those
businesses and then train some of the businesses to produce
workers for what they see emerging in certain fields. And that
is in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and that is Tri-County Community
College or Technical College.
But as we go through this process it is going to be really
important, and I think, I do not want to put words in your
mouth, but I think you mentioned a minute ago you were waiting
on CDC guidelines on how to reopen and things like that. People
that are entrepeneurs or businesspeople, I would bet you Ms.
Moore is not waiting on CDC or somebody else to tell her how to
keep her business open. She is figuring out every single day
how to make that happen. That is what businesspeople do. If you
wait on the government to tell you what to do you will be very
ineffective. As the needs arise for small business, I would
encourage each of you, and this is not a scolding, this is an
encouragement, to not wait on the Federal government to tell
you what to do. The best ideas come from out in the
communities. Out in the, you know, you all are very, very
bright people. You have got great institutions. I assure you no
small businessperson worth their salt is waiting on the Federal
government to tell them how to survive. And I would just
encourage you, you know, I might just ask you that question,
you know, what are some of the best bets that you are looking
at that you might want to share here in my remaining one
minute, to get your schools reopened in a proper way? Because I
know whether you are a democrat or republican or do not give
two hoots about politics, you know it is important to educate
our workforce and our children.
Mr. Schaffer, do you want to start that?
Mr. SCHAFFER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Representative Hern.
I would tell you, no disrespect to government or Congress,
we are having to act. Our Board of Trustees 2 weeks ago
approved our reopening plan.
Mr. HERN. That is great.
Mr. SCHAFFER. That is an aggressive opportunity for
continued education. We are going to focus where the greatest
needs are, so our on-campus, in-person instruction is going to
be focused in the technology, the trades, healthcare, to make
sure that that pipeline of those workers continues even in a
pandemic.
To your previous point, just quickly, Representative Hern,
we go out and we work with employers all the time to customize
programs for them. They are oftentimes short-term programs very
tailored. It is one of the reasons why we support the concept
of short-term Pell. We have to find ways to provide financial
assistance for people to quickly get retrained and back to
work.
Mr. HERN. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, thank you. I yield back.
Chairman CROW. The gentleman yields back.
And I believe the members present have all asked questions
at this point. So if additional members join, we will give them
an opportunity, but I do want to go for a quick second round.
And I will start by giving myself an additional 5 minutes.
This issue of the urban rural divide that Dr. Schaffer and
the others referenced earlier is of particular interest to me.
And I think one of the issues, we had some hearings on the
broader Committee on this in the past and in doing some work
with Senator Inhofe and some others on this issue, is the issue
of broadband, which is really the long pole in the tent for so
much of this in terms of how do we make it as easy to start a
business or run an apprenticeship program or a job training
program in Wyoming as it is in New York, make it as easy in
Oklahoma as it is in California. Leveling the playing field
here. I would love thoughts from all of you in terms of the
impact of broadband and what you think we need to be doing more
of at our level.
Maybe we can start with Ms. Folks on this one.
Ms. FOLKS. Thank you. Yes. I think that is a serious issue,
not being able to have the availability of broadband in the
rural areas. It is also a serious issue that we have seen
through the pandemic with our lower-income individuals as well.
They may have broadband available, but they do not have a way
to maybe pay for that and to be able to have Internet services
or be able to know how to access when things are shut down. And
so some of the areas we are really working on is how to
develop, we have sector partnerships that we are building and
broadband to work hand in hand with the business and industry
to really help tell us how to get it out there, how to build
apprenticeships, and how to develop that. And we continue to
work with our rural areas. I have some of that, not much in our
area, so we continue to work with them and our community
colleges on how do we develop those types of apprenticeship
opportunities to be able to get that. But also, then working,
like I said, with businesses to get the broadband out there.
Just quickly, one of the partnerships we do have is working
to get that into our customers' hands. So part of not only
paying and supporting them and training; it is also supporting
them with those support services to get them that as well so
that they can be successful.
Chairman CROW. Thank you.
In my 2 minutes I have remaining I would love to hear maybe
1 minute each from Mr. Schaffer and Dr. Nightingale on that
issue, and then Ms. Moore, I move back with you additionally in
a moment.
Dr. Schaffer?
Mr. SCHAFFER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Broadband is certainly an issue for us. It is an issue
across rural America. And when I talk about Main Street, it is
truly an issue on our historical Main Streets in trying to find
a way to bring connectivity to our downtowns in smaller
communities. The broader issue I think really pertains to
infrastructure because population, and as a result, revenues do
not follow substantially enough to reinvigorate or install new
infrastructure in these communities. They are just hamstrung,
and it makes it more and more difficult to learn and to work
and really have a life in that environment. So broadband is a
big issue, but I would say general infrastructure is also an
issue once you move out of metro areas.
Chairman CROW. Thank you.
Dr. NIGHTINGALE. I was asked that. Certainly, additional
funding for infrastructure development that is focused on IT
could have a major effect, especially in rural areas just as
rural electrification many decades ago did. And with some
investment on subsidized employment which we heard a little bit
about from Ms. Folks, that there could be a combined investment
by Congress that invest in subsidized employment to provide the
additional staff for facilitating the use of the technology
that the investment in IT infrastructure and broadband could
support. So it is a combination of developing the broadband but
then also having the technical training for people to use it
appropriately.
Chairman CROW. Great. Thank you.
Ms. Moore, in 20 seconds, do you have any thoughts on that?
Ms. MOORE. I do. Not only is it the availability of
broadband but it is the quality of the broadband. Particularly,
in our area where it is very rural. We have stability issues.
We have accessibility issues. So that is another consideration
that possibly these companies will have to be incentivized to
provide not only broadband but quality broadband.
Chairman CROW. Okay. Thank you.
Now, I wanted to open it up. I think Mr. Balderson, the
Ranking Member, would be up next. I do not know whether Mr.
Balderson is still with us or not at this point. Troy, are you
still on?
Give him a moment.
Well, we will see whether he is having some technical
issues which he might. I want to give myself another 5 minutes.
That is the benefit of being the Chair.
I actually would love to maybe give each of you a minute in
that 5 minutes to ask a broad open question. If you had a magic
wand and you could have Congress focus on one thing to address
the biggest challenge you are facing right now, what would that
be?
So let's maybe start in the reverse order again from which
we just ended, and we will start with Ms. Moore.
Ms. MOORE. I believe the assistance to the education system
in coordinating and advertising these programs and connecting
them with the employers who directly need these positions.
Overseeing a very coordinated effort.
Chairman CROW. Almost like a [inaudible] role.
Ms. MOORE. Exactly. Exactly.
Chairman CROW. Dr. Nightingale?
Dr. NIGHTINGALE. I think that probably to me one of the
most important things is to expand the resources for the local
job centers and to expand it in a way that allows the centers
to have more people there accessing the services, particularly
in the nonurban areas or in high unemployment areas because
there are resources for training that can be accessed but the
people need to know how to access those resources effectively.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Doctor.
Dr. Schaffer?
Mr. SCHAFFER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have trouble
choosing so I will only pick two. The first one of course is
the establishment of a major community college job training
program. Something similar on the magnitude, it is bigger than
the TAACCCT grants that were very successful, something similar
to what is being proposed in the Relaunching America's
Workforce Act or perhaps the Access to Careers Act or even the
Community College Training Program and the Coronavirus Child
Care and Education Relief Act. We need to stimulate new
training, new opportunities in workforce development funding to
community colleges at that scale are critical as Dr.
Nightingale said. I would also suggest during the
reauthorization of WIOA, we really think about resources, we
think about further [inaudible] of partners, and we think about
ways to streamline and maybe allow for the authorization of
community college applied programs in a more effective and
efficient manner.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Dr. Schaffer.
And Ms. Folks, as the Coloradoan on the panel you get the
distinction of having the final word.
Ms. FOLKS. Thank you.
You know, I think for us, similar to what was said, it is
the resources and the funding but most importantly also with
that is the flexibility to be able to meet what the local
community needs are and to be able to really listen to our
business and industry and what they are telling us. When we
have a lot of regulation, and I know it needs to be there but
when there is too much it makes it difficult for us to really
build those innovative programs which we really need right now
especially to get people back. And so being able to have that
flexibility is very important for us along with the resources
and funding because then we can build programs that are going
to meet the needs of the business and industry and our
communities, and we can have those more creative ways of making
sure we get our people back to work.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Ms. Folks.
So with that, our time has run out here. I know we could
probably talk for the rest of the day or days on this topic
because there is really so much to address, but we do
appreciate your time.
So again, thank you to all of our witnesses today for your
testimony and for offering their views on how to get millions
of unemployed Americans back to work. By sharing your
experiences and expertise, we, as the policymakers in
Washington that are looking at how to guide resources and also
coordinate the various efforts going on, really need to hear
your perspectives. So you all are where the rubber meets the
road here, you are providing the direct resources, the direct
training and making it happen in your communities, and it is
really your voices that are the most important for us to hear
during this crisis. So thank you. I look forward to the
opportunity to work with you and your organizations to figure
out ways that we can be more helpful and lift up all of your
efforts.
So I ask unanimous consent that members have 5 legislative
days to submit statements and supporting materials for the
record.
Without objection, so ordered.
If there is no further business to come before the
Committee, we are adjourned today. Thank you. Thank you all.
[Whereupon, at 2:06 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]