A bipartisan bill in Congress would help address the nation’s infrastructure workforce shortage by investing in career and technical education and on-the-job training, lawmakers said.
Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) introduced the Transportation Workforce Investment Act on Monday, along with other members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Rep Troy Balderson (R-OH), Andie Craig (D-MN) and co-chair of the Building Trades Caucus David McKinley (R-WV).
The bill would address a projected shortage of infrastructure workers. According to a study by the Brookings Institute, the country will need an additional 3 million workers to meet the needs of employees in construction, manufacturing, maintenance, operation, design, and engineering. The bill would work to create a pipeline of qualified workers by promoting collaboration amongst government, industry, and education stakeholders, as well as prioritize opportunities for younger workers through apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships and support training programs for workers who have lost jobs to automation and other technological advantages.
“Rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure will require a workforce equipped with proper training,” Langevin said. “Securing funding to rebuild the roads and bridges that Americans rely on every day is just one challenge we face. We must also make sure that we have workers who are adequately prepared to get the job done. We need to take action to close the workforce gap that exists, and we can do that by putting Americans on pathways to valuable skills and good-paying jobs. I am proud that this bipartisan legislation also pushes to get ahead of changes in the transportation sector workforce that may result from the proliferation of new technologies, including autonomous vehicles.”
Last year, Langevin and McKinley sent a letter signed by a coalition of 49 of their fellow members to House leadership and to the leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee asking them to include workforce development as part of any infrastructure legislation.
“One of the many challenges we face with upgrading our aging infrastructure is not having enough skilled workers to complete the work,” McKinley said. “This bill will help address this workforce gap by ensuring federal and state resources can be used to develop the skills needed for these good-paying jobs.”
The bill joins one Langevin introduced in February, HR 6032, the Transportation Workforce Centers of Excellence Act, that allocates $50 million in grants to high-performing two-year colleges to strengthen education training programs in infrastructure industries.