NSC CEO Andy Van Kleunen was recently quoted in Bloomberg Law, praising the Biden infrastructure plan. “We’re finally getting to the point of a real workforce investment that rises to the level of challenges we have with folks permanently displaced by this recession,” he said. Worker training in earlier pandemic relief legislation was “not even a rounding error,” he added.
The Biden infrastructure plan calls for an investment of $100 billion in workforce training. As Bloomberg Law points out, this is the same funding level that an NSC-led group of 70 organizations called for in a letter to President Biden earlier this month. “We urge you to call for investments of no less than $100 billion for workforce development in the next recovery package,” the letter stated.
The Biden plan is an encouraging first step by President Biden to put workers at the center of his infrastructure and job creation plan. The proposal focuses on sector partnerships and career pathways. It includes assistance for small and medium-sized businesses. It calls for a new, robust dislocated worker program. Most importantly, it makes equity a priority by focusing on communities that have been most impacted by the pandemic and historically excluded from infrastructure jobs.
