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Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), chairwoman of the Senate Budget Committee released the Senate Democrat’s budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2014. National Skills Coalition strongly supports the balanced approach adopted in the Senate Democratic budget proposal, and applauds the investments the budget proposal makes in America’s workforce. The budget calls for a new investment of $10 billion in job training.
National Skills Coalition (NSC) released the following statement by Rachel Gragg, federal policy director for National Skills Coalition, on the release of the Senate Democratic Budget Proposal for fiscal year 2014:
“National Skills Coalition is pleased to see that the Senate Democrats’ budget adopts a balanced approach to deficit reduction, including fully replacing the damaging sequester. While it is unfortunate Senate Democrats have proposed new cuts to discretionary programs—which have already absorbed $1.5 trillion in cuts since just 2010—we strongly support the inclusion of critical new investments in federal employment and training programs.
Over 12.5 million people are out of work while over 3.5 million jobs are going unfilled, in part, because employers are unable to find the workers with the right skills. The investments in America’s workforce proposed in the Senate budget resolution will help us begin to close the skills gap so workers can find a good paying job to support their families and employers will have the skilled workers they need to grow their business. This plan is good for America’s workers, employers, and economy.
As the House and Senate budget proposals move forward, we urge lawmakers to work together to help strengthen the economy by addressing our nation’s skills gap and investing in America’s workers. National Skills Coalition looks forward to working with both Democrats and Republicans to develop a bipartisan budget that adopts a balanced approach to deficit reduction that does not include additional cuts to discretionary programs.”
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