Even with a $1.4 trillion increase over eight years from the infrastructure bill, if there aren’t enough trained workers, efforts to strengthen roads and public transit could be set back. With the proposed workforce development budget of $100 billion left out of the most recent version of the bipartisan bill, some are worried that it will not do enough to draw more people into infrastructure fields, especially historically underrepresented groups like women and people of color.
National Skills Coalition and more than 500 other organizations sent a letter to congressional leadership which called on it to include the funding in a separate reconciliation bill.
“President Biden promised that economic recovery was going to be predicated on equity,” said Andy Van Kleunen, the chief executive of the National Skills Coalition. “Work force training has to be part of that answer.”
