WASHINGTON, June 6 – After the Trump administration attempted to shutter the nation’s largest jobs training program for low-income and at-risk young people, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and 39 Senate colleagues, today sent a letter to Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer urging her to reverse the illegal and unconstitutional cuts to the Job Corps program that are harming students and communities in every state in the country.
“The Administration’s decision to illegally and abruptly terminate Job Corps center operations has left 25,000 students and thousands of staff across 99 Job Corps centers in the lurch,” wrote Sanders and the senators. “The sudden ‘pause’ of operations at Job Corps centers puts young people’s lives at risk, especially a significant number of students who were experiencing homelessness before arriving to the program. Local communities will pay a steep price, especially the thousands of individuals who work at the centers and will lose their livelihoods.”
For more than 60 years, Job Corps has helped millions of young people in rural communities and cities alike to finish high school, learn technical skills and get good-paying jobs while providing stable housing, medical and mental health care, and other supportive services. Through Job Corps programs, young people receive the training they need to start in good-paying jobs that support their communities after graduation – including as wildland firefighters, nurses, electricians, machinists, pipefitters, and welders. Last month, however, the Trump administration indefinitely ‘paused’ operations at Job Corps sites across the country.
“We urge you to immediately reverse this decision to prevent a lapse in education and services for Job Corps students. We further urge that the Department restart enrollments, expeditiously restart background checks, and make any contract extensions or modifications necessary to ensure no interruptions or delays for students or program operations,” concluded Sanders and the senators.
Joining Sanders on the letter are Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Angus King (I-Maine), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
Read the letter here.