Outlying Area Apprenticeship Expansion Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SABLAN. Madam Speaker, today, I am introducing the Outlying Areas Apprenticeship Expansion Program, so the benefits of the National Apprenticeship Act are available to the people of the Northern Mariana Islands as in the rest of the United States.

The National Apprenticeship Act has proven its value over the last 83 years, helping grow local economies and ushering young people into successful careers. Yet the Act does not support apprenticeships in the Marianas and other insular areas. My bill fixes that inequity, providing the annual funding necessary to support the creation of, and expansion of registered apprenticeship programs in the Marianas, and the rest of the smaller insular areas.

Apprenticeship programs foster opportunity and innovation in fields affecting the well-being of people across the Nation, and help communities prepare for the future by developing workforces in crucial fields, like telecommunications and healthcare.

I have every reason to believe that apprenticeship programs will similarly lift up the hardworking people of the Marianas, and other insular areas.

I urge all my colleagues to support this important legislation.

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