Katie Britt Questions Lori Chavez-DeRemer About 'America At Work' Initiative

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At Thursday's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) questioned Labor Sec. Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

Transcript

00:00Britt. Thank you so much, Madam Chair, and thank you for bringing up those important issues. I

00:05think we're all seeing that in our states, and so look forward to working with you to make sure that

00:09we get these things right. So, Madam Secretary, you have hit the ground running at the Department

00:15of Labor. You just kicked off your America Works tour, or America at Work. Yeah, so tell me about

00:22that. Obviously, you've been listening, learning, coast to coast. We certainly want to have you

00:26in Alabama, but I'd love to know, what are you hearing from people all across the country?

00:32What are their greatest concerns, and what things do you feel like you need to be taking action on?

00:37Well, certainly the topic is the workforce, and when I'm on the ground, and part of the equation

00:41on how we're going to grow this economy, you know, the President has a mandate that growing the

00:46American economy is key, giving more power to the people, keeping more money in their pockets.

00:52So, connecting the dots of the workforce to what the market demand is. So, on the ground,

00:56the questions that I ask when I'm visiting with these American workers is, what are the barriers?

01:01How can we assist you? What's the workforce training? What gets in the way of you deciding

01:06to join the labor force? And those answers can be vast. Obviously, it can be families, it can be

01:15child care, it could be funding to get the skills that they need. So, my job is to fill in those gaps.

01:21How can I assist in doing those? And so, some of the things that we're hearing, not only from the

01:26companies, are, we want more workers, men and women, to join the labor force. We want that

01:30participation rate to go up. And it's been holding steady, and we want it to go up.

01:34Absolutely. So, that's one of the things we talk about in our state, is how do we increase our labor

01:38participation rate? You touched on a number of things, and I think my colleagues have asked some

01:43questions about apprenticeships and that kind of thing. I want to hone in on one thing that really hasn't

01:47been discussed today that you just brought up, and that is child care. Whether I am at the top of the

01:52state, or the bottom of the state, or whether I'm at my largest manufacturer, or, you know, a small

01:57business on Main Street, they say, you know, workforce is an issue, and they continually either lose people

02:04because of reliability or affordability of child care, and or it is more challenging to recruit.

02:10When we started digging in on this, we saw that about 59% of stay-at-home and or non-working or

02:17part-time working parents say they want to re-engage in the workforce, but that affordability or

02:24accessibility of child care is an impediment to that. Now, look, if you want and have the opportunity

02:28to stay home, I absolutely want that for you. But if you want to re-engage in the workforce and help

02:34with President Trump's vision of building back America, then I want to make sure that we remove

02:39those impediments. You know, a question for you, and certainly don't want to ask you to comment

02:45on any specifics, but you can say definitively that this is something you hear from workers,

02:51both large and small, and employers across the country. Absolutely, and I, and, you know, in Congress,

02:56I heard it as well. I did a listening tour in Congress through agriculture. That's not a place

03:01that I would have thought I would have heard child care for our farmers and ranchers. And what we've seen

03:05is that between the ages of zero and five, a parent spends about 22% of their income on child

03:12care. When you look at our economy across the board, it's $122 billion a year we lose to this

03:18reliability issue. I have a specific piece of legislation, a bipartisan piece of legislation,

03:24the Child Care Affordability or Availability and Affordability Act that really puts parents back in

03:30the driver's seat and also encourages businesses, both large and small, to be a part of the solution.

03:36I think it's critically important that we empower parents, we empower hard-working Americans,

03:42and we help create a path for their American dream and for prosperity. So not asking you to comment on

03:49the specifics of my legislation, but knowing that we could be doing more to help these hard-working

03:56parents, I think you would say that's something that you agree with. Absolutely, and whatever

04:00technical assistance I can give to any member of Congress as they move their own legislation

04:04through, I'm glad to do it and give you that data that you might need to work with your...

04:09Wonderful. Well, we'd love to continue to work with you as we build momentum. We've been building

04:13it in a bipartisan way. I think this is something Americans deserve better from us, and we're trying

04:19to produce that. Last year, I actually asked the Federal Reserve Chair about these common sense reforms

04:26that I'm talking to you about and said, if we were to do this, would this actually help with our labor

04:31participation rate? And he said, absolutely. So I'm glad that you agree with that as well. In my last few

04:39seconds, just want to talk a little bit about apprenticeship programs. I know that there has been some

04:43different information out there and wanted to give you an opportunity to speak to the fact that President Trump

04:49and obviously the department value these apprenticeship programs and continue to work to create pathways

04:56for them. Well, thank you. I'll be brief. One million apprentices is what the President is asking

05:01in order to fulfill the need for those workers to grow this economy. We have anywhere between 680

05:09to 700,000 apprentices now. We want more apprentices in the pipeline. So we're working very diligently

05:16through the Department of Labor to have that really lean into those registered apprenticeships

05:21and give the tools that are necessary for those companies to say, that's what we want to do. So for

05:25an example, International Association of Firefighters just launched their first apprenticeship program

05:30because we know we need our firefighters throughout the country. And so again, I think we've added about

05:3583 apprentices since January. And so we're well on our way to that million. Thank you so much. I look

05:40forward to working with you on all these issues. Thank you, Senator.

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