Nearly 200 House members signed onto a bipartisan letter this week to express support for Job Corps after the Labor Department (DOL) recently announced it would soon be pausing operations at centers nationwide.
In the letter to Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the lawmakers express support “for the continuation of the Job Corps program,” while noting it remains funded through government funding legislation that passed earlier this year.
“Nearly 20,000 young people utilize Job Corps to learn skills for in-demand vocational and technical job training,” the letter said. “Job Corps is one of the few national programs that specifically targets the 16-24-year-old population that is neither working, nor in school, and provides them with a direct pathway into employment openings in industries such as manufacturing and shipbuilding.”
Job Corps, established as part of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, is a free residential education and job training program for low-income people between 16 and 24 years of age.
In an announcement explaining the DOL’s decision to suspend operations at Job Corps centers, Chavez-DeRemer said the program was found to no longer achieve “the intended outcomes that students deserve,” citing what she described as “a startling number of serious incident reports and our in-depth fiscal analysis.”
“We remain committed to ensuring all participants are supported through this transition and connected with the resources they need to succeed as we evaluate the program’s possibilities.”
The department said it will begin a “phased pause” initiating “an orderly transition for students, staff, and local communities.” The pause will occur by June 30, the office said.
The move was met with swift backlash from lawmakers, including Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), who defended the program in a statement expressing strong opposition to the DOL’s move to pause operations.
“Serving nearly 500 students in Maine, the Loring Job Corps Center and the Penobscot Job Corps Center have become important pillars of support for some of our most disadvantaged young adults,” Collins said at the time.
In the new letter sent to the secretary Thursday, the group of lawmakers said that, by “filling job openings, Job Corps ensures that young people become productive members of the American workforce.”
“No other program takes homeless youth and turns them into the welders, electricians, shipbuilders, carpenters, nurses, mechanics, and vocational workers of the future.”
The Hill has reached out to DOL for comment.
The letter came a day after a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration from suspending operations at Job Corps centers as critics argue the move is illegal.