Sponsors (2)
Official title: To require the Secretary of Labor to award grants for promoting industry or sector partnerships to encourage industry growth and competitiveness and to improve worker training, retention, and advancement as part of an infrastructure investment.
Introduced September 11, 2025 by Suzanne Bonamici · Last progress September 11, 2025
The bill commits predictable federal funding and coordinated grants to expand targeted infrastructure-sector training, supports, and employer engagement — improving job prospects for many low-income and industry workers — but does so at recurring federal cost and with program rules that risk uneven access, added administrative burdens, and advantages for larger or better‑resourced employers and communities.
Millions of workers, students, and jobseekers gain clearer access to coordinated training, apprenticeships, portable credentials, and career pathways in infrastructure-related industries (construction, energy, transportation, IT, utilities), improving job-entry prospects and upward mobility.
Provides sustained federal funding ($500 million per year, FY2026–FY2030) and predictable multi-year support for programs, helping grantees plan and maintain services over time.
Low-income individuals and participants in WIOA/SNAP/TANF gain access to funded training, transitional employment, and wrap-around supports (child care, transport, work attire) that increase chances of sustained employment and income stability.
Taxpayers face new federal spending of about $500 million per year (FY2026–FY2030), increasing budgetary costs that could raise deficits or crowd out other priorities.
The bill’s explicit focus on a narrow set of targeted industries (transportation, construction, energy, IT, utilities) can exclude workers and employers in other sectors, divert resources, and limit broader labor-market access.
Competitive grant processes, preferences for industry fiscal agents, and requirements that favor employers with administrative capacity risk concentrating funds with larger, better‑resourced employers and grant-savvy applicants, disadvantaging small community organizations and rural areas.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes competitive grants to industry-sector partnerships to plan and deliver training, apprenticeships, and support services in targeted infrastructure industries, funded at $500M/year for FY2026–FY2030.
Provides competitive grants to industry or sector partnerships to plan and implement worker training, work-based learning, and recruitment in targeted infrastructure industries (transportation, construction, energy including clean energy and battery storage, information technology, and utilities). Grants support coordination among employers, labor, education and workforce agencies, fund business engagement and participant support services, set performance measures tied to portable credentials and apprenticeships, limit admin costs, require reporting, and are funded at $500 million per year for FY2026–FY2030. Grants are either one-time implementation awards (up to $2.5M, up to 3 years) or renewal awards (up to $1.5M, up to 3 years). Eligible partnerships must include employers and partners, designate a fiscal agent, propose strategies to recruit diverse jobseekers and people with employment barriers, and provide pre-employment, early employment, and retention supports; administrative costs are capped and the Labor Secretary may use up to 10% of appropriations for federal administration and technical assistance.