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Introduced on May 15, 2025 by Andrea Salinas
This bill strengthens job-training centers for underserved youth run by the Interior and Agriculture Departments. It requires these centers to offer specialized training in areas like forestry, rangeland work, and wildland firefighting, with a focus on sites that already host major workforce programs. These centers are residential and aim to help students move into real jobs after finishing their training .
It lets the Agriculture Department test hands-on career classes—such as incident management, heavy equipment operation, machining, mill operations, habitat and water quality monitoring, and more—and calls for upgrading facilities, modern tools, and the staff needed to teach these skills. The bill sets clear hiring goals, including that each department aims to hire 300 graduates a year for wildland firefighting or other critical needs, allows signing bonuses (for example, to help with housing in remote areas), and gives agencies direct-hire authority for qualified graduates starting in fiscal year 2025. It also builds career pathways, allows paying students for necessary work hours, encourages using students on agency projects, and starts a pilot to repair and build federal housing for firefighters and other crews. A report on how to fully use center capacity is due within one year of enactment .