REPRESENTATIVES MORELLE AND TAKANO REITERATE PUSH FOR LEGISLATION TO CREATE MASSIVE JOBS TRAINING PROGRAM IN WAKE OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Congressman Joe Morelle (NY-25) and Mark Takano (CA-41) reiterated their call for legislation to create a massive jobs training program to help communities across the country recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their legislation, the Jobs to Fight COVID-19 Act, would help states across the country hire more than a million workers to perform critical mitigation, containment, and tracing work to prevent future outbreaks.

"COVID-19 has fundamentally changed our economy as we know it, leaving millions of Americans out of work and uncertain about the future," said Congressman Morelle. "As we look to rebuild and recover, we need bold new initiatives—and that means a national mobilization that will not only create jobs when they're needed most, but also help strengthen contact tracing efforts that are essential to the safety of our communities. I'm proud to partner with my friend Rep. Takano to re-introduce this much-needed legislation and I look forward to working alongside the new Biden Administration to make it a reality."

"As we continue to navigate the pandemic, we have learned that contact tracing is key to helping mitigate the spread of the virus but, as nation, we still face challenges to do so effectively," said Rep. Mark Takano. "That's why I'm joining Rep. Morelle in reintroducing the Jobs to Fight COVID-19 Act, which would create one million jobs nationwide that would harness the power of the American people to carry out the crucial containment, mitigation strategies, and contact tracing that is needed to fight COVID-19. This legislation would help us battle two crises, the unemployment crisis and the rapid spread of COVID-19, and it would help our nation return to normalcy, save lives, and begin the work of rebuilding our economy."

More than 65 million Americans have filed for unemployment insurance since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, many of whom remain unsure if or when they will be able to go back to work. As states work through different phases of reopening, there is a strong need to bolster these departments with the resources to perform mitigation, containment, and tracing work to prevent future outbreaks, presenting a unique opportunity to help unemployed workers earn a living wage while serving their communities and our country.

The Jobs to Fight COVID-19 Act will:

• Require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to establish and implement a national evidence-based system for COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, surveillance, containment, and mitigation;
• Provide $100 billion in grants to state and local governments to hire, train, and deploy newly unemployed workers to perform pandemic response work in their communities;
• Allow newly unemployed workers to help states and localities serve the growing public needs of this crisis by providing a public health infrastructure prepared to mitigate, contain, and trace further COVID-19 outbreaks.
• Facilitate immediate hiring and placement during this period of limited mobility, the bill will ensure that unemployment insurance systems, workforce development boards, and community organizations collaborate to bring awareness to the program and direct unemployed workers to apply.
• Be administered by the Department of Labor and allocations will be made to States and localities via grants, with the funding being channeled to put Americans back to work at a Service Contract Act prevailing wages.
• Require the CDC and Occupational Safety and Health Administration to provide guidance and technical assistance on standards and protocols to ensure that workers are properly trained, can perform their work safely, and that the work that is done through this program will have a robust impact in preventing COVID-19 outbreaks.

Additional details about the legislation can be found here.

###