Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Rep. Lee touts how federal legislation can benefit Las Vegas-area workers

Frank Hawk, vice president of the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, said that carpenters only ask for a few things: good wages to provide for their family, good health care benefits and pension plans so they can live in dignity when they eventually get too “busted up” on the job.

“We don’t like counting on the government,” he said, “We’re self-sustaining individuals. … But we need somebody that understands what it’s like to bleed every single day, to get up at 3 in the morning and coming home sore and tired.”

Hawk thinks he found some relief for carpenters and the skilled labor workforce in the bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed in November.

Nevada Democratic Rep. Susie Lee visited the Southwestern Regional Council of Carpenters on Monday to explain how the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act as well as the yet-to-be-passed Build Back Better Act will impact them.

“We know that sometimes a four-year degree is not the path for everyone,” Lee said to a new apprentice. “Many people had gone down a certain career path and came back and decided they wanted to try something else.”

Through the infrastructure bill that was passed in November, $2.5 billion is coming to Nevada and is expected to generate 140,000 jobs, Lee said in an interview.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will open up the hiring pipeline for apprenticeship programs by recruiting more high school students, Lee said.

It will also require that workers hired by contractors or subcontractors in construction, alteration or repair work on projects that are receiving funding through the act be paid wages at rates not less than wages at similar nearby projects, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

President Joe Biden originally asked Congress to invest $100 billion in workforce development programs that would target “underserved groups” and get students on career paths before graduating high school, but that proposed funding was cut in the final version.

The Build Back Better Act, which passed in the House but is stuck in the Senate, also contains support for apprenticeship programs, Lee said. It invests $20 billion in workforce development programs and will help more people get access to quality training that leads to “good, union and middle-class jobs,” the White House said in a statement about the act.

The act will also cut health care costs for workers, Lee said, as it would limit annual drug price increases in Medicare and private insurance. It would specifically create a cap of $35 a month for patients’ insulin prescriptions.