Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB1783 Compare Versions

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11 I
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION H. R. 1783
55 To assist States in, and pay for the Federal share of the cost of, defraying
66 the cost of pre-apprenticeships or related instruction associated with
77 qualified apprenticeship programs, and for other purposes.
88 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
99 MARCH3, 2025
1010 Ms. D
1111 ELAUROintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
1212 Committee on Education and Workforce
1313 A BILL
1414 To assist States in, and pay for the Federal share of the
1515 cost of, defraying the cost of pre-apprenticeships or re-
1616 lated instruction associated with qualified apprenticeship
1717 programs, and for other purposes.
1818 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
1919 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
2020 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
2121 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘American Apprentice-4
2222 ship Act’’. 5
2323 SEC. 2. PRE-APPRENTICESHIP AND QUALIFIED APPREN-6
2424 TICESHIP PROGRAMS. 7
2525 (a) D
2626 EFINITIONS.—In this Act: 8
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3030 (1) QUALIFIED APPRENTICESHIP .—The term 1
3131 ‘‘qualified apprenticeship’’, used with respect to a 2
3232 program, means an apprenticeship program that 3
3333 is— 4
3434 (A) registered under the Act of August 16, 5
3535 1937 (commonly known as the ‘‘National Ap-6
3636 prenticeship Act’’; 50 Stat. 664, chapter 663; 7
3737 29 U.S.C. 50 et seq.); and 8
3838 (B) concentrated in an industry sector or 9
3939 occupation that represents less than 10 percent 10
4040 of apprenticeable occupations or of the pro-11
4141 grams under the national apprenticeship sys-12
4242 tem. 13
4343 (2) P
4444 OSTSECONDARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITU -14
4545 TION.—The term ‘‘postsecondary educational institu-15
4646 tion’’ means an institution of higher education, as 16
4747 defined in section 102 of the Higher Education Act 17
4848 of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002). 18
4949 (3) P
5050 RE-APPRENTICESHIP.—The term ‘‘pre-ap-19
5151 prenticeship’’, used with respect to a program, 20
5252 means an initiative or set of strategies that— 21
5353 (A) is designed to prepare individuals to 22
5454 enter and succeed in a qualified apprenticeship 23
5555 program; 24
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5959 (B) is carried out by a sponsor described 1
6060 in paragraph (6)(B) that has a documented 2
6161 partnership with one or more sponsors of quali-3
6262 fied apprenticeship programs; and 4
6363 (C) includes each of the following: 5
6464 (i) Training (including a curriculum 6
6565 for the training), aligned with industry 7
6666 standards related to apprenticeships in a 8
6767 qualified apprenticeship program, and re-9
6868 viewed and approved annually by sponsors 10
6969 of such apprenticeships within the docu-11
7070 mented partnership, that will prepare indi-12
7171 viduals by teaching the skills and com-13
7272 petencies needed to enter one or more 14
7373 qualified apprenticeship programs. 15
7474 (ii) Provision of hands-on training and 16
7575 theoretical education to individuals that— 17
7676 (I) is carried out in a manner 18
7777 that includes proper observation of su-19
7878 pervision and safety protocols; and 20
7979 (II) is carried out in a manner 21
8080 that does not displace a paid em-22
8181 ployee. 23
8282 (iii) A formal agreement with a spon-24
8383 sor of a qualified apprenticeship program 25
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8787 that would enable participants who suc-1
8888 cessfully complete the pre-apprenticeship 2
8989 program to enter directly into the qualified 3
9090 apprenticeship program (if a place in the 4
9191 program is available and if the participant 5
9292 meets the qualifications of the qualified ap-6
9393 prenticeship program), and includes agree-7
9494 ments concerning earning credit recognized 8
9595 by a postsecondary educational institution 9
9696 for skills and competencies acquired during 10
9797 the pre-apprenticeship program. 11
9898 (4) R
9999 ELATED INSTRUCTION .—The term ‘‘re-12
100100 lated instruction’’ means an organized and system-13
101101 atic form of classroom or web-based instruction de-14
102102 signed to provide an apprentice with the knowledge 15
103103 of the theoretical and technical subjects related to 16
104104 the occupation of the apprentice or the instruction 17
105105 needed to prepare an individual to enter and succeed 18
106106 in an qualified apprenticeship program. 19
107107 (5) S
108108 ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 20
109109 the Secretary of Labor. 21
110110 (6) S
111111 PONSOR.—The term ‘‘sponsor’’ means— 22
112112 (A) with respect to a qualified apprentice-23
113113 ship program, an employer, joint labor-manage-24
114114 ment partnership, trade association, profes-25
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118118 sional association, labor organization, or other 1
119119 entity, that administers the qualified appren-2
120120 ticeship program; and 3
121121 (B) with respect to a pre-apprenticeship 4
122122 program, a local educational agency, a sec-5
123123 ondary school, an area career and technical 6
124124 education school, a State board, a local board, 7
125125 a joint labor-management committee, a labor 8
126126 organization, or a community-based organiza-9
127127 tion, with responsibility for the pre-apprentice-10
128128 ship program. 11
129129 (7) W
130130 ORKFORCE INNOVATION AND OPPOR -12
131131 TUNITY ACT DEFINITIONS .—The terms ‘‘area career 13
132132 and technical education school’’, ‘‘community-based 14
133133 organization’’, ‘‘individual with a barrier to employ-15
134134 ment’’, ‘‘local board’’, ‘‘local educational agency’’, 16
135135 ‘‘secondary school’’, and ‘‘State board’’ have the 17
136136 meanings given the terms in section 3 of the Work-18
137137 force Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. 19
138138 3102). 20
139139 (b) G
140140 RANTS FORTUITIONASSISTANCE.— 21
141141 (1) I
142142 N GENERAL.—The Secretary may make 22
143143 grants to States on a competitive basis to assist the 23
144144 States in, and pay for the Federal share of the cost 24
145145 of, defraying the cost of a pre-apprenticeship, or the 25
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149149 cost of related instruction, associated with a quali-1
150150 fied apprenticeship program. 2
151151 (2) A
152152 PPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a 3
153153 grant under this subsection, a State shall submit an 4
154154 application to the Secretary for such a project at 5
155155 such time, in such manner, and containing a stra-6
156156 tegic plan that contains such information as the Sec-7
157157 retary may require, including— 8
158158 (A) information identifying the State agen-9
159159 cy (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘State enti-10
160160 ty’’) that will administer the grant as deter-11
161161 mined by the Governor of the State; 12
162162 (B) a description of strategies that the 13
163163 State entity will use to collaborate with key in-14
164164 dustry representatives, State agencies, postsec-15
165165 ondary educational institutions, labor-manage-16
166166 ment entities, and other relevant partners to 17
167167 launch or expand pre-apprenticeships for and 18
168168 apprenticeships in qualified apprenticeship pro-19
169169 grams; 20
170170 (C) a description of how the State entity 21
171171 will— 22
172172 (i) coordinate activities carried out 23
173173 under this subsection with activities car-24
174174 ried out under the Carl D. Perkins Career 25
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178178 and Technical Education Act of 2006 (20 1
179179 U.S.C. 2301 et seq.) and the Workforce 2
180180 Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 3
181181 U.S.C. 3101 et seq.) to support pre-ap-4
182182 prenticeships for and apprenticeships in 5
183183 qualified apprenticeship programs; 6
184184 (ii) leverage funds provided under the 7
185185 Acts specified in clause (i) to support pre- 8
186186 apprenticeships for and apprenticeships in 9
187187 qualified apprenticeship programs; and 10
188188 (iii) utilize, and encourage individual 11
189189 participants in programs supported under 12
190190 this subsection to utilize, available Federal 13
191191 and State financial assistance, including 14
192192 assistance available under the Workforce 15
193193 Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 16
194194 U.S.C. 3101 et seq.), education assistance 17
195195 benefits available to veterans, and Federal 18
196196 Pell Grants available under section 401 of 19
197197 the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 20
198198 U.S.C. 1070a), prior to using assistance 21
199199 made available under this Act; 22
200200 (D) a description of strategies to elevate 23
201201 apprenticeships in qualified apprenticeship pro-24
202202 grams as a workforce solution in nontraditional 25
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206206 industries, such as information technology, 1
207207 health care, advanced manufacturing, transpor-2
208208 tation, and other industries determined to be 3
209209 high-demand by the State board for the State; 4
210210 (E) a description of activities that the 5
211211 State entity will carry out to build awareness 6
212212 about the economic potential of apprenticeships 7
213213 in qualified apprenticeship programs; 8
214214 (F) a description that outlines how the 9
215215 State entity will increase opportunities for pre- 10
216216 apprenticeships for and apprenticeships in 11
217217 qualified apprenticeship programs, among mem-12
218218 bers of minority groups, youth, individuals with 13
219219 disabilities, veterans, and individuals with bar-14
220220 riers to employment; 15
221221 (G) a description of— 16
222222 (i) how the State entity will ensure 17
223223 that the qualified apprenticeship program 18
224224 meets certain performance measures and 19
225225 quality standards, including that the quali-20
226226 fied apprenticeship program has been in 21
227227 existence for not fewer than 6 months 22
228228 prior to the application date; 23
229229 (ii) the targeted outreach strategies 24
230230 that the State entity will use for popu-25
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234234 lations previously underserved through ap-1
235235 prenticeships; and 2
236236 (iii) any State performance measures 3
237237 that the State will use, at the election of 4
238238 the State, to measure the effectiveness of 5
239239 the project; and 6
240240 (H) in the case of a State that has already 7
241241 received a grant under this subsection for a 8
242242 project, information indicating that the State 9
243243 met the performance measures with respect to 10
244244 the project. 11
245245 (3) A
246246 PPLICATION REVIEW PROCESS .—A joint 12
247247 team of employees from the Department of Labor 13
248248 and the Department of Education shall— 14
249249 (A) review such an application; and 15
250250 (B) make recommendations to the Sec-16
251251 retary regarding approval of the application. 17
252252 (4) U
253253 SE OF FUNDS.—A State that receives a 18
254254 grant under this subsection shall use the funds made 19
255255 available through the grant to defray any of the fol-20
256256 lowing costs of related instruction: 21
257257 (A) Tuition and fees. 22
258258 (B) Cost of textbooks, equipment, cur-23
259259 riculum development, and other required edu-24
260260 cational materials. 25
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264264 (C) Costs of any other item or service de-1
265265 termined by the State to be necessary. 2
266266 (5) A
267267 DMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—The State may 3
268268 use not more than 10 percent of the grant funds for 4
269269 administrative costs relating to carrying out the 5
270270 project described in paragraph (1). 6
271271 (6) P
272272 ERFORMANCE AND EVALUATION .—The 7
273273 Secretary, after consultation with the Secretary of 8
274274 Education, shall— 9
275275 (A) establish performance measures based 10
276276 on indicators set by the Administrator of the 11
277277 Office of Apprenticeship of the Department of 12
278278 Labor; and 13
279279 (B) establish an evaluation system aligned 14
280280 with the performance measures, and reporting 15
281281 requirements for the program carried out under 16
282282 this subsection. 17
283283 (c) F
284284 EDERALSHARE.— 18
285285 (1) I
286286 N GENERAL.—The Federal share of the 19
287287 cost described in subsection (b)(1) shall be not less 20
288288 than 20 percent and not more than 50 percent. 21
289289 (2) N
290290 ON-FEDERAL SHARE .—The State may 22
291291 make the non-Federal share available— 23
292292 (A) in cash or in kind, fairly evaluated, in-24
293293 cluding plant, equipment, or services; and 25
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297297 (B) directly or through donations from 1
298298 public or private entities. 2
299299 (d) R
300300 EPORT.—The Secretary shall prepare and sub-3
301301 mit to Congress, not later than September 30, 2030, a 4
302302 report— 5
303303 (1) detailing the results of the evaluation de-6
304304 scribed in subsection (b)(6)(B); and 7
305305 (2) analyzing the extent to which States have 8
306306 used grant funds effectively under this section. 9
307307 (e) P
308308 OLICY OF THEUNITEDSTATES.—It is the pol-10
309309 icy of the United States that funds made available under 11
310310 this section should be used to supplement and not sup-12
311311 plant other funds available under the Workforce Innova-13
312312 tion and Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. 3101 et seq.) and 14
313313 other Federal and State funds available to the State to 15
314314 support workforce development programs. 16
315315 SEC. 3. IDENTIFYING IN-DEMAND OCCUPATIONS. 17
316316 The Secretary shall— 18
317317 (1) identify in-demand occupations nationally 19
318318 and regionally that lack the use of apprenticeships 20
319319 in qualified apprenticeship programs; 21
320320 (2) analyze the use of the qualified apprentice-22
321321 ship program model in those identified in-demand 23
322322 occupations; and 24
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326326 (3) prepare and submit to States and Congress 1
327327 a report that contains the analysis described in para-2
328328 graph (2). 3
329329 SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 4
330330 There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out 5
331331 this Act $15,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 6
332332 2031. 7
333333 Æ
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