On May 9, ABC led a coalition of small business and construction organizations in a letter expressing concerns with new recommendations to the U.S. Department of Labor from the DOL’s Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship.

On May 10, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship voted to approve recommendations to the DOL for potential revisions to the National Apprenticeship System. The ACA is an advisory body comprised of representatives from industries, labor organizations and other members of the public that provides advice to the agency on government-registered apprenticeship programs. These recommendations will inform the DOL’s upcoming proposed rule revising the GRAP system, currently targeted for June 2023.

Included in the recommendations are suggestions for the DOL to establish a new “Quality Seal” program for GRAPs. Programs would be required to meet certain wage requirements, completion rates and apprentice-to-journeyworker ratios in order to receive the Quality Seal and accompanying preferential treatment for federal funding of GRAPs. Employer participants in Quality Seal GRAPs would receive preferential treatment in the bidding and awarding of federal and federally assisted construction projects. Additionally, some members of the ACA recommended that all GRAPs should be required to guarantee graduates such wages deemed “family-sustaining” by the DOL.

This week, U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee Ranking Member Bobby Scott, D-Va., reintroduced the ABC-opposed National Apprenticeship Act. ABC sent a letter to the Committee on April 27 highlighting concerns with the proposal and urging better access to apprenticeship opportunities for all of America’s workers.

While this bill has been proposed as a way to expand apprenticeship opportunities in America, in practice, the bill would limit access to apprenticeships for non-union employers and limit the flexibility of apprenticeship programs throughout the country. ABC key voted against this ill-advised apprenticeship bill on the House floor last Congress, when the Democratic majority pushed the bill through a vote of 247-173. Dr. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the Committee Chairwoman, opposed the bill last Congress, and with Republicans in control of the Committee and the House it is not likely to receive a floor vote.