Fiscal Year 2020 Labor-HHS-Education Funding Bill Could Help with the Labor Shortage in the Boating Industry

The Fiscal Year 2020 Labor-HHS-Education Funding Bill draft placed a greater emphasis on workforce training and apprenticeship programs, practices that could help prepare employees for the boating industry.

Speaking on the bill, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro called the bill “the People’s bill” and noted that it would help to “protect our nation’s workers and help ensure access to good jobs through increased funding for workforce training, apprenticeship programs, and worker protection programs at the Wage and Hour Division and Occupational Safety and Health Administration.” 

Apprenticeship programs and workforce training are potential solutions to the labor shortage in the boating industry right now. These types of training strategies could aid companies trying to educate workers in highly specialized boat construction procedures, such as the creation of fiberglass moldings.

The bill was approved by the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies on April 30, 2019.

It then went to the full committee for mark-up, and was approved by the House Appropriations Committee on a vote of 30 to 23 on May 8, 2019.