Rep. Abigail Spanberger, (D) Virginia, joined Yahoo Finance Live to break down her thoughts on the bipartisan push for workforce training.
Video Transcript
ADAM SHAPIRO: It is clear not everybody needs a college degree in order to succeed in our society. And in fact, there are advantages to having a skill, a trade. You can make a lot more money with some of those in a world that needs tradespeople. Let's bring into the stream a member of Congress from Virginia, who is actually leading the charge to make it easier to get the necessary trade that people can go forward. That would be Representative Abigail Spanberger, along with our Washington, DC reporter, Jessica Smith. Jessica, why don't you ask the first question?
JESSICA SMITH: Thanks, Adam. Congresswoman, I wanted to ask about this plan and why you think it is necessary, why you think this will make a difference if you're giving people more flexibility in how they use their 529 spending-- savings plans.
ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: Well, thank you so much for having me. Fundamentally, this bill is really about a way to make sure that our workforce stays strong into the future certainly long after we are beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. And giving people the ability and the flexibility to invest in the training that may be right for them to utilize a savings tool such as 529 to achieve that is, I think, a really important element of this.
Here in Virginia, so many families and individuals depend on 529 to save for a four-year college. But it's incredibly important that they be able to utilize this vehicle to save for the certification programs and the affiliated costs that would allow them greater flexibility to perhaps progress in their chosen career or to get started right into the job market out of high school.
ADAM SHAPIRO: When we talk about using that money to get a trade-- and I hate to break it down to, you're going to make more doing this than you are doing that-- that those should be part of the consideration people consider when they're choosing what could be something that's going to take up 10, 20, 30, 40 years of their lives, isn't it?
ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: Well, I think certainly across the country, I have seen in my conversations with my colleagues that they are hearing the same thing. But back home in Virginia, you know, I've heard from employers who can't always find folks with the right training for the very specific jobs that they need, particularly in skilled nursing facilities and long-term care facilities. This is a growing area of need.
And I've heard from constituents who have expressed the real challenges of going into significant debt for a four-year education that actually isn't required for the career that they choose-- sometimes in IT, sometimes in medical coding, I mentioned in certified nursing assistants positions. And so, allowing people the flexibility to invest in these programs that will allow them with the certification necessary to enter a career of their choosing, it's one option and certainly an option that should be available across the board.
JESSICA SMITH: I know this is something that you have tried to work on in the past. You've introduced this bill before. I guess, what makes this time different? Are you more optimistic that this can actually make it to the president's desk?
ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: I'm optimistic this bill can make it to the president's desk for a couple of reasons. Yes, the bill continues to be bipartisan. I have introduced it in the House with my colleagues, Dean Phillips, a Democrat from Minnesota, Fred Upton, a Republican from Michigan, and Rob Wittman, a Republican from Virginia. And we also have bicameral support. So we have senators Klobuchar and Braun, a Democrat, a Republican, who are leading their own Senate version of this bill.
And I think that, particularly as we are seeing still ongoing levels, tremendous levels of unemployment across the country, and I'm hearing directly from constituents about what their next step may be as they re-enter the workforce, the ability to utilize 529 vehicles to save for and finance certification programs that will either allow people to pivot into new careers, those who've been impacted by unemployment, those who want to make a change, or certainly, for the younger generation that's looking at what comes next for them. Is it a longer term four-year education, or is it the certification programs that are going to allow them the skill set and the jobs that they wish to pursue?
SEANA SMITH: Congresswoman, it's Seana. Speaking of bipartisan support, I want to ask you about what the White House is reportedly planning. We're hearing reports of a $3 trillion package. Some of it will be allocated for infrastructure. Is this one area where you think we will see bipartisan support? And how do you bring the two sides together on this?
ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: Infrastructure is a significant need across our country, be it roads and bridges in some places. Predominantly in my district, one of the major infrastructure needs is broadband connectivity. And that's the same for many rural communities across the rest of the country. And so, certainly at this point, there is strong bipartisan agreement that we need to invest in our nation's infrastructure, that our nation's suboptimal and sometimes failing grades in our infrastructure is simply not acceptable.
And investing in the improvements and growth in our nation's infrastructure that we must make is a preventative measure that one, in the long term, will certainly be less costly than reacting to ever-growing failures, particularly when it comes to larger pieces of infrastructure that could have a negative impact on human life if they're to fail.
In a bipartisan group, I'm a member of the Bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus-- 28 Democrats, 28 Republicans. We've been focused on this issue. We've got a task force engaging aggressively on issues related to where there is bipartisan agreement for real needs moving forward as it relates to infrastructure. So I think the bipartisan agreement that we need to invest in our nation's infrastructure exists. Then what is that infrastructure becomes the next question. And I think we're still in the throes of hammering that all out.
ADAM SHAPIRO: You know, $3 trillion over 10 years isn't quite as enormous when you're thinking $300 billion. But let me ask you this. And we only have about a minute. Should it be paid for, or should we be willing to deficit finance this?
ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: I think it's going to depend on what the broader package is, the scope of the investments that we're looking to make. I am always someone who advocates for being incredibly responsible with our nation's finances so that we aren't looking to future generations to always pay for the things that we invest in now.
But this is truly an issue of being preventative and not reactionary later down the line. And so I think that once we have a better scope of what it is that we intend to invest in, then we can more directly refine how it is that we intend to finance those investments.
ADAM SHAPIRO: Representative Abigail Spanberger, thank you so much for joining us. Jessica Smith, always good to see--
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