Today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted by voice vote without objection to pass H.R. 2353, the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act. The bill would reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins) through Fiscal Year (FY) 2023. ACTE released a joint statement of support for the bill’s passage with Advance CTE. H.R. 2353 is very similar to the bill passed by the House of Representatives last year to reauthorize Perkins (H.R. 5587), and would make important improvements to the federal system of support for CTE. We also sent a letter to all Members of Congress supporting House passage and outlining our remaining concern with the secondary concentrator definition.
After the bill’s passage, its cosponsors and other leaders from the CTE community held a press conference outside the Capitol. ACTE Executive Director LeAnn Wilson was pleased to participate in this event, and share our thanks for the bill’s passage. A Facebook live video of the press conference can be found at https://www.facebook.com/AdvanceCTE/videos/1314144092039071/.
Work on Perkins will now be focused in the Senate, where concerns around issues of Secretarial authority stalled discussions last fall. We are hopeful that the Senate will make Perkins reauthorization a priority in the coming months, and will be working with them to ensure a strong, bipartisan piece of legislation as the process continues. You can read a summary of the bill as passed by the House here.
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