Ask Your Members of Congress: Support CTE Provisions in the America COMPETES Act/USICA Conference Negotiations!

After House passage of the America COMPETES Act in February, House and Senate leadership began the formal process of resolving differences between America COMPETES and the Senate’s version of the legislation, known as the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA). The America COMPETES Act contains several provisions with implications for CTE, most notably the expansion of Pell Grants to short-term programs through language similar to the JOBS Act.  

• However, the JOBS Act language is not currently included in the Senate version of the bill, making it a critical issue for the conference negotiations. There are several other CTE-related issues that we hope the conference committee considers as well. 

If you reside in Arizona, New York, Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Washington or California, your Members of Congress are in a key position to impact the conference negotiations, making it crucial that CTE advocates in these states weigh in now with these Members of Congress as the negotiations move to the final stages. 

ACTION NEEDED: Contact your policymakers in the House and Senate to ask them to support the extension of Pell Grant eligibility to high-quality, short-term CTE programs and additional workforce development priorities during the conference negotiations for the America COMPETES Act/USICA. 

If you have a direct contact in your representative's or senator’s office, such as from a meeting with a staff member during NPS or at another time, we urge you to call or email directly. You can also call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121, and an operator will connect you to your requested congressional office. Please contact your senators and representatives today!