I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2459 

To require the Secretary of Labor to award grants for promoting industry 

or sector partnerships to encourage industry growth and competitiveness 

and to improve worker training, retention, and advancement as part 

of an infrastructure investment. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 13, 2021 

Ms. BONAMICI (for herself, Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania, and Mr. LANGEVIN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on Education and Labor 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of Labor to award grants for promoting industry or sector partnerships to encourage industry growth and competitiveness and to improve worker training, retention, and advancement as part of an 

infrastructure investment. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Building U.S. Infra5 structure by Leveraging Demands for Skills’’ or the 

6 ‘‘BUILDS Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 

2 The purpose of this Act is to promote industry or 

3 sector partnerships that engage in collaborative planning, 

4 resource alignment, and training efforts across multiple 

5 businesses, for a range of workers employed or potentially 

6 employed by targeted infrastructure industries, including 

7 energy, construction, information technology, utilities, and 

8 transportation, in order to encourage industry growth and 

9 competitiveness and to improve worker training, retention, 

10 and advancement. 

11 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

12 In this Act: 

13 (1) CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION; CA14 REER GUIDANCE AND ACADEMIC COUNSELING.—The 

15 terms ‘‘career and technical education’’ and ‘‘career 

16 guidance and academic counseling’’ have the mean17 ings given such terms in section 3 of the Carl D. 

18 Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 

19 2006 (20 U.S.C. 2302). 

20 (2) CAREER PATHWAY.—The term ‘‘career 

21 pathway’’ has the meaning given such term in sec22 tion 3 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity 

23 Act (29 U.S.C. 3102). 

24 (3) ELIGIBLE PARTNERSHIP.—The term ‘‘eligi25 ble partnership’’ means a partnership that is an in26 dustry or sector partnership, or (with respect to an 


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1 implementation grant) a partnership that is in the 

2 process of establishing an industry or sector partner3 ship. 

4 (4) INDIVIDUAL WITH A BARRIER TO EMPLOY5 MENT.—The term ‘‘individual with a barrier to em6 ployment’’ has the meaning given such term in sec7 tion 3 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity 

8 Act (29 U.S.C. 3102). 

9 (5) INDUSTRY OR SECTOR PARTNERSHIP.—The 

10 term ‘‘industry or sector partnership’’ has the mean11 ing given such term in section 3 of the Workforce 

12 Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. 3102). 

13 (6) LOCAL BOARD.—The term ‘‘local board’’ 

14 has the meaning given such term in section 3 of the 

15 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 

16 U.S.C. 3102). 

17 (7) RECOGNIZED POSTSECONDARY CREDEN18 TIAL.—The term ‘‘recognized postsecondary creden19 tial’’ has the meaning given such term in section 3 

20 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act 

21 (29 U.S.C. 3102). 

22 (8) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

23 the Secretary of Labor. 

24 (9) STATE; STATE BOARD.—The terms ‘‘State’’ 

25 and ‘‘State board’’ have the meanings given such 


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1 terms in section 3 of the Workforce Innovation and 

2 Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. 3102). 

3 (10) TARGETED INFRASTRUCTURE INDUS4 TRY.—The term ‘‘targeted infrastructure industry’’ 

5 means an industry, including transportation (includ6 ing surface, transit, aviation, or railway transpor7 tation), construction, energy (including the deploy8 ment of renewable and clean energy, energy effi9 ciency, transmission, and battery storage), informa10 tion technology, or utilities industries, that the eligi11 ble partnership identifies in accordance with section 

12 5(c) to be served by a grant under this Act. 

13 (11) WORK-BASED LEARNING PROGRAM.— 

14 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘work-based 

15 learning program’’ means a program (which 

16 may be a registered apprenticeship program) 

17 that provides workers with paid work experience 

18 and corresponding approved classroom instruc19 tion, delivered in an employment relationship 

20 that both the employer and worker intend to 

21 lead to continuing employment after the pro22 gram ends. 

23 (B) WORK EXPERIENCE.—In subpara24 graph (A), the term ‘‘paid work experience’’ in25 cludes training by an employer that is provided 


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1 to a paid worker while engaged in productive 

2 work in a job that provides knowledge or skills 

3 essential to the full and adequate performance 

4 of the job. 

5 (12) REGISTERED APPRENTICESHIP.—The term 

6 ‘‘registered apprenticeship’’ means an apprenticeship 

7 registered under the Act of August 16, 1937 (com8 monly known as the ‘‘National Apprenticeship Act’’; 

9 50 Stat. 664, chapter 663; 29 U.S.C. 50 et seq.). 

10 SEC. 4. GRANTS AUTHORIZED. 

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, in consultation 

12 with the Secretary of Transportation, the Secretary of En13 ergy, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Edu14 cation, and the Chief of Engineers and Commanding Gen15 eral of the Army Corps of Engineers, shall award, on a 

16 competitive basis, grants to eligible entities to plan and 

17 implement activities to achieve the strategic objectives de18 scribed in section 5(d) with respect to a targeted infra19 structure industry. 

20 (b) GRANTS.— 

21 (1) TYPES OF GRANTS.—A grant awarded 

22 under this Act may be in the form of— 

23 (A) an implementation grant, for entities 

24 seeking an initial grant under this Act; or 


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1 (B) a renewal grant for entities that have 

2 already received an implementation grant under 

3 this Act. 

4 (2) DURATION.—Each grant awarded under 

5 this Act shall be for a period not to exceed 3 years. 

6 (3) AMOUNT.—The amount of a grant awarded 

7 under this Act may not exceed— 

8 (A) for an implementation grant, 

9 $2,500,000; and 

10 (B) for a renewal grant, $1,500,000. 

11 (c) AWARD BASIS.— 

12 (1) GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY.—The Secretary 

13 shall award grants under this Act in a manner that 

14 ensures geographic diversity in the areas in which 

15 activities will be carried out under the grants. 

16 (2) PRIORITY FOR RENEWAL GRANTS.—In 

17 awarding renewal grants under this Act, the Sec18 retary shall give priority to eligible entities that— 

19 (A) demonstrate long-term sustainability of 

20 an industry or sector partnership; and 

21 (B) provide a non-Federal share of the 

22 cost of the activities. 

23 SEC. 5. APPLICATION PROCESS. 

24 (a) IN GENERAL.—An eligible partnership desiring a 

25 grant under this Act shall submit an application to the 


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1 Secretary at such time, in such manner, and containing 

2 such information as the Secretary may require, including 

3 the contents described in subsection (b). 

4 (b) CONTENTS.—An application submitted under this 

5 Act shall contain, at a minimum— 

6 (1) a description of the eligible partnership, evi7 dence of the eligible partnership’s capacity to carry 

8 out activities to achieve the strategic objectives de9 scribed in subsection (d), and the expected participa10 tion and responsibilities of each of the partners in11 cluded in the industry or sector partnership involved; 

12 (2) a description of the targeted infrastructure 

13 industry served by the grant, and a description of 

14 how such industry was identified in accordance with 

15 subsection (c); 

16 (3) a description of the workers that will be tar17 geted or recruited by the partnership, including an 

18 analysis of the existing labor market, a description 

19 of potential barriers to employment for targeted 

20 workers, and a description of strategies that will be 

21 used to help workers overcome such barriers; 

22 (4) a description of the local, State, or federally 

23 funded infrastructure projects on which the eligible 

24 partnership anticipates engaging partners; 


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1 (5) a description of the strategic objectives de2 scribed in subsection (d) that the eligible partnership 

3 intends to achieve concerning the targeted infra4 structure industry; 

5 (6) a description of the credentials that the eli6 gible partnership proposes to use or develop as a 

7 performance measure, to assess the degree to which 

8 the eligible partnership has achieved such strategic 

9 objectives, which credentials— 

10 (A) shall be nationally portable; 

11 (B) shall be recognized postsecondary cre12 dentials or, if not available for the industry, 

13 other credentials determined by the Secretary 

14 to be appropriate; 

15 (C) shall be related to the targeted infra16 structure industry that the eligible partnership 

17 proposes to support; and 

18 (D) may be a registered apprenticeship 

19 program; 

20 (7) a description of the manner in which the eli21 gible partnership intends to make sustainable 

22 progress towards achieving such strategic objectives; 

23 (8) performance measures for measuring 

24 progress towards achieving such strategic objectives; 


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1 (9) a description of the Federal and non-Fed2 eral resources, available under provisions of law 

3 other than this Act, that will be leveraged in support 

4 of the partnerships and activities under this Act; 

5 and 

6 (10) a timeline for progress towards achieving 

7 such strategic objectives. 

8 (c) TARGETED INFRASTRUCTURE INDUSTRY.—Each 

9 grant under this Act shall serve a targeted infrastructure 

10 industry that is identified by the eligible partnership 

11 through working with businesses, industry associations 

12 and organizations, labor organizations, State boards, local 

13 boards, economic development agencies, and other organi14 zations that the eligible partnership determines necessary. 

15 (d) STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES.—The activities to be 

16 carried out under each grant awarded under this Act shall 

17 be designed to achieve strategic objectives that include the 

18 following: 

19 (1) Recruiting key stakeholders in the targeted 

20 infrastructure industry, such as multiple businesses, 

21 labor organizations, local boards, and education and 

22 training providers, including providers of career and 

23 technical education, and regularly convening the 

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1 lenges common to the targeted infrastructure indus2 try. 

3 (2) Identifying the training needs of multiple 

4 businesses in the targeted infrastructure industry, 

5 including— 

6 (A) needs for skills critical to competitive7 ness and innovation in the industry; 

8 (B) needs of the registered apprenticeship 

9 programs or other work-based learning pro10 grams supported by the grant; and 

11 (C) needs for the usage of career path12 ways. 

13 (3) Facilitating actions that lead to economies 

14 of scale by aggregating training and education needs 

15 of multiple businesses. 

16 (4) Helping postsecondary educational institu17 tions, training institutions, sponsors of registered 

18 apprenticeship programs, and all other providers of 

19 career and technical education and training pro20 grams receiving assistance under this Act, align cur21 ricula, entrance requirements, and programs to the 

22 targeted infrastructure industry needs and the cre23 dentials described in subsection (b)(6), particularly 

24 for higher skill, high-priority occupations related to 

25 the targeted infrastructure industry. 


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1 (5) Providing information on the grant activi2 ties to the State agency carrying out the State pro3 gram under the Wagner-Peyser Act (29 U.S.C. 49 

4 et seq.), including staff of the agency that provide 

5 services under such Act, to enable the agency to in6 form recipients of unemployment compensation of 

7 the employment and training opportunities that may 

8 be offered through the grant activities. 

9 (6) Helping partner businesses in industry or 

10 sector partnerships to attract potential workers from 

11 a diverse jobseeker base, including individuals with 

12 barriers to employment, by identifying any such bar13 riers through analysis of the labor market and im14 plementing strategies to help such workers overcome 

15 such barriers. 

16 SEC. 6. ACTIVITIES. 

17 (a) IN GENERAL.—An eligible partnership receiving 

18 a grant under this Act shall— 

19 (1) designate an entity in the industry or sector 

20 partnership as the fiscal agent for the grant funds; 

21 and 

22 (2) carry out activities described in subsections 

23 (b) (as applicable), (c), and (d) to achieve the stra24 tegic objectives identified in the entity’s application 

25 under section 5(b)(5), in a manner that integrates 


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1 services and funding sources to ensure effectiveness 

2 of the activities and that uses the grant funds effi3 ciently. 

4 (b) PLANNING ACTIVITIES.—An eligible partnership 

5 receiving an implementation grant under this Act shall use 

6 not more than $250,000 of the grant funds to carry out 

7 planning activities during the first year of the grant pe8 riod. Such activities may include— 

9 (1) establishing the industry or sector partner10 ship; 

11 (2) convening key stakeholders as identified in 

12 the application process; 

13 (3) conducting outreach to local businesses and 

14 business associations; 

15 (4) conducting an evaluation of workforce needs 

16 in the local area; or 

17 (5) recruiting individuals with barriers to em18 ployment. 

19 (c) BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT.—An eligible partner20 ship receiving a grant under this Act shall use the grant 

21 funds to provide services to engage businesses in efforts 

22 to achieve the strategic objectives identified in the partner23 ship’s application under section 5(b)(5). The services may 

24 include assisting businesses— 


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1 (1) in navigating the registration process for a 

2 sponsor of a registered apprenticeship program; 

3 (2) by connecting the business with an edu4 cation provider, including a provider of career and 

5 technical education, to develop classroom instruction 

6 to complement on-the-job learning; 

7 (3) in developing the curriculum design of a 

8 work-based learning program; 

9 (4) in employing workers participating in a 

10 work-based learning program for a transitional pe11 riod before a business hires the worker for full-time 

12 employment not less than 30 hours a week; 

13 (5) in providing training to managers and 

14 front-line workers to serve as trainers or mentors to 

15 workers participating in a work-based learning pro16 gram; 

17 (6) in providing career awareness activities, 

18 such as career guidance and academic counseling; 

19 and 

20 (7) in recruiting, for participation in a work21 based learning program, individuals eligible to re22 ceive additional workforce or human services, includ23 ing— 

24 (A) individuals participating in programs 

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1 tunity Act (29 U.S.C. 3101 et seq.), and the 

2 amendments made by such Act, including to the 

3 Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 701 et 

4 seq.); 

5 (B) recipients of assistance through the 

6 supplemental nutrition assistance program es7 tablished under the Food and Nutrition Act of 

8 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.); 

9 (C) recipients of assistance through the 

10 program of block grants to States for tem11 porary assistance for needy families established 

12 under part A of title IV of the Social Security 

13 Act (42 U.S.C. 601 et seq.); or 

14 (D) any other individuals with a barrier to 

15 employment. 

16 (d) SUPPORT SERVICES.—The eligible partnership 

17 receiving a grant under this Act shall use the grant funds 

18 to provide services to support the success of individuals 

19 described in subsection (c)(7) who are participating in a 

20 work-based learning program for a period of not less than 

21 12 months. Such services may include the following: 

22 (1) PRE-EMPLOYMENT SERVICES.—Services, 

23 provided in a pre-employment stage of the program, 

24 to expand access to a work-based learning program 


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1 for individuals described in subsection (c)(7). Such 

2 services may include— 

3 (A) skills training; 

4 (B) career and technical education or adult 

5 basic education; 

6 (C) initial skills assessments; 

7 (D) providing work attire, necessary tools 

8 for a work site, and other required items nec9 essary to start employment; 

10 (E) wrap-around services, such as child 

11 care and transportation; and 

12 (F) job placement assistance. 

13 (2) EARLY EMPLOYMENT SERVICES.—Services 

14 provided to individuals described in subsection (c)(7) 

15 who are participating in a work-based learning pro16 gram during their first 6 months of employment 

17 through such program, to assure the individuals suc18 ceed in the program. Such services may include— 

19 (A) ongoing case management and support 

20 services, including the services provided in the 

21 pre-employment stage described in paragraph 

22 (1); 

23 (B) continued skills training, including ca24 reer and technical education, conducted in col25 laboration with employers of such individuals; 


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1 (C) additional mentorship and retention 

2 supports for such individuals; 

3 (D) targeted training for frontline man4 agers, journey level workers working with such 

5 individuals (such as mentors), and human re6 source representatives within the business 

7 where such individuals are placed; and 

8 (E) wages and benefits for a period of not 

9 more than 6 months, during which the eligible 

10 entities shall serve as the employers of record of 

11 such individuals. 

12 (3) EMPLOYMENT SERVICES.—Services to en13 sure the individuals described in paragraph (2) 

14 maintain employment in the work-based learning 

15 program for at least 12 months. The services shall 

16 include support necessary to complete the work17 based learning program, such as continuation of 

18 mentoring and support services provided under para19 graph (2). 

20 (e) EVALUATION AND PROGRESS REPORTS.—Not 

21 later than 1 year after receiving a grant under this Act, 

22 and annually thereafter, the eligible partnership receiving 

23 the grant shall submit a report to the Secretary and the 

24 Governor of the State that the eligible partnership serves, 

25 that— 


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1 (1) describes the activities funded by the grant; 

2 (2) evaluates the progress the eligible partner3 ship has made towards achieving the strategic objec4 tives identified under section 5(b)(5); and 

5 (3) evaluates the levels of performance achieved 

6 by the eligible partnership for training participants 

7 with respect to the performance indicators under 

8 section 116(b)(2)(A) of the Workforce Innovation 

9 and Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. 3141(b)(2)(A)) for 

10 all such workers, disaggregated by each population 

11 specified in section 3(24) of the Workforce Innova12 tion and Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. 3102(24)) and 

13 by race, ethnicity, sex, and age. 

14 (f) ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—An eligible partnership 

15 may use not more than 5 percent of the funds awarded 

16 through a grant under this Act for administrative ex17 penses in carrying out this section. 

18 SEC. 7. ADMINISTRATION BY THE SECRETARY. 

19 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may use not more 

20 than 10 percent of the amount appropriated under section 

21 8 for each fiscal year for administrative expenses to carry 

22 out this Act, including the expenses of providing the tech23 nical assistance and oversight activities under subsection 

24 (b). 


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1 (b) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE; OVERSIGHT.—The Sec2 retary shall provide technical assistance and oversight to 

3 assist the eligible entities in applying for and admin4 istering grants awarded under this Act. 

5 SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

6 There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

7 this Act, $500,000,000 for fiscal year 2022 and each of 

8 the succeeding 4 fiscal years. 

Æ 


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