I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3681 
To direct the Secretary of Labor to award grants to certain entities to 
establish workforce training programs. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 3, 2025 
Mr. EVANS of Pennsylvania (for himself and Mr. EDWARDS) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 
Workforce 
A BILL 
To direct the Secretary of Labor to award grants to certain 
entities to establish workforce training programs. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Leveraging Edu-
cational Opportunity Networks Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) About 60 percent of workers in the United 
States do not hold a 4-year college degree. These al-
most 70,000,000 workers in the United States with-
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out a bachelor’s degree have gained marketable skills 
through on-the-job training, boot camps, micro- 
credentialing programs, community colleges, and 
many other types of job training programs. Short- 
term workforce training programs have been grow-
ing in demand. Polling data finds that people in the 
United States are increasingly seeking education 
programs that are relevant for work and suited to 
their personal needs. Over the past 2 years, even as 
community college enrollment has dropped, boot 
camps, and online training programs are growing in 
size and market share. 
(2) Federal job training policy should focus on 
making more funding available to support high-qual-
ity sectoral training programs, including wraparound 
supports. Policymakers should prioritize options that 
boosts Federal funding for cohort-based sectoral 
training programs, including through the Workforce 
Innovation and Opportunity Act. Complementary 
models could include grant competitions that encour-
age cross-sector partnerships and support training 
investments for high priority roles (e.g. the Depart-
ment of Commerce’s Good Jobs Challenge). 
(3) Further, the working poor are a pool of in-
visible talent and the source for a revitalized work-
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force to fill high-demand jobs in manufacturing, en-
ergy, health, technology, and science sectors of the 
economy. More than 32 percent of the United States 
labor force, or 51.9 million workers, currently make 
less than $15 an hour and 1.1 million workers earn 
wages at the prevailing Federal minimum wage 
($7.25 an hour, or $14,137 a year). 
(4) Using United States Census Bureau data, 
the Bureau of Labor Statistics determined that 
6,300,000 workers were living at or below the offi-
cial poverty level in 2020, which represented 4.1 per-
cent of the total workforce (U.S. Department of 
Labor, September 2022) and 25 percent of working 
families can be considered working poor. 
(5) The United States is experiencing a long- 
term labor shortage, ‘‘The Demographic Drought’’. 
As the size of the United States working age popu-
lation shrinks, the country is experiencing record-low 
rates of labor participation, and it has the lowest 
birth rates in history. 
(6) Economic growth is dependent on a reliable 
supply of skilled and ready to work employees. The 
economy is expected to add 12,000,000 jobs between 
2020 and 2030. Science, technology, engineering, 
and mathematics (‘‘STEM’’) occupations will experi-
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ence the highest growth rates. Occupations in the 
STEM field are expected to grow 8 percent by 2029, 
compared with 3.7 percent for all other occupations. 
(7) As of April 2023, there were 10,100,000 job 
openings and only 5,700,000 people looking for work 
(U.S. Department of Labor April 2023 Employment 
Report). 
(8) About 60 percent of workers do not have a 
bachelor’s degree, and about 45 percent of workers 
have a bachelor’s degree. 
(9) More than 39 million people in the United 
States have attended some college but earned no de-
gree. 
(10) A 2015 evaluation by the Aspen Institute’s 
Economic Opportunities Program documented that 
poor, unemployed, and under employed students who 
earned an industry-recognized credential landed high 
skill entry level positions and earned 18 percent 
more in income than a similar group of people who 
did not receive this type of training. 
(11) African American men face a range of 
challenges in the labor market which hinder their 
employment opportunities. African American men 
comprise about 13 percent of the male population, 
but 35 percent of those incarcerated. One in 3 Afri-
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can American men born today can expect to be in-
carcerated in his lifetime, compared to 1 in 6 Latino 
men and 1 in 17 White men. African American 
women are similarly affected where 1 in 18 African 
American women born in 2001 are likely to be incar-
cerated sometime in her life, compared to 1 in 111 
white women. The effect of these realities is dev-
astating and enduring, formerly incarcerated people 
are unemployed at a rate of over 27 percent which 
is higher than the total United States unemployment 
rate during any historical period, including the 
Great Depression. 
(12) More must be done to break the cycle of 
generational poverty and reduce racial, economic, 
and social disparities in the United States. 
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF GRANT PROGRAM. 
(a) GRANTS AUTHORIZED.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Labor shall 
award grants, on a competitive basis, to eligible enti-
ties to develop and implement workforce training 
programs. 
(2) GEOGRAPHIC
DIVERSITY.—To the max-
imum extent practicable, the Secretary shall ensure 
geographical diversity in selecting eligible entities to 
receive grants under subsection (a). 
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