The House Committee on Education and Labor today marked up a $779.5 billion budget reconciliation bill funding the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor and other programs essential to supporting the nation’s students and workforce. In response to today’s markup, the BlueGreen Alliance released the following statement from Executive Director Jason Walsh:

“Our nation’s schools have been in a dangerous and shameful state of disrepair for far too long. No parent should have to worry that their child’s health will be negatively impacted by poor school infrastructure. The bill reported out today takes great strides to correct this wrong, including $82 billion in grants to repair public school infrastructure that will create good-paying jobs across the country. The Senate must maintain this level of funding.

“While the bill includes broad, much-needed support for dislocated workers, it misses the mark by failing to provide targeted, adequate support for workers dislocated by the nation’s transition to cleaner, cheaper forms of energy. This must be corrected in any final package sent to the president’s desk.”