Tester to Trump – Leave the Job Corps Alone

Responding to an administration plan to close the Anaconda Job Corps and to move the Trapper Creek Job Corps Center operations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the Department of Labor, Montana Senator Jon Tester has introduced legislation to stop the nationwide restructuring of the Job Corps system.

The plan, proposed May 24 by the Trump Administration, would close nine Job Corps centers this year, including Anaconda, and privatize the others under the Labor Department authority, affecting Trapper Creek south of Darby. Tester's Senate bill would halt that plan and prevent any change to the Job Corps program in 2019 and 2020. Tester also sent a letter to Trump Administration officials urging them to reverse their action.

Tester said on May 30th, "I urge folks on both sides of the aisle to get behind my bill to save the Anaconda and Trapper Creek Job Corps from the chopping block... For decades, Anaconda and Trapper Creek Job Corps programs have played an active role in our state's economy... They have partnered with Montana job makers to ensure we're meeting the growing demands of our state workforce, and they have helped young men and women earn good-paying jobs and provide them with a pathway to support their families. Make no mistake about it, this decision will lead to an immediate loss of jobs in rural America and it will undermine economic development in communities like Anaconda and the Bitterroot Valley."