U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith and several of her Senate Appropriations Committee colleagues this week sought details about a Trump budget proposal to terminate workforce training programs, like Job Corps, in favor of a new Make America Skilled Again (MASA) block grant program.

Batesville has been a Job Corps site for decades, and losing funding would directly impact retail sales in the city due to the economic impact generated at the campus.

Hyde-Smith associated herself with concerns expressed by Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins regarding ramifications for trainees enrolled at Job Corps centers.  The “skinny” budget lacks details on how the new MASA program would effectively replace Job Corps and other federal job training programs.

“As with Senator Collins, I’m concerned about the Job Corps center locations in Mississippi closing,” Hyde-Smith said.  “Hopefully we will have something to replace those job training programs because it is a great concern.  They’re all over the state in Gulfport, Batesville, and Crystal Springs, which is close to where I live.  They’re valuable to Mississippi.”

Hyde-Smith has supported the Job Corps programs in Mississippi, including the program in Gulfport that has a partnership with Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding to prepare welders for jobs at the Pascagoula shipyard.