FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 1, 2006

CONTACT: Steve Forde
Telephone: (202) 225-4527

Rep. Ric Keller (R-FL) Named Chairman of U.S. House Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. House Education & the Workforce Committee Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) today named Rep. Ric Keller (R-FL) chairman of the Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness.  Keller replaces McKeon as chair of the subcommittee, following McKeon’s recent rise to the chairmanship of the full committee.

 

“Ric is exactly the right man to take over at the subcommittee.  He knows the issues and has demonstrated a real grasp of the problems facing the American workforce and our education system.  He’s energetic and a problem solver,” said McKeon.  “We are facing the new realities of a high technology, information-based, global economy, and the subcommittee is at the forefront of responding to those challenges.  Ric has the vision and insight to tackle these new realities.”

 

“I’m truly humbled and honored to be selected to chair this important subcommittee,” noted Keller.  “As chairman, I will fight to make sure that every child, rich or poor, has the opportunity to go to college.  As someone who grew up in humble circumstances, I learned that a first-class education is a child’s passport out of poverty.”

 

The Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness – one of five subcommittees of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce – has jurisdiction over federal higher education, student aid, and job training programs.  The subcommittee also oversees welfare reform programs including work incentive programs, welfare-to-work requirements, and childcare services, including the Childcare Development Block Grant (CDBG). 

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