Former President Donald Trump’s apprenticeship program, aimed at empowering workers and employers and cutting governmental red tape, has been cut by President Joe Biden.
The Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Program, or IRAP, was rescinded by Biden earlier this month by Executive Order.
“The White House is discontinuing a Trump administration workforce initiative that sought to deregulate government-funded apprenticeship programs by shifting oversight to industry groups,” Bloomberg Law reported last week.
Whereas Trump’s order directed the Labor Department to lead industry-recognized apprenticeship programs, Biden’s will “instead focus on the Labor Department’s traditional registered apprenticeships favored by organized labor—which require tougher standards for program operators—as the pathway to expand the nation’s earn-as-you-learn job-training system,” the report added.
Last month, Ivanka Trump, daughter of President Trump and former advisor, praised her father’s employment efforts, namely the IRAP.
“POTUS has invested more than $800 million for apprenticeships with more than 860,000 NEW apprentices since 2017 + created the Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Program (IRAP) to grow apprenticeships in new and emerging fields,” Ivanka posted on Jan. 17.
“We established a public-private sector workforce policy advisory to rethink how we prepare ALL Americans for the jobs of today and tomorrow,” she added. “Together, we created a massive ad campaign to increase awareness of the multiple pathways to good-paying jobs.”
POTUS’s pro-growth policies prioritized access to high-quality workforce training for Americans too long marginalized and left behind. pic.twitter.com/3TahqpRMJP
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) January 18, 2021
We established a public-private sector workforce policy advisory to rethink how we prepare ALL Americans for the jobs of today and tomorrow.
Together, we created a massive ad campaign to increase awareness of the multiple pathways to good-paying jobs. pic.twitter.com/SZniGW4cUO
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) January 18, 2021
Ivanka and then-U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, writing at The Miami Herald, championed the program for its design in empowering workers.
“Imagine if an employer joined forces with others in its industry to develop a cashier-to-store-manager program that would empower employees to have not only a job but a career — one that would allow employees to collect paychecks while at the same time learning the skills needed to climb the career ladder,” the pair outlined.
“We live in an age of acceleration, and the skills required for today’s jobs are changing more rapidly with each passing year,” they continued. “America needs to adapt its approach to skills education and be more nimble and responsive to the pace of change across all industries. We need opportunities to empower individuals to work and learn simultaneously so that students and workers of all ages and backgrounds can earn a living — and at the same time acquire the skills that will enable them to thrive in their current and future careers.”
Biden has already signed dozens of orders and enacted rules reversing the Trump agenda. Last month, for example, Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) froze executive actions from his predecessor designed to significantly lower prescription drug prices for Americans, including insulin and epinephrine.
The new administration will apparently re-evaluate the executive action from President Donald Trump toward the end of March, The Daily Wire noted. It remains unclear if it will be reinstated.
“The HHS Thursday froze the former Trump administration’s December drug policy that requires community health centers to pass on all their insulin and epinephrine discount savings to patients,” Bloomberg Law reported. “Centers that don’t pass on the savings wouldn’t qualify for federal grants.”
“This freeze is part of the Biden administration’s large-scale effort announced this week that will scrutinize the Trump administration’s health policies,” the report added. “If the previous administration’s policies raise ‘fact, law, or policy’ concerns, the Biden HHS will delay them and consult with the Office of Management and Budget about other actions.”
Related: Biden Stops Trump Order To Slash Price Of Insulin, EpiPen