Powering Our Military and Economy

Friends,

As Fort Bragg's Congressman, it's an honor to represent so many active-duty soldiers, their families and our veterans. We owe a debt to everyone who has served in our nation's military, as well as their families, for the sacrifices they have made to protect our country. We also owe it to them to make sure they have all the available tools and resources they deserve.

That's why this week I hosted a roundtable with Department of Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette at Fort Bragg to discuss the energy priorities and challenges our military faces at Fort Bragg and around the globe. Protecting electric grid security in and around Fort Bragg is crucial to our national security, as well as the needs of military families.

It was an honor to host the Secretary on base. As a member of the House Energy Subcommittee, I look forward to continuing my work on improving the future of our defense energy supply through innovative and clean energy solutions.

Following a tour of Fort Bragg, Secretary Brouillette and I visited Fayetteville Technical Community College to highlight a program that trains veterans to be linemen for energy companies like PWC and Duke Energy. With the help of training programs like this one, Duke Energy hires over 330 veterans a year – a great example of how business, education and the military work together in our community.

To encourage more programs like it, I introduced a bipartisan bill this Congress called the Blue Collar and Green Collar Jobs Development Act.

This legislation improves the education and training programs within the Department of Energy and provides grant funding to incentivize the use of energy workforce training programs. The bill would direct the Secretary of Energy to encourage the nation's education system to equip students with the skills, mentorships, and training they need to fill open job opportunities in the energy and manufacturing industries. It also strengthens the Department of Energy's workforce development initiatives, like the Minorities in Energy Initiative, to prioritize education and

training of individuals from underrepresented communities – which I made sure includes veterans.

This bill can build on the great progress made under President Donald Trump and Secretary Brouillette to encourage our nation's energy independence and create more jobs.

I thank the Secretary for coming to our community this past week to discuss these important issues and appreciate the work of the Trump administration to support our energy industry, our military and our veterans. By working together and creating more job opportunities, we can keep North Carolina not only the most military friendly state, but also the most veteran friendly state in the country!

Until next week,

Richard Hudson

Member of Congress