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Angus King, Susan Collins ask Trump administration to reverse 'illegal' Job Corps cuts in Maine
Jun. 9—Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins are pushing back against the closure of two Jobs Corps centers that they say will leave 500 students "in the lurch" and eliminate one of rural Maine's largest employers.
King and 39 other senators on Monday asked the U.S. Department of Labor to rescind "unconstitutional and illegal" cuts to Job Corps that they say are harming communities in Maine and across the country. Collins, who has repeatedly pushed to keep the program running, sent a separate but similar letter May 28.
The Trump administration last month indefinitely paused operations at 99 Job Corps sites, including two in Maine, citing budgetary and performance issues.
"Job Corps was created to help young adults build a pathway to a better life through education, training and community," Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in the announcement. "However, a startling number of serious incident reports and our in-depth fiscal analysis reveal the program is no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve."
Chavez-DeRemer said the administration would support students in advancing their training and connecting them with education and employment opportunities. The centers will close by June 30.
The Loring Job Corps Center in Limestone and the Penobscot Job Corps Center in Bangor serve a combined 500 students in Maine.
The Bangor location opened in 1980 and the Loring center opened in 1997, just a few years after the closure of the Loring Air Force Base. The Loring Job Corps Center is now one of the largest employers in rural Maine, with 129 employees, according to Collins, R-Maine. They're both large "feeder" programs for Bath Iron Works and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and the Penobscot center has the Job Corps' only advanced marine pipefitting training program.
The center directors said they are not permitted to speak about the closures and directed all media inquiries to the Department of Labor.
In a letter Monday to Chavez-DeRemer, King and the other senators said the administration's decision to terminate Job Corps center operations has left 25,000 students and thousands of staff members "in the lurch."
"The sudden 'pause' of operations at Job Corps centers puts young people's lives at risk, especially a significant number of students who were experiencing homelessness before arriving to the program," they wrote. "Local communities will pay a steep price, especially the thousands of individuals who work at the centers and will lose their livelihoods."
Job Corps, established in 1964, is the largest free residential education and job training program in the country. It helps young people ages 16-24 in rural communities finish high school, learn technical skills and get good-paying jobs.
But according to the Department of Labor, it also has serious flaws.
In April, the department published its first Job Corps Transparency Report, based on the financial performance and operational costs from 2023.
The report found that Job Corps only had a 38% graduation rate and cost more than $80,000 per student, per year. It also found almost 15,000 infractions, including drug use and acts of violence.
Collins said that while Job Corps isn't perfect, it still works.
At a budget hearing last month, Collins questioned Chavez-DeRemer on the decision to eliminate the Job Corps.
"I, for the life of me, do not understand why the administration wants to eliminate this valuable program. And I know we've had a discussion on the cost. It is so much more expensive if someone, because of the influence and lack of support, ends up addicted, or sex trafficked, or in jail, than it is to have them go to a Job Corps Center and receive the guidance and skills that they need to turn around their lives," she said.
She spoke of Adais Viruet-Torres, a graduate from the Loring Center (and later Husson University) who now works as a nurse practitioner.
Viruet-Torres had been experiencing homelessness and living in a dangerous situation in Connecticut when she learned about the Job Corps program by chance, Collins said.
'LITERALLY SAVED HER LIFE'
"Job Corps literally saved her live, and she has been in the medical field ever since," Collins said.
The Department of Labor announced in April that it would not take new enrollments at the Penobscot and Loring Job Corps centers in Maine, saying the facilities "continue to face ongoing sustainability issues due to rising costs." The announcement said the department would continue to evaluate those and other facilities.
Collins also sent a letter to the secretary in April, asking the administration to reverse the decision to pause enrollment.
"Penobscot and LJCC have both supported the economic vitality and community development of their respective areas for decades and losing these centers would be detrimental to both communities as well as to the young people they serve," she said at the time.
Now, King, I-Maine, and the other senators — all Democrats, plus Vermont independent Bernie Sanders — are asking the administration to immediately reverse its decision to prevent a lapse in education and services for students. They also asked the Department of Labor to restart enrollments, resume background checks and make any contract extensions or modifications needed to ensure there are no interruptions or delays.
Collins sent a similar request late last month.
Congress passed the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act of 2025, which includes $1.76 billion for Job Corps and ensures that Job Corps Centers are funded for the new program year that begins on July 1.
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