Can Congress fill the broadband labor pool?

In 2023, American employers were anticipated to need an additional 500,000 positions across all construction industries on top of normal hiring levels. Other estimates show the US will separately need as many as 4.6 million manufacturing jobs filled by 2028. To make matters worse, it's probable those numbers will soar even higher when $42.5 billion in Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) money starts to reach the market. Labor and materials are the main obstacles to the broadband funding rollout said Zachary Perconti, director of government affairs at Power and Communication Contractors Association (PCCA). And the federal government inevitably will have a hand in whether the broadband industry can overcome those "twin bottlenecks." “Keep in mind for this rollout, we've just required many of these materials to be produced domestically. There's tremendous demand for entry-level positions across all of the infrastructure market,” he added, referring to the Biden-Harris Administration’s Buy America initiative. Advocating for immigration reform in federal legislation is “one possible solution" PCCA is pursuing to help overcome the workforce shortage. Another avenue might be found through several bills up for reauthorization in Congress, including the Higher Education Act and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.