Sending Office: Honorable Eddie Bernice Johnson
Sent By:
Justin.Maturo@mail.house.gov

Request for Cosponsor(s)

Dear Colleague:

Autonomous vehicles are coming.  Companies such as Google, Apple, Ford, BMW, and others are working aggressively to bring autonomous-vehicle technology to the mainstream consumer market.  In fact, some believe that we may see fully autonomous vehicles in
regular use on our roads in as few as five years into the future.

This transition to autonomous vehicle adoption will have serious implications for our workforce.  According to the Center for Global Policy Solutions, more than four million jobs – from truck drivers and taxi drivers to bus drivers and chauffeurs – will
likely be lost with a rapid transition to autonomous vehicles.  North Dakota, Idaho, Wyoming, West Virginia, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Iowa have the highest number of workers overrepresented in driving occupations, meaning they will be hit hardest by a rapid
shift to autonomous vehicles.  However, other states such as California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois – which account for the largest absolute number of workers in driving occupations – would also be hit hard by this transition.

Our biggest mistake would be to ignore this inevitable shift in our economy.  That is why I am proposing to authorize a new “blue collar STEM” training program specifically aimed at retraining workers in driving occupations to be better prepared for a 21^st
Century economy.  This program, administered through the U.S. Department of Transportation, would award grants to institutions of higher education or consortiums of such institutions to establish and administer curricula for a transportation worker retraining
program.

This program would allow our best and brightest institutions to develop the coursework needed to bring our workforce into the 21^st Century, without being overly prescriptive and preserving the flexibility to accept the most innovative and effective
curricula.  Autonomous vehicles are already changing the way we go about our daily lives.  We must ensure that we recognize this shift and be prepared for the inevitable changes to our economy and our society.

For more information or to sign onto the bill, please contact Justin Maturo at 5-8885 or
Justin.Maturo@mail.house.gov.

Sincerely,

EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

Member of Congress

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