Bill expands career counseling about skilled trades for youth
H.R. 5295 — ACCESS Act · Filed by Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 11, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to require states and local workforce agencies to conduct public awareness campaigns about skilled trade careers and to provide career counseling and labor market information about high-skill, high-wage trades to eligible youth. The bill adds these activities as mandatory components of state and local workforce development programs.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is to expand public awareness and career counseling about skilled trades within existing workforce development infrastructure. It is a straightforward public-information and guidance mandate.
What the text implies
- Mandates may increase state/local workforce agency administrative costs if not accompanied by new appropriations, potentially straining existing budgets.
- Success depends on implementation quality and funding; without dedicated resources, campaigns may be minimal or ineffective.
- Bill does not specify funding source or amount, leaving appropriations to future action.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill expands access to career information and counseling about skilled trades for youth, removing information barriers and creating pathways to high-wage employment. No restrictions on citizens' rights or protections are imposed; the bill only mandates that workforce agencies provide additional guidance and awareness.
Named in the bill
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), State workforce agencies, Local workforce development boards, Community-based organizations, Eligible youth
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 1 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Sep 11, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 11, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Education and Workforce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $720,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 164 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Suzanne Bonamici, the sponsor, reported $477,150 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Trucking Associations — $720,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,302 characters) on Oct 31, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,778 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-31.
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