Building A Community-Based Contact Tracing Workforce

The Committee on Education and Labor held a virtual briefing to examine Congress’ role to support a qualified, strong, community-based contract tracing workforce. The briefing, entitled “Building A Community-Based Contact Tracing Workforce,” focused on the need for a robust contact tracing workforce and how the public workforce system can support the recruitment and training of contact tracers.

The briefing featured Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the K.T. Li Professor of Global Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, and Abby Snay, Deputy Secretary for the Future of Work at the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency.

Last month, Rep. Levin introduced the Coronavirus Containment Corps Act (H.R.6871), which provides $500 million to help state and local workforce agencies connect unemployed individuals with contact tracing employment opportunities. Key parts of that legislation were included in the House-passed Heroes Act, which includes a $75 billion investment to meet the country’s testing and contact tracing needs.