H.R. 6621 — Workforce of the Future Act of 2025

This section expresses the sense of Congress that artificial intelligence presents opportunities to prepare the U.S. workforce despite potential job disruptions and identifies key areas for analysis, including necessary data on AI's workforce impacts, affected industries and communities, worker influence opportunities, required skills and education, and methods to ensure their accessibility to all workforce segments.

This section defines the following terms for purposes of this title by cross-reference to existing statutes: (1) artificial intelligence (as defined in the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020, 15 U.S.C. 9401); (2) community college (i.e., junior or community college under the Higher Education Act of 1965 [HEA], 20 U.S.C. 1058(f)); (3) institution of higher education (HEA §101, 20 U.S.C. 1001); (4) labor organization (including public sector employee organizations); (5) local educational agency (Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 [ESEA], 20 U.S.C. 7801); (6) minority-serving institution (HEA §371, 20 U.S.C. 1067q); (7) state educational agency (ESEA, 20 U.S.C. 7801); (8) technical college (HEA §102(c), 20 U.S.C. 1002(c)); and (9) Tribal College or University (HEA §316, 20 U.S.C. 1059c).

This section directs the Secretaries of Labor, Commerce, and Education to jointly submit to specified House and Senate committees (1) an interim report on artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on the U.S. workforce within 6 months of enactment; (2) a final report within 1 year of enactment; and (3) an updated report within 3 years after the final report. Each report must identify (1) workforce data needs and availability for AI impact analysis; (2) industries and occupations with projected AI growth, including effects on worker enhancement or displacement and required education levels; (3) AI's impact on job quality; (4) opportunities for stakeholders to shape AI's workforce effects; (5) collaboration opportunities among educators, workforce organizations, and labor groups; (6) demographics vulnerable to or benefiting from AI-driven changes; (7) needed skills, expertise, and education for AI compared to current workforce levels; (8) methods to deliver such skills; (9) leading industry, education, and labor entities in AI; (10) resources for education providers, including minority-serving and rural institutions; (11) demographics and education of skill deliverers; and (12) recommendations on data access, policy options to enhance workforce development and mitigate AI risks, and employer best practices for worker engagement. The Secretary of Labor may enter a memorandum of understanding with the other Secretaries to establish report preparation procedures.

This section states congressional findings concerning the growth of emerging and advanced technology jobs (377,500 per year on average from 2022 to 2032), over 400,000 unfilled computing and technology positions as of 2024, and projected creation of 660,000 new jobs in the sector by 2032. The section further finds that equitable education in these technologies from elementary through secondary school is essential for workforce development and economic competitiveness, despite limited availability (e.g., high-quality instruction in only 44% of middle schools and 57.5% of secondary schools), parental demand (90%), and concentration of the tech industry in a few cities that disadvantages low-income, minority, and rural communities.

This section establishes definitions for purposes of this title, including (1) "computational thinking" as creative processes for formulating computable problems and solutions; (2) "eligible entity" as a State or local educational agency, eligible Tribal school, community college, technical college or postsecondary vocational institution, labor organization, State workforce agency, or institution of higher education; (3) "eligible Tribal school" as a Bureau of Indian Education-operated school, one under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, or tribally controlled school; (4) "emerging and advanced technology education" as education in areas such as computational thinking, software design, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and computing's societal impacts; (5) "institution of higher education" as defined in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965; (6) "minority-serving institution" as an eligible institution under HEA section 371; and (7) others such as "poverty line," "programming," "Secretary" (of Education), and "STEAM" (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics, including emerging technologies).

This section authorizes the Secretary of Education to award competitive grants to eligible entities, including as consortia, to expand emerging and advanced technology education from prekindergarten through high school. Grants are for 3 to 5 years, with 50% of available funds for activities under subsection (c) and 50% for those under subsection (d); award considerations include reports under section 103 and barriers facing demographic groups, and an entity may receive multiple awards only as part of different consortia but serve as lead fiscal agent on only one. For subsection (c) grants, required activities include (1) training teachers in emerging and advanced technologies; (2) expanding access to high-quality materials, equipment, broadband, and online options; (3) planning to increase rigorous STEAM classes and reduce equity gaps for underrepresented groups (e.g., minorities, girls, low-income youth); (4) providing support such as mentoring; and (5) ongoing industry engagement for curricula feedback; permissible activities include regional collaborations, recruiting instructional personnel, sustaining projects post-grant, and disseminating practices, with no more than 15% of funds for equipment. Subsection (c) applications must include plans ensuring all high school students have access within 5 years, prekindergarten through middle grades progression, STEAM expansion, monitoring, sustainability, industry engagement, and leveraging permissible activities.

This section authorizes the Secretary of Labor to award grants of 3-5 years to eligible entities, including labor organization-led consortia with priority, to provide AI-impacted workers with a high school diploma or equivalent—either employed in or involuntarily separated within one year from high-AI-growth industries per section 103(b)(2)—with training for high-skill, high-wage jobs and skill updates in advanced technologies. Grantees must report performance using primary WIOA indicators (29 U.S.C. 3141(b)(2)(A)(i)) (i.e., 2nd/4th-quarter unsubsidized employment rates post-exit, median 2nd-quarter earnings, credential attainment or secondary diploma within one year post-exit, measurable skill gains, and employer effectiveness indicators); the Secretary may reserve up to 2.5% of funds for national activities, must conduct third-party evaluations of scalability and worker engagement, and receives $90 million authorization for FY2026.

This section requires each eligible entity receiving a grant under section 203 to submit semiannual reports to the Secretary on the use of grant funds, including data on individuals served disaggregated by race (using decennial census categories for Asian and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander individuals), ethnicity, gender, and eligibility for the school lunch program (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.); and each entity receiving a grant under section 204 to submit semiannual reports to the Secretary of Labor with data disaggregated by race (using the same categories), ethnicity, and gender. Not later than five years after the first grant awarded under this title, the Secretary and Secretary of Labor must submit to Congress a report analyzing grantee reports with recommendations to expand the programs.

This section expands the general duties of the National Center for Education Statistics by requiring it to collect, report, analyze, and disseminate statistics (disaggregated by population characteristics) on the existence of emerging and advanced technology education (as defined in section 202 of the Workforce of the Future Act of 2025) in elementary schools and secondary schools, and the degree of competency in emerging and advanced technology fields among such students.