; Whereas the right to change occupations or career directions is fully as important as the right to choose an occupation or career direction; Whereas accurate, up-to-date information about educational and occupational opportunities is vital; Whereas helping individuals increase self-understanding of their abilities, interests, values, and goals is a vital foundation of the career development process; Whereas career professionals help to provide career development services to inspire and empower our citizens’ attention to where it is needed most: empowering the national economy through maximum individual productivity; Whereas according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, as of October 2020, 11,000,000 workers are unemployed; Whereas career professionals help the United States worker meet the very real and immediate challenges of economic development, student achievement, and global competitiveness; Whereas career professionals are a vital resource for the livelihood of our Nation’s workforce and are underutilized relative to their potential need and value; Whereas a Harris Interactive Poll, conducted in partnership with NCDA, examined the perceptions of today’s workforce on the effectiveness of career counselors, the need for expanded workforce training opportunities and the hardships implicit in selecting, changing, or getting a job in the current economic climate, and the feedback is very clear; and Whereas the 2011 Harris Poll results revealed that— (1) only one quarter (24 percent) of adults report that they have already visited a career practitioner and 86 percent of those found them to be helpful; and (2) only 37 percent of respondents reported making a conscious choice when choosing a career while over half (56 percent) took the only job available, looked interesting at the time, or chose based on the influence of parents, relatives, or friends: Now, therefore, be it