|
WASHINGTON – {As the Senate adjourned for the year without passing legislation aimed at aiding displaced American workers, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-8) today condemned Senate Republicans who refused to reauthorize Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) provisions as written in the Recovery Act for job training and other benefits for those who jobs were outsourced overseas.
“Today is a sad day for the American worker. The Senate Republicans made shameful decision to deny job assistance for American workers who lost their jobs overseas for want of a guarantee by Democrats to vote on an unrelated free trade agreement that could potentially offshore even more American jobs,” said Pascrell, a House Ways and Means Committee member who proudly voted in support of the legislation on Thursday when it passed the U.S. House of Representatives. “Allowing the Trade Adjustment Assistance to revert to its pre-Recovery Act authorization will deny hundreds of thousands of Americans the help they need to weather the economic storm they face. This is the least we can do for those who unavoidably lost their jobs – provide the opportunity to get the support and retraining that was be made available through this legislation. I am extremely disappointed that the Senate Republican conference has decided to kill this program.”
Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), which provides assistance to workers and firms negatively impacted by foreign trade, was included in the Omnibus Trade Act of 2010, which passed the House with bipartisan support by voice vote on Dec. 16. No House Republicans spoke against the bill, which also included extensions for the expiring Andean Trade Preferences and Generalized System of Preferences Programs, and miscellaneous tariff bill provisions.
Congress made several important reforms to this program in the Recovery Act that will expire unless the program is reauthorized. Those provisions have helped more than 350,000 American workers, including 5,000 in New Jersey. Approximately 155,000 of those workers were only eligible because of the Recovery Act Reforms, including almost 90 percent of the workers eligible in New Jersey.
Among the changes to go into effect as TAA returns to pre-Recovery Act levels:
· Reduced number of trade-affected workers who are eligible for TAA
· Limited training opportunities
· Eliminated TAA employment and case management funding
· Eliminated 26 weeks of income support currently available to workers in training
· Reduced Health Coverage Tax Credit from 80 to 60 percent, making it harder for workers to cover their health care costs
}
###
|
