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July 19, 2001
ROCKEFELLER INTRODUCES CRITICAL TRADE ASSISTANCE LEGISLATION
Trade Adjustment Assistance Reauthorization Act to Aid Workers in Retraining and Job Search
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), along with his Senate colleagues, introduced legislation today which will provide additional funding for people who have lost their jobs due to changes in the global economy. The Trade Adjustment Assistance Reauthorization Act (TAA) includes additional assistance for programs to facilitate job re-training, as well as job search and relocation allowances.
West Virginia is a major beneficiary of Trade Adjustment Assistance. Between 1996-2000, the U.S. Department of Labor certified almost 5,000 West Virginia workers as eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance. In all, West Virginians who lost their jobs due to imports received over $17 million in TAA and NAFTA-TAA benefits and job re-training during this time period.
"When our government’s trade policies lead to American workers losing their jobs through no fault of their own, then we as a nation have an obligation to those workers and their families. We must have programs in place to assist them in finding new employment so that they can support themselves and their families," Rockefeller said. "The TAA program provides this support though funding programs that help our displaced workers get retrained and find new, fulfilling employment."
The Trade Adjustment Assistance Act Reauthorization Act provides assistance to workers who are left without jobs when a company shifts its production overseas due to pressure from imports. The bill also provides a measure which would allow the President, the Senate Finance Committee, or the House Ways and Means Committee to initiate trade adjustment assistance for an entire industry. Furthermore, it expands benefits by increasing income support from 52 to 78 weeks, ensures that TAA recipients are aware of all child care and health care benefits that are available to them, and creates a refundable tax credit for 50 percent of Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) payments.
The TAA program was established in 1962 to provide aid to workers who lost their jobs, or whose hours of work or wages were reduced as a result of foreign competition. In 1993, Congress established a separate TAA program for workers whose job loss was associated with trade and investment involving Canada and Mexico. Despite lower unemployment through the second half of the 1990's, the number of workers eligible for TAA has increased.
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