Baucus, Rangel, Grassley, Camp Hail Passage of Expanded Trade Adjustment Assistance

Press Release

BAUCUS, RANGEL, GRASSLEY, CAMP HAIL PASSAGE OF EXPANDED TRADE ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE

Finance, Ways and Means leaders discuss critical improvements, assistance
coming to American workers and small businesses

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), House
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), Finance Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-Mich.) today discussed and celebrated the major improvement and expansion of Trade Adjustment Assistance they worked together to champion as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The package crafted by the
four trade leaders created a better, stronger TAA program to help save American jobs and support American workers.

"International trade creates a lot of good-paying jobs here at home, but when trade does have negative effects, TAA will now help more workers recover survive in the short term and thrive with new careers in the long term. And an improved TAA for Firms will save and even create jobs by helping small businesses adjust to foreign competition," said Baucus. "My colleagues and I struck this agreement to improve and expand TAA because we knew it was the right thing to do. American workers will benefit, because we all worked together."

"This bipartisan legislation to expand and improve the Trade Adjustment
Assistance program could not have come at a better time for American workers," Rangel said. "The TAA provisions included in the recovery package will help workers who lose their jobs due to trade get the support and skills they need to get back on their feet and succeed in the global economy."

"This legislation expands the scope and scale of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program to better meet the needs of workers in the globalized economy. It improves the program's transparency, accountability and oversight at the state and federal level. These changes will help American workers for years to come," Grassley said. "Now I look forward to addressing other trade-related initiatives. Export-related jobs are higher-paying on average, so we need to do more to level the playing field for our exporters in order to maintain and grow those jobs. There's no doubt that a pro-growth trade agenda should be a key component of economic recovery efforts this year."

"It's not every day that we are able to reach a bipartisan and bicameral
compromise, and I am so proud to have reached agreement with Chairman Baucus, Chairman Rangel, and Senator Grassley on legislation to expand and improve the Trade Adjustment Assistance program," Camp said. "This important package provides a coherent, rational, accountable, and cost‐effective system for training trade‐affected workers and putting them back to work quickly and at better jobs. The expansion to cover services workers adversely affected by trade is a particularly important part of this deal, as well as the expanded and more flexible training opportunities designed to help workers obtain the skills they need to start new careers. While this assistance package is absolutely essential to helping those
dislocated by trade, it is also critical to note the positive impact that trade has on our economy and working families. The simple fact is that exports, and the millions of jobs that they support, have been the largest contributor to our economic growth. Now that we've improved TAA, we need to move forward with our trade agenda to increase our exports and create more jobs here in the United States."

Trade helps to create many good, well-paid American jobs. But in cases when trade has negative effects, Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) provides extended income and training benefits to workers. The new law improves and expands Trade Adjustment Assistance in significant ways. TAA will now be available to trade-affected workers in the services sector - which comprise 80 percent of the U.S. workforce - as well as to workers whose jobs shift to all countries, not just those with which the United States has
certain trade agreements. The law also increases assistance available to American businesses seeking to avoid trade-related layoffs by retooling for the global marketplace.

Worker training funds available to states will increase by 160 percent, and the law creates a new TAA program to help trade-affected communities. The measure also allows for automatic TAA eligibility for workers suffering from import surges and unfair trade, makes training, healthcare and reemployment TAA benefits more accessible and flexible, and improves the TAA for Farmers program. And, the law makes significant improvements in accountability at the state and federal level to help ensure that taxpayer
dollars are well-spent. All Trade Adjustment Assistance programs are now authorized through December 31, 2010.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT