Senate Dems offer TAA Reauthorization

Senate Finance Committee member Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) introduced legislation yesterday to reauthorize the Trade Adjustment Assistance program.  No Senators from across the aisle joined the initiative.

The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program has provided U.S. government assistance to workers displaced from their jobs for trade-related reasons, and has been regularly modified since it was first passed in 1962.   The most recent iteration of TAA expired in 2022.

The TAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 would reauthorize the 2015-2021 version of the TAA program, which includes support for workers, farmers and firms, through December 31, 2030.

At a recent Finance hearing on trade programs, committee Democrats called for inclusion of TAA reauthorization in any legislation to renew the expired Generalized System of Preferences program. But Republicans argue that TAA reauthorization has always been linked to Trade Promotion Authority. President Biden is not seeking TPA, preferring to negotiate trade deals that do not require Congressional approval.

“Our trade policy has failed workers over and over – assisting workers who lose their jobs because of corporate outsourcing and China’s cheating is the bare minimum we owe these Ohioans,” said Sen. Brown. “Thousands of workers have had their lives upended through no fault of their own since Trade Adjustment Assistance expired. We can’t leave these workers on their own – Congress needs to reinstate Trade Adjustment Assistance now.”

Since its expiration in 2022, over 118,000 workers who may have qualified for assistance have been unable to receive TAA.

Cosponsors of the bill – all Democrats – include Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (Ore) and Sens. Tammy Baldwin (Wisc), Bob Casey (Pa), John Fetterman (Pa), Amy Klobuchar (Minn),
Ed Markey (Mass), Gary Peters (Mich), Jack Reed (RI), Bernie Sanders (Vt), Tina Smith (Minn), Debbie Stabenow (Mich), Elizabeth Warren (Mass) and Sheldon Whitehouse (RI).