Omnibus Trade Act of 2010

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 6517, the Omnibus Trade Act of 2010. This bill includes provisions that are critical to our manufacturing base: specifically decreasing the cost of raw materials, extending Trade Adjustment Assistance to workers who have seen their jobs shipped overseas, and making an important technical fix to the Wool Trust Fund program.

Trade Adjustment Assistance is one of the most important lifelines for American workers who have lost their jobs due to international trade. The program helps train workers in new fields, and helps bridge the gap in health insurance benefits for workers and their families. In 2009, Congress made significant improvements by expanding eligibility for service sector workers, manufacturing and secondary workers, and by increasing training funding. The expansion also increased the Workers Health Coverage Tax Credit subsidy to minimize gaps in health insurance coverage for workers and their families. Since the overhaul more than 10,000 workers in New York alone have been certified to receive TAA benefits, and over 5,000 of these workers would not have received benefits had the extension not been in place. Across the country, TAA has helped more than 155,000 otherwise misplaced workers with the expansion since 2009.

Our vote today will extend the improvements made until June, 2012.

If we in Congress don't take action and instead let these improvements expire, we abandon workers who have already suffered from our tilted trade policies. It is imperative that we pass this legislation to ensure that America's workforce is able to adjust to changing economic environment and America can remain competitive in the global marketplace. H.R. 6517 also includes a technical fix to ensure that the Wool Trust Fund is funded at the level authorized in 2004 and 2008. This program provides payments to U.S. suit makers who have been left at a competitive disadvantage due to an inverted tariff--where the duty on the finished product is lower than the duty on the materials used to make the finished product. Without this fix, we are actually disincentivifzing suit makers to operate in the U.S. and that would be tragic for my district, which is home to Hickey-Freeman and 500 of the best suit makers in the world.

The workers at Hickey-Freeman know from experience that over the past 2 years, revenue for this program shrank considerably, resulting in cuts of up to 66 percent to payments made to U.S. companies. H.R. 6517 closes the funding shortfall ensuring that our domestic suit makers continue to manufacture in the U.S. and that they are able to compete on a level playing field.

I strongly support this legislation because it protects many of the manufacturing jobs we have now and provides funding to retrain American manufacturing workers for the jobs of tomorrow.

I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 6517.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source