Hendersonville Times-News - Hagan Wants Help for Displaced Workers
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U.S. Sen. Kay R. Hagan (D-NC) and 13 other senators Thursday sent a letter to congressional leadership urging an extension of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, a critical lifeline for workers who lose their jobs due to foreign trade.
Reauthorization of the TAA program, which ensures that displaced workers receive support and training to find new jobs, must originate in the House of Representatives. Without action from Congress, the program will expire on Feb. 12.
"A long-term extension of TAA is essential to maintaining our nation's global competitiveness and supporting workers in North Carolina and across the country," Hagan said. "Last year, displaced workers in North Carolina received over $56 million through TAA -- the second-largest amount given to a single state -- to help them develop skills to find new jobs. I am committed to ensuring that Congress does not turn its back on these workers and that a long-term extension of TAA is passed by next week."
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 17,373 North Carolinians have been certified under TAA since the Recovery Act expansion, and 50 percent are covered under the new TAA provisions.
The letter, sent to House Speaker John Boehner, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp and Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin, urges the leadership to extend the program.
"TAA ... ensures that the workers affected by trade receive the support and training necessary to transition into new jobs in emerging sectors of the economy," the senators wrote. "As we understand it, you and many members of the House support a long-term extension of TAA. Just six weeks ago, on December 15, 2010, the House passed an 18-month extension of TAA ... with broad bipartisan support."
"All told, the reforms to TAA in 2009 help hundreds of thousands of workers, in every state," the senators continued. "Over 360,000 Americans have been certified for TAA assistance over the past two years, and over 40 percent of them were certified because of the improvements to TAA that were enacted in 2009."
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