(Washington D.C.)- U.S. Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, made the following opening remarks today during the Ways and Means Committe Hearing on Trade Adjustment Assistance and U.S. Worker Competitiveness. 

Trade Adjustment Assistance and U.S. Worker Competitiveness

Opening Statement of
U.S. Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI)
Trade Subcommittee, Chairman

Hearing: Ways and Means Committee
June 14, 2007

Prepared for Delivery

I see trade policy and trade adjustment assistance as two distinct priorities.  One is not a replacement for the other.  We must have new and effective policies that actively shape the course of trade, and we must have programs to assist persons dislocated in this era of heightened globalization.

I come from a State that, due to the manufacturing jobs crisis, has used – or, as we will learn today, has been unable to use in far too many cases – the TAA program. 

I am not alone.  If you look at the States which use TAA most frequently, they are well represented on this panel: California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, Alabama and Texas.

Together, we have a shared mission – to promote the competitiveness of our workers and the strength of our economy.

However, if you look at the current structure of TAA, that mission has been hampered by unnecessarily restrictive rules and procedures that make it difficult for the average worker to navigate the process and receive the benefits that they deserve. 

It also has been hampered by the poor Federal allocation of training funds to the States.  Michigan was one of nine States that ran out of training funds in Fiscal Year 2006 and had to put workers on waiting lists to get the training they need, deserve and are entitled too.  Wait lists are broken promises to workers negatively affected by trade.

The estimates of service-sector jobs that could be subject to offshoring over the next decade range from 14 million to 42 million service-sector jobs.  Yet, service sector workers are not covered by TAA.

Secondarily-impacted workers also are a concern.  According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), roughly two jobs making parts in the automotive industry are lost for every job lost in an assembly plant.  Yet it is hard to get secondary workers certified for TAA benefits with the current statutory restrictions.  In many sectors, regional or industry-wide certification has its place for workers and industries impacted by globalization.

Healthcare is also an integral component of any adjustment assistance and is often the most important issue for workers and families experiencing job losses.  Yet, the TAA healthcare benefit is too costly for workers that are making a fraction of their former salary on unemployment insurance and too complex a process for them to navigate.   
 
Trade Adjustment Assistance is in need of a complete overhaul.  Today is the beginning of an important process for better equipping U.S. workers, businesses and communities with programs to retrain and retool for a new future in the global economy.

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