Max Baucus: “At the end of the last session of Congress the Finance Committee reported three critical pieces of international trade…”

“At the end of the last session of Congress the Finance Committee reported three critical pieces of international trade legislation to the Senate calendar: An expansion of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, an extension of fast track trade negotiating authority, and an expansion of the Andean Trade Benefits program. Each of these bills is time-sensitive and I believe that the Senate should take action on them as soon as possible. The Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, or TAA, first established in 1962, is the program that addresses the needs of workers and firms that are adversely impacted by trade. The Senate Finance Committee bill expands TAA coverage to new groups of workers, including farmers and secondary workers; provides training and healthcare benefits to recipients; and experiments with a new concept of wage insurance, which aims to move the unemployed back into the labor force as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, TAA was allowed to expire at the end of the last Congress. We need to not only extend TAA, but complete the expansion as soon as it is practical.”