Judd Gregg: “I rise to speak about a section of the trade adjustment language in this bill. I congratulate the managers for the hard…”

“I rise to speak about a section of the trade adjustment language in this bill. I congratulate the managers for the hard work they put into bringing this bill forward. Trade adjustment is part of the three basic bills. There are four bills altogether, but I now address the three bills--the Andean trade bill, trade promotion authority, and trade adjustment. The trade adjustment language in this bill has some huge problems and sets off on a new policy course in a number of areas which I believe are extremely problematic and inappropriate. One of the issues it raises is that of how you deal with people who do not have health insurance. I do not want to speak specifically to that, but I want to allude to that. In this bill there is a brand new major entitlement which will say if you are put out of work, allegedly because of a trade event, you will have the right to get health insurance and have that health insurance paid for by the taxpayers, or 70 percent of it. That will create the anomalous situation, the really terrible situation that people who are working for a living, working hard, working 40, 50, 60 hours a week, and who do not have health insurance, will end up paying an increased tax burden to pay to subsidize the health insurance of somebody who does not have a job, is not working, and who is already getting significant unemployment benefits, training benefits, education benefits, and now will be getting very significant new health insurance benefits.”