Bill Pascrell: “One of the most important reforms expands eligibility to all workers whose jobs have been moved overseas, not just for…”

“One of the most important reforms expands eligibility to all workers whose jobs have been moved overseas, not just for those jobs that were lost to our free trade partners. If we allow this provision to expire, workers whose jobs have been shipped to China or India could be ineligible for TAA benefits. They will be out of luck. All in all, the Department of Labor estimates that, thanks to these reforms, an additional 155,000 trade-impacted workers were eligible for the TAA program. In New Jersey, almost 90 percent of the workers who received TAA benefits were eligible because of the reforms that we passed in February of 2009. We must continue to fight for those jobs. We must continue to keep American jobs here. For those who get unavoidably left behind, providing them with the opportunity to get support and retraining at a place like Passaic County Community College, in my district, in Paterson, New Jersey, through the TAA Community College Grant program is the least we can do, Mr. Speaker, for our workers who have been hard hit in the last 10 years.”