Watson Coleman: “Actually, earlier this year, I was able to join with my friend, Senator Baucus, the ranking member of the Finance…”

“Actually, earlier this year, I was able to join with my friend, Senator Baucus, the ranking member of the Finance Committee, in introducing legislation to extend trade adjustment assistance to American service sector workers. I call that good Minnesota commonsense legislation. Today I rise to join Senators Wyden and Baucus to offer a modified version of this important legislation as an amendment to the JOBS bill. Our amendment not only extends trade adjustment assistance to service sector workers, but also improves and strengthens the TAA program for all American workers. I say to my colleagues, if you care about the issue of offshoring and outsourcing and are searching for a positive, constructive, forward-looking way of addressing these challenges, this is it. I say to my colleagues, if you support trade and expanding trade opportunities, but recognize that along the way there are going to be some workers who are going to be hurt as we grow and expand--and we need to grow and expand; and trade is part of that--we can address that. I am a strong supporter of trade adjustment assistance because trade adjustment assistance is critical to achieving a balance: the expansion of trade but meeting the needs of those workers who are negatively impacted.”