Blumenauer Opening Statement at Trade Subcommittee Hearing on Reauthorizing Trade Adjustment Assistance: Opportunities for Equitable Access and Modernization

Mar 4, 2021

Press Release

(As prepared for delivery)

I am excited about the Subcommittee's achievements in the previous Congress and look forward to continuing our work to make sure our trade policy supports all American workers, consumers, farmers, communities, and businesses. The topic of today's hearing is critical to that effort.

Trade Adjustment Assistance has been an important part of U.S. trade policy for almost 60 years.

For those who have been able to access this program, TAA has offered a lifeline during periods of economic distress, providing workers who have lost their jobs with the resources they need to get an education and training to be able to access good-paying jobs in economically competitive sectors.

The reason that TAA is the topic of our subcommittee's first hearing of the 117th Congress is twofold.

First, many of the program enhancements included when we last reauthorized the program in 2015 expire at the end of June.

If Congress fails to act, on July 1, fewer workers would be eligible for TAA, and the Americans who remain eligible will receive significantly less help-both in the amount of the benefit and also the type of benefits available.

To make matters more dire, the cost of inaction would fall most heavily on women and workers of color-the very people who have been hit hardest by the coronavirus.

Second, we are at an inflection point in our economic recovery from the coronavirus. As access to the vaccine continues to expand, more and more workers will be able safely return to work, and there will be increased demand for available jobs. We must not leave workers who lost their jobs because of our trade policy failures.

During the last economic crisis, Congress enacted major reforms and improvements to the TAA program. The 2009 version of the program reflected the high watermark, with expanded benefits and robust funding.

The threat that our workers and communities face today is different but no less dire. We have lost over 540,000 lives, and the pandemic has disrupted all of our lives. Many Americans will be faced with an economy much different from the one that existed before the COVID crisis. Congress should ensure that the TAA programs serve any trade-impacted worker, firm, farmer, or community.

TAA can be an important tool in that effort. Too often, our trade policy presumed that we must sacrifice good paying manufacturing and services jobs for lower consumer prices. In the process, we ignored the fact that once these factories and service centers were shuttered, many communities lost a major source of economic activity and revenue.

We must also acknowledge that not only has the coronavirus had a disproportionate effect on communities of color, but also, we have more and more evidence that trade-related job loss often falls hardest on these same communities.

In the last century, we saw union manufacturing jobs in the Midwest provide a route to the Middle Class for Black Americans who fled the South during the Great Migration. When those jobs left the U.S., Black workers were impacted disproportionally. In the outyears, we have reports and studies that provide a fuller understanding of not only what happened to these workers, but to their families, to the young people who were entering the workforce, to their entire communities.

We must not shy away from this evidence, but instead lean in. We must recognize that trade does not impact all communities equally. We must consider how our economic policies have disparate impacts on different communities, and how we should redesign these policies to reduce rather than exacerbate economic inequality.

Reauthorization of TAA for Workers should be complemented by assistance targeted at communities to ensure that all communities can take the steps necessary to recover from challenging economic circumstances. I look forward to hearing from Dr. Spriggs of the AFL-CIO to better understand those unique challenges and about how to assist these communities. I also applaud the work that my colleague, Congressman Kildee, has already done on this important issue.

As we prepare for reauthorization, we must consider the workers who have lost their jobs due to trade but who have been unable to access TAA benefits because the layoffs do not fit the narrow eligibility criteria that currently exist in the law. It's time Congress reconsiders those criteria so that the program can serve all trade-impacted workers.

A related problem is outreach. Many times, workers simply do not know that they are eligible for TAA benefits. For those workers that do access the program - like Mr. Otto - receiving TAA benefits can be a lifechanging experience. I look forward to hearing from Ms. Forsberg about how my home state of Oregon has set the national standard in reaching eligible workers, and how the rest of the country can learn from Oregon's best practices.

Congress should also take this opportunity to consider how we can make sure that the benefits that the participants receive reflect their needs. It is important that those who are eligible, see TAA as a program that can support them as they undertake training and search for a new job. I am eager to hear from Mr. Stettner on these opportunities.

Today's hearing is timely, and I believe a great opportunity to work together to ensure that we do right by these workers who lost their jobs because of broader, global economic changes.

Let me now yield to the Ranking Member, Mr. Buchanan of Florida, for five minutes for the purposes of an opening statement.

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