House passes TAA extension.

The House voted yesterday to approve an extension of the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program through 2013, following Senate approval of the bill late last month. The passage of the measure – in conjunction with a set of long-stalled free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama – ends months of uncertainty about the fate of this critical workforce program.

TAA, which provides job training and other benefits for workers who have lost their jobs as a result of foreign competition, is currently authorized through February 2012. Congress significantly expanded the program under the Recovery Act in 2009—including extending eligibility to service sector workers and nearly tripling the amount of funding available for training services—but these expanded provisions were allowed to lapse earlier this year, and the program is now operating according to the more limited provisions of the pre-Recovery Act program.

The White House and some congressional Democrats had been seeking to restore TAA at the 2009 levels as part of a broader package to advance the free trade agreements, but Republicans had resisted making a deal, arguing that TAA was costly and ineffective. The final bill, which was negotiated by Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT) and House Ways and Means chairman Dave Camp (R-MI), addressed these concerns in part by scaling back certain provisions and including offsets to help cover expenses, reducing the estimated cost of the bill from about $2.1 billion to $900 million over three years.

Overall, the “Trade Adjustment Assistance Extension Act of 2011” extends a number of the 2009 amendments through December 2013, and makes the changes retroactive to cover certain workers who would have been covered had the program not lapsed in February. In addition, the bill:

• Increases the annual cap on funding for job training, case management, and other activities to $575 million for Fiscal Years (FY) 2012 and 2013, plus $143.75 million for the first quarter of FY 2014.
• Authorizes up to 117 weeks of training for certified workers, plus an additional 13 weeks in certain circumstances to allow workers to complete training leading to an industry-recognized degree or credential; and
• Restores the expanded eligibility under the 2009 amendments for service sector workers.

The bill eliminates two grant programs created under the 2009 reauthorization—the TAA for Communities program under the Department of Commerce and the Industry or Sector Partnership grant program under the Department of Labor. The Commerce program received about $37 million in funding in FY 2010 but was not funded in FY 2011; the DOL sector grant program was never funded by Congress. The TAA Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program is not impacted by the current legislation, as funding for that program was provided in last year’s budget reconciliation bill.

National Skills Coalition has prepared a short summary comparing key workforce provisions under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Extension Act to provisions under the 2009 extension. NSC applauds Congress and the administration for working together to renew TAA, ensuring that thousands of dislocated manufacturing and service sector workers will be able to obtain the skills necessary to transition to new jobs and new industries.