Senate to take up TAA bill next week.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced today that the Senate would take up legislation to reauthorize an expanded version of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program next week, with a procedural vote scheduled for as early as Monday.

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 have been seeking to reauthorize and expand TAA as part of a package to advance free trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea, and Panama. In June, Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT) and House Ways and Means chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) announced that they had reached agreement on a scaled-back version of TAA that would restore some of the key provisions of the 2009 expansion, and extend the overall program through 2013, but congressional leaders have so far been unable to strike a deal for moving the bill. Democrats have been seeking assurances that the TAA measure can pass both chambers without damaging amendments before the President submits the free trade agreements to Congress. It is expected that next week's bill will be a version of the Baucus-Camp compromise, though full details on the final language are not yet available.

Last month, National Skills Coalition joined with 30 other national organizations to send a letter to congressional leaders, urging them to ensure that TAA reauthorization includes meaningful investments in training for trade-impacted workers. The letter specifically called for Congress to preserve current funding levels for the TAA Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program, which provides capacity-building grants to community colleges and other eligible institutions, and to increase the annual cap on training funds available to states to the levels authorized under the Recovery Act.

We will continue to monitor developments on to this issue and will provide updates and analysis as new information becomes available. For the latest news, subscribe to NSC’s RSS feed, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.