Workforce groups support TAA funding.

Today, National Skills Coalition joined with 30 other national organizations to send a letter to congressional leaders, urging them to ensure that any legislation reauthorizing the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program includes meaningful investments in training for trade-impacted workers. The letter specifically calls 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 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act).

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 TAACCCT program received separate authorization through Fiscal Year 2014 under last year’s budget reconciliation bill.)

The White House and some congressional Democrats have been seeking to reauthorize and expand the broader TAA program as part of a package to advance pending free trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea, and Panama. Congressional leaders have been working for several months to reach a deal that would provide for floor consideration of TAA in conjunction with the trade agreements – Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT) and House Ways and Means Chair Dave Camp (R-MI) announced a tentative compromise on a package in late June – but the final details remain to be worked out.

National Skills Coalition supports efforts to expand training services under TAA to help ensure that trade-impacted workers can get the skills they need to transition to jobs and careers in new industries. We will continue to monitor developments relating to this important program, and provide updates as new information becomes available.