[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 189 (Tuesday, December 11, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H15269-H15270]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRADE ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM EXTENSION
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 4341) to extend the trade adjustment assistance program under the
Trade Act of 1974 for 3 months.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 4341
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. TEMPORARY EXTENSION OF TRADE ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE
PROGRAM.
(a) Assistance for Workers.--Section 245(a) of the Trade
Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2317(a)) is amended by striking
``December 31, 2007'' and inserting ``March 31, 2008''.
(b) Assistance for Firms.--Section 256(b) of the Trade Act
of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2346(b)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``and $4,000,000'' and inserting
``$4,000,000''; and
(2) by inserting after ``October 1, 2007,'' the following:
``and $4,000,000 for the 3-month period beginning on January
1, 2008,''.
(c) Assistance for Farmers.--Section 298(a) of the Trade
Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2401g(a)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``, and there are authorized'' and
inserting ``. There are authorized''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following: ``There are
authorized to be appropriated and there are appropriated to
the Department of Agriculture to carry out this chapter
$9,000,000 for the 3-month period beginning on January 1,
2008.''.
(d) Extension of Termination Dates.--Section 285 of the
Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2271 note) is amended by
striking ``December 31, 2007'' each place it appears and
inserting ``March 31, 2008''.
(e) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsections (a)
through (d) shall be effective as of January 1, 2008.
SEC. 2. OFFSETS.
(a) Time for Payment of Corporate Estimated Taxes.--The
percentage under subparagraph (B) of section 401(1) of the
Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 in
effect on the date of the enactment of this Act is increased
by 0.25 percentage points.
(b) Customs User Fees.--Section 13031(j)(3)(B)(i) of the
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (19
U.S.C. 58c(j)(3)(B)(i)) is amended by striking ``December 13,
2014'' and inserting ``December 20, 2014''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Levin) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Herger)
will each control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan.
Mr. LEVIN. TAA will run out very soon, and it's essential that that
not happen. This is a vital program for workers in this country, for
the firms for which they work, for farmers, and for their entire
communities.
We've been trying to not only extend TAA, but we've been trying to
reform it and to improve it. We have passed legislation in this House,
legislation that, indeed, reformed and enhanced and expanded TAA, and
it passed this House with some considerable bipartisan support. It
addressed issues like this:
Expands TAA to service workers;
Improves funding, because a number of States have essentially run out
of funds;
Streamlines the process for application for TAA because an unfriendly
regimen of rules has too often made it difficult for people to access
it;
Modernizes the unemployment system, which badly needs it;
Provides assistance to manufacturing communities hard hit by trade.
Unfortunately, though this bill passed comfortably in this House and
was an important landmark supported by our Speaker, by the majority
leader, by Chairman Rangel, by others, many of us on the Ways and Means
Committee and, as I said, with some considerable bipartisan support,
but unfortunately, the bill has essentially not moved in the other
body. And it has been blocked, I think, by a position in the other body
that it should be linked to something else.
Also, the administration essentially has opposed this legislation.
And it was really rather startling that that occurred. After all,
earlier this fall the President said this about TAA: ``I understand
that if you're forced to change a job halfway through a career it can
be painful for your family. I know that. And that is why I'm a big
believer in trade adjustment assistance that helps Americans make the
transition from one job to the next.''
Unfortunately, it was only a few weeks after that that we received,
on the eve of the markup of the bill in the Ways and Means Committee, a
letter from the Secretary of Labor opposing the bill that was before
the committee. And in the letter the Secretary said, ``negative impacts
with trade that are borne by the few,'' that this does not warrant the
changes we make in the legislation. Unfortunate language, indeed,
because there has been an impact of trade very substantially across the
board, not only in the manufacturing industries, but in the service
industries and beyond, and that that impact has been borne by many,
many more than a few.
So, what has happened is that we passed this legislation with some
bipartisan support, legislation that, as I say, expanded and reformed
TAA and also addressed overdue issues of unemployment counts. We're
just stuck because of the opposition of the administration, and also
because of inaction in the Senate.
So, here's what this legislation does:
It extends TAA for 3 months. Why 3 months? Three months because it's
the intention the majority, after we return after the holidays, if we
adjourn for the holidays, and I assume we will, to get moving quickly
to take up this vital reform of TAA within the first few months, to
make it a high priority in this House, and we hope in the entire
Congress, and we hope in the White House.
{time} 1630
So I come today on behalf of many of us viewing the importance of
this legislation and asking that this House vote for a 3-month
extension until March 31, 2008.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back myself so much time as I may
require.
I rise in support of this extension of the Trade Adjustment
Assistance, or TAA program, for 3 months beyond its expiration of
December 31. The TAA program provides important training,
[[Page H15270]]
health care, and other benefits to American workers adversely affected
by trade. While this bill will continue the program for 3 months, I
believe 6 months would be better and would allow the Senate sufficient
time to pass the TAA reauthorization bill.
Also, the Senate and House must work together to develop what I hope
will be truly bipartisan legislation that helps workers affected by
trade and globalization get retrained and back to work sooner.
Unfortunately, the House-passed Democrat bill was not the product of a
bipartisan approach as I had hoped and did not include key Republican
reform proposals.
In light of this, an overwhelming majority of the Republicans did not
support it, and the bill drew a veto threat from the administration. In
contrast, a TAA reauthorization bill that committee Republicans offered
in an alternative on the floor was supported by 95 percent of all House
Republicans and 11 Democrats. This strong support reflects the
meaningful reforms in our 5-year TAA reauthorization, such as an
increased health coverage tax credit.
As debate moves forward, I hope that at least some of the key TAA
reforms in our bill will be considered and adopted. Several critical
reforms in the House Republican TAA bill were not included with the
House-passed language. They include providing more flexible training
options to get people back to work sooner, such as training before
layoffs, part-time training, and providing training scholarship for
workers to use over 4 years, provisions to enhance the capacity of
training providers, primarily community colleges to provide effective
training programs, new accountability measures for TAA program funds,
an extension and modernization of the Workforce Investment Act that
will better integrate it with TAA to expand services to all workers and
additional flexibility for States to operate UI programs that would
help workers get back on the job faster.
I also want to reiterate my opposition to how the majority paid for
the House-passed bill, and I hope we can revisit this issue as the
process moves ahead.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, I believe we should discuss TAA expansion in
the context of initiatives that would expand trade opportunities for
U.S. workers, farmers, and producers. We must pass all of our pending
trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea and reauthorize
trade promotion authority that allows the President a stronger hand to
negotiate these beneficial agreements in the first place.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, this is not the time to have any lengthy
debate about trade nor, I think, about TAA. But before I yield back my
time, since this is going to be a 3-month extension, and that means
there needs to be quick action and we intend to undertake it as soon as
we come back, I do want to emphasize a few points. Number one, the bill
that passed here addressed the issue of service workers. Essentially,
what Mr. Herger has referred to in his bill left the status quo and
left out virtually all service workers, and that is simply inadequate
and inappropriate.
It also did not touch the issue of funding. It did not streamline the
processes so many people today in the manufacturing field for example
when they lose their job because of trade simply can't work their way
through all of the red tape. Also it doesn't address the issues within
the unemployment compensation system and also doesn't refer to the
needs of communities especially hard hit in manufacturing areas.
So we should pass this bill with notice that we here on the majority
side intend to move quickly next year. I hope there can be a lot of
bipartisan discussion. We need to do it quickly.
Let me say one last thing about the gentleman from California's
statement about trade bills. We need to reform trade policy. We also
need to pass trade adjustment assistance, and the attempt to link the
two in terms of legislation simply will not work, and I don't think
should or will happen.
TAA can stand on its own feet. TAA is necessary for those thrown out
of work through no fault of their own because of the impact of trade.
And to try to use TAA as an instrumentality to push particular trade
bills simply shortchanges people in this country who lose their jobs,
communities that lose their base, firms that are left out because of
trade. Trade is not the only cause of dislocation in this country, but
it is a substantial cause that needs to be addressed by reforming trade
policy, number one, and we took major steps to begin to do that this
year on the majority side, and also to pass TAA.
So I hope Mr. Herger and the Republicans will join with us the first
3 months of next year, and let's get busy and pass TAA. I hope also
that the administration will drop its resistance and also stop trying
to use TAA as a bargaining tool. That is not fair to people who are
hurting economically through no fault of their own.
General Leave
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on H.R. 4341.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Michigan?
There was no objection.
Mr. LEVIN. I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 4341.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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