[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 190 (Wednesday, December 12, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2547]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             TRADE ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM EXTENSION

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 11, 2007

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, with the loss of approximately three 
million manufacturing jobs in the United States since 2001, many 
families know the effects of increased foreign imports and the 
outsourcing of their jobs all too well. HCTC was created to ensure that 
our constituents who lost these good manufacturing jobs would still be 
able to afford health insurance for themselves and their families. It 
is unjust for our constituents who have lost these jobs to additionally 
endure lost or inadequate health insurance because it is unaffordable.
  Unfortunately the spouse of the wage earner will suffer the 
devastating loss of this needed financial assistance to obtain health 
care coverage when the qualifying wage earner becomes Medicare 
eligible. The current eligibility requirements for the HCTC program 
leave a Medicare ineligible spouse without continued assistance under 
the HCTC, which in far too many cases means being left entirely without 
health care insurance.
  I am pleased that language was included in H.R. 3920, the Trade and 
Globalization Act of 2007, a bill to reauthorize the Trade Adjustment 
Assistance Act that corrects this loophole and ensures that spouses and 
widows will remain eligible for the HCTC. The House of Representatives 
passed H.R. 3920 on October 31, 2007; however, this bill has not yet 
become public law. Consequently, today the House will consider an 
extension of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act through March 31, 
2007.
  As our constituents wait for H.R. 3920 to become law, there are still 
those who are losing their eligibility for the HCTC and in danger of 
losing health care coverage for their spouses. As more wage earners 
approach Medicare eligibility, they fear for the well-being of their 
spouses and incur mounting stress and anxiety. Passage of this 
legislation is urgently needed to put an end to these hardships. An 
extension of the current Trade Adjustment Assistance Act will not 
ensure that our deserving constituents remain eligible for the HCTC. I 
urge this body to make certain that the reauthorization of Trade 
Adjustment Assistance is passed into public law in the urgent manner 
necessary to protect hard-working Americans.




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