[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 25]
[House]
[Pages 33708-33710]
[From the U.S. 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,''.

[[Page 33709]]

       (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, 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,

[[Page 33710]]

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. 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.
  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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