[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 7209-7210]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      TRADE ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE

  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to 
support the reauthorization of trade adjustment assistance, which is 
included in the bill we are now considering. I urge my colleagues to 
oppose any attempt to curtail this vital program.
  Trade adjustment assistance--better known as TAA--plays an essential 
role in helping hard-working Americans who through no fault of their 
own lose their jobs as the result of what is often unfair foreign 
competition. TAA programs enable displaced workers to acquire the new 
skills, the new training necessary to prepare for jobs in other 
industries.
  I am proud to have authored the bipartisan legislation with Senator 
Ron Wyden to reauthorize TAA that is included in the bill before us. 
Our legislation forms the basis of the TAA provisions that are included 
in this bill.
  Maine workers have been hit particularly hard by mill closures and 
shuttered factories. In the last 15 years,

[[Page 7210]]

Maine has lost 38 percent of its manufacturing jobs, nearly 31,000 jobs 
in total. While not all of those job losses are due to increased and 
unfair foreign competition, there is no doubt that workers in the 
manufacturing sector in Maine have been harmed by the outsourcing of 
their good-paying jobs to countries with much lower wages and 
environmental standards.
  This last year was particularly difficult for workers in Maine's pulp 
and paper industry. In just the past year alone, the communities of 
Lincoln, East Millinocket, and Bucksport have all experienced 
devastating job losses due to the closures of paper mills. Those mills 
have been the financial anchors of those small towns, providing good 
jobs for generations of families. The second- and third-order economic 
effects on other businesses and their employees in those small 
communities are also significant.
  In times of such great upheaval, laid-off employees need the time, 
the support, and the resources to learn the skills that will enable 
them to seek and secure new employment opportunities. These are skilled 
Americans who are eager to get back to work and who, with the right 
training, support, and opportunity, can find new jobs in in-demand 
fields.
  Just this spring, I visited the Eastern Maine Community College in 
Bangor. I had the opportunity to talk with a group of students who are 
former employees of the Verso paper mill in Bucksport, which closed 
down last year completely unexpectedly. It was a huge and terrible 
surprise to the workers and to the community and surrounding area. But 
because of trade adjustment assistance, these former workers with whom 
I talked are now enrolled in a fine-furniture making program and are 
learning new skills for new jobs.
  I was so impressed with their determination and their attitude. It is 
very difficult, if you have not been in school for decades, to enroll 
in a whole new field of study, but that is exactly what these laid-off 
workers were doing. Their determination to start new careers after 
years of working at the mill in Bucksport was inspiring. Each of them 
was enrolled thanks to the support provided by the Trade Adjustment 
Assistance Program. Without that program, they would not have had the 
funding, the support, and the resources necessary to enable them to do 
a midlife career change.
  Similarly, last year in Lincoln, ME, I met a woman who had spent many 
years working at the local tissue mill. This mill had a cycle of ups 
and downs over the years. When it was closed for a time years ago, this 
woman was thrown out of work, but her story had a happy ending. Through 
TAA, she was able to learn new skills and find employment as a nursing 
home administrator, where she has been happily employed for a decade. 
It took a lot of courage for this woman who had been employed as a mill 
worker for many years to go into an entirely new career field, but she 
did so. She encouraged her fellow workers to recognize that through the 
Trade Adjustment Assistance Program, they too could find new skills, 
retrain in an area completely different from the work they had been 
doing, and have a happy ending.
  Her story was inspiring. Because of TAA, for 10 years she has been 
providing for her family and contributing to her community. What a 
great return on investment. It would not have been possible without 
TAA. There are many more success stories like this one.
  I thank Secretary Perez for expediting the TAA assistance these 
workers who are newly displaced have needed.
  I would also note that since Maine is the State with the oldest 
median age in the Nation, this woman really picked a very good field in 
which to enroll. As a nursing home administrator, her skills are going 
to be in demand as we see the changing demographics not only of the 
State of Maine but of our Nation.
  TAA programs have made a tremendous difference in the lives of those 
I have described, in the lives of those working in trade-affected 
industries in Maine, such as pulp and paper manufacturing, textile, and 
shoe production.
  In fiscal year 2013 alone, more than 700 Mainers have benefited from 
the TAA programs, and more than 70 percent of the TAA participants in 
Maine have found employment within 3 months of completing their 
retraining programs made possible by TAA. Even more encouraging, of 
these participants who found employment, more than 90 percent were 
still employed in their new jobs 6 months later. Without TAA, it is 
very unlikely that would have happened.
  Assisting American workers who are negatively affected by 
international trade--particularly when they are competing with workers 
with lower wages in countries with lower wages and lower environmental 
standards or none at all--is vitally important and the right thing to 
do.
  In Maine, the effects of free-trade agreements have been decidedly 
mixed. While some past agreements have brought benefits to my State in 
the form of lowered tariffs on Maine products such as potatoes, 
lobster, and wild blueberries, jobs in many other industries have 
suffered terrible losses as a result of unfair foreign competition.
  Our workers are the best in the world, and they can compete when 
there is a level playing field, but oftentimes they are competing 
against industries in developing countries that are paying lower wages, 
that don't have to comply with any kind of environmental standards, and 
that are often subsidized by those governments--and that is not fair.
  The least we can do is to reauthorize the trade adjustment programs 
which are successfully helping to retrain and reemploy American 
workers. That is a commonsense way we can help workers recover from the 
blows inflicted by some unfair trade agreements, so these Americans can 
start new jobs and new lives with fresh skills.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to support the reauthorization of trade 
adjustment assistance and to oppose any amendments to end these vital 
programs.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Flake). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________