WASHINGTON - House Ways and Means Committee Democrats today voted unanimously in favor of an amendment offered by Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member Jim McDermott to attach the recently announced negotiated renewal of Trade Adjustment Assistance to the Panama FTA. The measure was voted down by Republicans. For nearly 50 years, Trade Adjustment Assistance has provided vital retraining and other assistance to displaced workers and until this year has been broadly supported by both Democrats and Republicans, so much so that former Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) singled it out in 2009 as a “shining example of bipartisanship." Only days ago, the Obama administration and congressional Republicans announced they had reached agreement to renew a slightly altered version of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program that was made law in 2009.
Congressman Sander Levin (D-MI), Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Committee, said: “Some Republicans have so wrongly stated that TAA picks winners and losers. No. TAA helps workers who have lost out from the impact of trade turn into winners again. … It has been said there is a deal, apparently between the Chairman of this Committee, the Chairman of the Finance Committee and the Administration. But then we are told it is a deal on substance and not on process. That isn’t a deal. … This vote is a message to the administration: Don’t proceed unless it is absolutely clear that TAA will happen. And there is only one way you can be sure that it will happen and that is to include it in an FTA." (Watch Levin’s speech in full here: https://j.mp/ookF87)
Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA), Ranking Member of the Trade Subcommittee, said: “In the 21st century, our trade agreements have to help workers. And, they have to help promote U.S. interests and values. Trade Adjustment Assistance is specifically designed to get these folks back on their feet and into new good paying jobs in sectors of the economy that are growing - we need to put ordinary workers and jobs first. Without TAA, it will be impossible for me to support any of the FTAs. I hope it does not come to this." (Watch McDermott’s speech in full here: https://j.mp/oLhBd5) #
