The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has awarded almost $20 million in funds for training and employment services to qualified employees adversely affected by international commerce in 45 states and Puerto Rico.
The funds follow $201.8 million in awards made in June as the Labor Department’s final disbursement of funding to states under the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) for Workers Program for fiscal year 2022, a DOL news release said this week.
“Trade adjustment assistance provides a safety net for workers whose jobs are sent overseas and helps them return to the workforce,” Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said in the release.
The affected workers often are among the nation’s most vulnerable, the secretary added. They often are less educated, older, more diverse and highly tenured. Help from Congress to reauthorize the TAA Program will enable the Labor Department to show that the government works for these workers and others displaced from their jobs by foreign competition.
In the absence of congressional action, the TAA Program entered a phased termination status on July 1, the release said. The program can only provide benefits and services to eligible workers whose applications were certified before July 1. The program will remain in termination until the final eligible worker is covered by the program or until Congress reauthorizes the program so that new petitions can be taken for affected workers' coverage.
