In a piece of mixed news, the expired Trade Adjustment Assistance program will be separated from the trade deals but taken up before the trade deals are voted on:
The Trade Adjustment Assistance program augments health and unemployment benefits to workers who lose their jobs because of overseas competition. As part of the stimulus legislation in 2009, it was expanded to include service workers such as call- center employees. The added benefits expired in February.The proposal from the White House, which Reid committed to consider, would continue most of those benefits through 2013, and provide retroactive assistance to those left out so far this year. It?s forecast to cost $320 million in each of the next two years.
President Barack Obama wanted to have Congress consider worker-aid program as part of the South Korea deal, the biggest of the three accords. With the deal between Reid and McConnell, trade adjustment assistance will be considered separately and before the vote on the free-trade agreements, according to the statement.
Once again we get bipartisan compromise when it comes to workers, and straightforward passage when it comes to things that hurt workers. In this case, it would be better if trade adjustment assistance was part and parcel of the trade agreements, but at least if it's done beforehand it's less likely to be totally dropped in the wake of trade deal passage, and we get each and every member of Congress on the record about whether they support aid for the workers whose jobs they then vote to have shipped overseas.
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