Workers in today’s economy face new and increasing challenges due to a variety of factors. Gone are the days when employees can plan on working for the same company for their entire career and retire with benefits.
Workers will change jobs more often. They also have to stay up to date on their training and education to compete with workers from other countries.
In order to help workers and their families in times of displacement, our national policies should help families maintain a source of income, get training for their next job and keep health care coverage.
The Trade Adjustment Assistance program (TAA) is one critically important initiative that addresses the needs of workers impacted by trade. TAA was created in 1962 to fund worker retraining and health care benefits during unemployment caused by global competition. It’s a good program that can be a great help to eligible workers affected by the growing pains of the global economy.
TAA needs to be modernized, however, to meet the demands of the dynamic global economy. The program has been insufficiently funded, and it does not reach all of the workers that need it, including service-sector workers.
The TAA program currently excludes service-sector workers such as software engineers from receiving assistance because they do not produce “articles” – tangible, physical products. So while a farmworker in the Puyallup Valley could obtain trade adjustment assistance, a programmer at Microsoft would not.
This distinction between workers who produce articles and service-sector workers is particularly important in our area. Workers in the aerospace, software, financial and legal services fields are essential to the South Sound economy, and in today’s economy they are just as likely as manufacturing or agricultural workers to be affected by global trade.
Also, the Health Care Tax Credit included in the TAA program is underutilized due to high cost and confusing eligibility requirements. Out-of-pocket health care costs for unemployed workers receiving the benefit are so high that many workers could not afford them. That’s been an unaffordable burden for unemployed workers, and a recent report from the Government Accountability Office supports that conclusion.
The good news is that Congress is focused on expanding and modernizing the TAA program. The House Ways and Means Committee is holding hearings on the challenge of global trade, and in the coming weeks the House will consider measures to make sure that our TAA program is not only comprehensive but well-targeted.
House Democrats understand that the United States must provide support for workers facing an ever more competitive global marketplace. It is critical that we expand the TAA program to cover service-sector workers and fix the roadblocks for eligible workers seeking to get assistance so that our region can continue its robust competition on the world stage.
U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, represents the 9th Congressional District. Marcus Courtney, president of WashTech/CWA (Communications Workers of America), is a union leader in opposing the offshoring of U.S. high-tech jobs.
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