TAA FACT SHEETS
As authorized under the
Recovery Act, the expanded Trade Adjustment Assistance
Program will lapse on December 31, 2010, unless Congress
takes action to extend the program. Click Here for
fact sheets prepared by the USDOL’s Employment and Training
Administration describing how state workforce agencies would
administer simultaneous programs.
The Trade Adjustment
Assistance (TAA) program provides benefits and support to
U.S. workers who become unemployed due to the impact of
international trade. U.S. workers who are adversely affected
by trade are afforded the opportunity to obtain the skills,
resources, and support they need to become reemployed. The
Trade and Globalization Adjustment Assistance Act of 2009, a
part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,
expanded the TAA program in several ways:
Ø
Expanded coverage to
more workers and firms, including workers in service firms
and workers whose jobs have been off-shored to any country;
Ø
Increased training,
health coverage, and other benefits available for TAA
certified workers;
Ø
Improved opportunities
for training and increased flexibility in program
requirements that allow more workers to participate in TAA;
and
Ø
Provided funding for
employment services and case management to better assist
trade-affected workers in finding new employment.
The expanded TAA program
sunsets on December 31, 2010, requiring the TAA program to
be administered as if these expansions had never existed,
starting January 1, 2011.
Under the sunset provision of
the expanded TAA program, workers covered by petitions filed
before January 1, 2011, whether the petitions are certified
before or after that date, would still be eligible to
receive the expanded benefits; however, the smaller group of
potentially eligible workers covered after that date under
narrower certification requirements would be subject to the
more limited benefits and services of the former TAA
program. Reversion to the former TAA program will result in:
Ø
A reduction in the
number of TAA certified workers,
eliminating eligibility of workers in service firms and
reducing access for workers whose jobs are threatened or
lost when production is shifted to countries not in a free
trade agreement with the U.S., such as India and China. From
May 18, 2009 to September 30, 2010, more than 155,000
workers were TAA certified under the expanded TAA program
who may not have been certified under the former TAA
program.
Ø
A general reduction
in benefits that
includes:
o
Certified workers must
wait until separation from employment in order to begin
training, even when lay-offs are announced in advance;
o
Workers will have less
time to research, identify, and enroll in training that
meets their particular training needs and labor market
demands;
o
Workers will have up to
26 fewer weeks of income support while enrolled in training
and there will be no option for part-time training. This
limits the ability to pursue longer-term training necessary
for securing good jobs in the 21st century economy;
o
A reduction in the
number of workers 50 years of age and older eligible for a
wage subsidy;
o
Training funding would
be cut by more than half, from $575 Million to $220 Million
and case management funds would be eliminated.
Ø
Removal of key
flexibilities that
may result in inefficiencies and disincentives, such as
workers losing income support due to more aggressive time
restraints and restrictions on training eligibility that
discourage placement in part-time work opportunities.
Ø
A reduction in
income support and health coverage benefits,
eliminating up to 26 weeks of income support for workers in
training and cutting the 80% health coverage tax credit (HCTC)
to only cover 65% of premium costs. For more information
about HCTC changes visit
www.irs.gov/hctc.
