IFPTE Tells House Ways and Means that Trade Adjustment Assistance Must Be Included in Tariff Legislation
This week, IFPTE President Matt Biggs and Secretary-Treasurer Gay Henson sent a letter to House Ways and Means Committee leaders urging them to reauthorize the all-important Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program.
TAA, which was established in 1974 to assist workers who have lost their jobs or could lose their jobs due to trade, sunset in June 2022 when Congress failed to reauthorize it. IFPTE sent the letter for the Committee’s consideration of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Reform Act and its failure to include TAA renewal in the bill noting that the underlying legislation, “is unbalanced as it does not provide the trade-impacted workers throughout America with job training, reemployment support, relocation resources, and other benefits that comprise TAA…”, and needs to be amended, “to include TAA.”
IFPTE also shared the letter with all Ways and Means Committee Members and urged lawmakers to request the inclusion of TAA in the GSP Reform Act and to vote against the bill if TAA renewal is not included.