Manchin Votes to Support Workers Whose Jobs Have Been Lost to Foreign Trade

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) today voted to renew and extend Trade Adjustment Assistance, which provides needed training, assistance and job opportunities for West Virginians and any American worker who has lost their jobs because of foreign trade. While workers look for new jobs, Trade Adjustment Assistance offers several benefits and services, including job training, job search and relocation allowances, income support, and assistance with health care premium costs. 

“I continue to have concerns about free trade agreements and their impact on jobs here at home.” Senator Manchin said. “We need to ensure that American workers can compete on a level playing field around the globe. That is what I am for.

“In the meantime, American workers who have lost their jobs need our support. As I have said time and again, West Virginians don’t want a handout, we want a work permit. Workers who have lost their jobs because the federal government is pushing a free trade policy should be given new training and assistance that will give them and their families a real second chance.”

Background: 

• Senator Manchin voted for the Casey-Brown (Ohio)-Baucus Amendment #633 to extend Trade Adjustment Assistance, which passed 69-28 with bipartisan support. 

• TAA was passed as an amendment to H.R. 2832, which would provide for an extension of the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, which provides duty-free tariff treatment to certain products imported from designated countries. The program was implemented to stimulate U.S. exports in developing country markets and to provide trade and development in those countries. GSP expired on December 31, 2010, which means many U.S. companies have had to pay these tariffs in 2011. 

• The underlying bill – H.R. 2832 – passed by a vote of 70-27. 

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