TAA provides a vital lifeline: Opposing view

Since 1974, the Trade Adjustment Assistance program has provided a lifeline to more than 2.2 million workers who have lost their jobs due to globalization. Without congressional action to renew and expand the program, these vital services will expire soon.

Data show that the TAA program works. In the most recent fiscal year, nearly 77% of participants found employment within six months of completion; nearly 90% of those who found work were still employed six months later.

Critics of the program often base their criticism on outdated studies that looked at the program before important enhancements were added. Those enhancements, which lapsed last year, must be reinstated by Congress to give workers the tools they need.

The bill before Congress is a strong version of the program that would provide opportunities to affected workers in the service sector, the fastest-growing sector of the economy. An estimated 17,500 service workers who have been shut out of the program since the beginning of 2014 would be automatically reconsidered.

The bill would also enable TAA to cover workers impacted by shifts in production to countries that are not in a free trade agreement with the U.S., such as China and India. It would fund individualized case management services and support workers while in training. And with a six-year extension, TAA would cover, on average, 100,000 workers each year.

Who benefits from TAA? About 56% have a high school diploma or less. Their average age is nearly 50. Their average tenure before being laid off? Twelve years. In fiscal 2014, about a quarter of participants were re-employed in manufacturing; thousands of others got jobs in other sectors such as health care and IT.

The program has been a lifeline for people such as Michael, who was laid off as a machinist at a New York auto plant after 17 years. Through TAA, he enrolled in a respiratory therapy training program. Two years later, he graduated with honors, earned a license to practice and now earns more than he did before.

Congress must ensure that workers like Michael won't be left out in the cold.

Thomas E. Perez is the secretary of Labor.