[CTC] TAA fight on the horizon

[Arthur Stamoulis]

POLITICO: TAA fight on the horizon

 By Victoria Guida | 04/26/2016 06:00 AM EDT

With help from Doug Palmer and Hans von der Burchard

TAA FIGHT ON THE HORIZON? Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said Monday that it's still possible there could be a TPP vote in the lame-duck session after the election, despite criticisms of the trade model in the presidential election. But more intriguingly, he also said lawmakers might consider improvements to trade adjustment assistance as part of a package including implementing legislation for the Asia-Pacific deal.

He said the government needs to "pay more attention" to people who are hurt by trade deals and "try to make sure that the programs like [TAA] are actually meaningful in terms of letting them transition into new jobs ... rather than just seeing them as a casualty of trade," Cornyn told reporters after an event on U.S.-India relations.

TAA offers re-training and unemployment benefits for workers whose jobs have been outsourced. When asked if Congress might consider updates to TAA along with TPP implementing legislation, the Texas Republican responded, "Sure."

"I think there's really nothing set in stone, and Congress can make further adjustments as necessary in order to build consensus," he said. "Right now, we're just going to have to wait and see what happens in the presidential election." He also said there's "still a lot that needs to be done" to fix TPP, citing his personal complaints with the level of patent protection for biologics.

Meanwhile, a veteran trade policy specialist vented his frustration over the U.S. government's failure to help manufacturing workers recover from the trauma of lost jobs. "Trade adjustment assistance is paltry, pathetic, puny," Bob Vastine, a senior industry fellow at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, said during a discussion on Capitol Hill. "It's really a patch and I think in a new administration, if we're going to proceed with a liberal trade policy, we really have to address that issue."


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