Senate defeats amendment to roll back trade assistance benefits

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who offered the amendment, said he opposed the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program but that since the White House was demanding it as a prerequisite to passing FTAs with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, the Congress should pass a diminished version of it.

“It’s pretty simple,” said McCain of his amendment. “It would save at least $600 million a year on programs of questionable effectiveness.”

“As part of that massive piece of legislation [the stimulus] we made significant expansions and added at least $600 million more to the TAA program,” said McCain, speaking from the Senate floor. “This amendment would cut back to the pre-stimulus number.”

But Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) defended the expansion of the program, saying that cutting back any sort of benefits for the jobless while the economy is suffering from high unemployment would be foolish.

“This country has an extremely high unemployment rate and a lot of people are losing jobs, and some on the account of trade,” he said.

Baucus also argued that since TAA is part of a larger agreement among congressional leaders and the White House to pass three massive FTAs, any alteration could jeopardize the whole deal.