McCain amendment aims to cut funds for firms hurt by trade

Senate Democrats blasted Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain on Tuesday for attempting to strip a provision for a worker-assistance bill that helps U.S. firms hurt by international trade. 

McCain, who offered the amendment to a spending measure under consideration, questioned the spending of nearly $16 million on a program he says isn’t needed, and called its effectiveness called into question. 

{mosads}”We need to cut unnecessary spending in this program” while the nation faces a fiscal crisis, McCain said Tuesday afternoon on the Senate floor. 

President Obama previously had flagged the program within the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program for termination “because of its ineffectiveness.” McCain said “I hope that we would abide by the recommendation of the President of the United States.”

He acknowledged that passage of TAA was the “price for passage” of the three free-trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia, which cleared Congress on Wednesday and will be signed by the president on Friday. Lawmakers also passed the TAA bill, which helps workers who lose their jobs because of foreign trade. 

“This amendment only applies to the portion of the TAA program that the president and administration pointed out as being ineffective and recommended termination,” McCain said. “It would not destroy TAA.”

Still, Democrats, regardless of past recommendations from the White House, opposed the amendment. 

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) expressed support for the program because 98 percent of companies that have received funds — on average about $62,000 per firm — are in business more than five years later.

In 2010, the program helped 330 companies to devise new strategies that got them back on track, including identifying new markets, improving efficiency in production and restructuring their debt, lawmakers said. 

“We want to help small businesses improve their competitiveness, and we want to help small businesses take advantage of the opportunities that trade provides,” Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said on the floor.

The program has helped create or retain more than 50,000 manufacturing jobs since 2006, Baucus said. 

“Sen. McCain’s amendment would put these jobs at risk,” he said. “We should be creating jobs, not destroying them.” 

During the debate of TAA in September, McCain had argued for the streamlined version of the worker assistance program, calling for authorization at “pre-stimulus levels and not one dollar more.” 

Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski (Md.) joined fellow Democrats in calling for senators to vote against the amendment. 

“Without TAA many companies would be out of business,” she said.