Draft Bill Spurs Talk About Trade-Related Job Aid
By Aliya Sternstein

Draft legislation intended to aid employees left jobless due to international trade has garnered the admiration of the U.S. technology industry but strikes some tech workers as inadequate.

On Friday, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee released a discussion draft of a bill that would overhaul the Trade Adjustment Assistance program to, as they say, better meet the needs of those affected by globalization.

The bill would expand coverage to service-sector employees, including workers in the high-tech and telecommunications industries. Today, TAA only offers income support and training to workers who are involved in producing goods. Most programmers and other tech professionals are excluded -- even though some of their jobs also are being moved abroad.

Roger Cochetti, the U.S. policy director of Computing Technology Industry Association, said Tuesday that the bill responds to all the concerns his organization has expressed about assistance for information technology workers in the 21st century.

"The adverse political impact of more open trade in services would be significantly reduced" under the bill, thereby helping the U.S. tech industry grow, he said. And U.S. tech workers would get training to make them more competitive in the job market.