Jay Inslee: Washington's 1st Congressional District
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Legislation to Help Hi-Tech Workers Who Lose Jobs to Outsourcing
18 February 2004
U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee and Adam Smith announced new legislation (HR 3881) that will provide comprehensive assistance to hi-tech workers who lose their jobs due to outsourcing. This legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives by U.S. Reps. Adam Smith, Jay Inslee and Charles Rangel, and will be introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senator Max Baucus.
The Trade Adjustment Assistance program (TAA) provides income support, job training, job searching and relocation assistance, and health care tax credits to workers who have lost their jobs due to foreign trade. Currently, TAA is available only to workers in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors; for example, thousands of local ex-Boeing employees recently received help from TAA due to an increase in the domestic-market share of Airbus. The new legislation would extend TAA to cover displaced service workers, such as software programmers and other hi-tech workers.
Said Inslee, "There is a clear and abiding need to extend this benefit to people who lose their jobs in the service sector. It is imperative to close the loophole in the law." Smith commented, "This legislation is critical to those in the service sector who are losing jobs due to offshore outsourcing. There is a fundamental need to enact legislation that recognizes the reality of our changing economy."
[ Text of the legislation ] (Adobe Acrobat *).
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Inslee explains the legislation to the press. Behind him stand Kim Rainboth,a was recently laid off tech worker , Mary Jo Shannon (in red), Director of Training and Organizational Development for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), and Steve Gentry, a former Boeing hi-tech worker who is still looking for a new job. Wash TECH and SPEEA brought these two currently-unemployed workers to Inslee's attention.