H.R. 7805 — Trade Adjustment Assistance Modernization Act

This section modifies the entities authorized to file petitions for certification of eligibility to apply for trade adjustment assistance (TAA) for a group of workers by (1) allowing one or more workers in the group, rather than the group of workers, to file; and (2) adding workforce intermediaries—including labor-management organizations that carry out re-employment and training services—to the list of eligible filers under one-stop operators or partners. (TAA provides retraining, job search allowances, and other benefits to workers displaced by foreign trade competition or production shifts abroad.)

This section revises the eligibility criteria for certifying groups of workers (including agricultural workers) as eligible for trade adjustment assistance (TAA) under Section 222 of the Trade Act of 1974 as follows: (1) in subsection (a)(2)(A)(i), expands the sales or production criterion to include cases where such sales or production have failed to increase or will decrease absolutely due to a scheduled or imminently anticipated long-term decrease in or reallocation of the firm's production capacity (previously, only absolute decreases); (2) in subsection (a)(2)(A)(iii), revises the contribution requirement to cover workers' separation or threat thereof and any decline or absence of increase in sales or production (previously, the decline); (3) adds subsection (a)(2)(C), under which workers are eligible if the firm's sales or production decreased, the firm's exports decreased or imports of articles or services necessary for the firm's production decreased, and such decrease contributed to the workers' separation or threat thereof and the firm's sales or production decline; (4) throughout subsections (a) and (b), replaces the requirement that increased imports, production shifts, or other factors "contributed importantly" with "contributed" (thus, lowering the causation standard); and (5) in subsection (c), strikes paragraph (1) and redesignates paragraphs (2) through (4) as paragraphs (1) through (3). This section further amends Section 222 to add subsection (f), which includes staffed workers (i.e., those under the operational control of the petitioned firm though employed by another firm) and teleworkers (i.e., remote workers reporting to the petitioned firm's location) as workers of the firm for purposes of primary eligibility determinations under subsection (a). (TAA provides benefits such as trade readjustment allowances, training, and reemployment services to workers separated or threatened with separation due to trade-related causes.)

This section establishes eligibility under Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) certifications for workers of a successor-in-interest to a firm. (TAA provides retraining, income support, and other benefits to workers in firms adversely affected by imports or shifts in production to foreign countries; thus, such workers are covered by the original firm's certification to the same extent as its own workers.)

This section revises requirements under the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program for the Secretary of Labor to inform workers covered by a certification of adversely affected employment about available benefits, training, and services by (1) requiring the Secretary to make every effort to provide such information and assistance in workers' native languages; (2) requiring a second mailed notice to such workers before they exhaust rights to unemployment insurance (excluding state-funded additional compensation under section 231(a)(3)(B) not reimbursed by federal funds); (3) directing publication of benefit notices in appropriate print or digital outlets in affected areas (from newspapers of general circulation); and (4) authorizing the Secretary to conduct sustained outreach, including collecting workers' email addresses and phone numbers from employers, partnering with unions or community-based worker organizations, hiring peer support workers, and using social media or public campaigns. (TAA provides trade-impacted workers with income support, training, job search assistance, and relocation allowances.)

This section eliminates the requirement under section 231(a)(2) of the Trade Act of 1974 for trade readjustment allowance (TRA) eligibility that a worker have, in the 52-week period ending with total or partial separation, at least 26 weeks of employment at wages of $30 or more a week in adversely affected employment with a single firm (with certain weeks, such as employer-authorized leave or disability, treated as qualifying weeks up to specified limits); redesignates paragraphs (3), (4), and (5) as paragraphs (2), (3), and (4), respectively; and makes conforming amendments to sections 232 and 233 to update cross-references. (TRA provides weekly cash benefits to workers certified as adversely affected by trade who have exhausted unemployment insurance.) The section also expands waivers from the TRA training requirement under section 231(c)(1) by adding two new grounds—(1) the worker has been notified of recall to the firm from which separated, and (2) the worker is within two years of eligibility for old-age insurance benefits under the Social Security Act or an employer- or labor organization-sponsored private pension (except for application)—and redesignating the existing waivers accordingly.

This section modifies maximum durations of trade readjustment allowances (TRA) payable to adversely affected workers under the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which provides income support to workers displaced by international trade. Specifically, the section— (1) in subsection (a)(2), extends from 104 weeks to 130 weeks the period after separation beyond which TRA is not payable, for workers requiring prerequisite or remedial education (as described in section 236(a)(5)(D)) to complete training approved under section 236; (2) in subsection (a)(3), increases additional TRA payable to complete approved training from 65 weeks in a 78-week period to 78 weeks in a 91-week period (and makes a conforming change to the flush text); (3) strikes subsection (d); and (4) replaces subsection (f) with a new provision authorizing, notwithstanding other limits, up to 26 additional weeks of TRA in a 26-week period following the last week of other TRA entitlement, to assist workers requiring prerequisite or remedial education to complete section 236 training.

This section establishes an automatic extension of trade readjustment allowances (TRA)—weekly cash benefits for workers adversely affected by trade and enrolled in approved training under the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program—beyond limits in current law (19 U.S.C. 2291 et seq.). The extension applies to workers completing such training during a period of heightened unemployment in their state (defined as a 90-day period in which the Secretary of Labor determines the average seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the most recent three months equals or exceeds 5.5% in either that state or nationally), lasts for the shorter of 26 weeks from training completion or until securing employment, and requires compliance with the state's unemployment insurance job search rules.

This section expands employment and case management services for workers eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA)—which provides reemployment aid to U.S. workers adversely affected by trade—under Section 235 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2295) as follows: (1) in paragraph (3), requiring information on regional areas to include registered apprenticeship programs, on-the-job training opportunities, and other work-based learning opportunities, and information on suitable training to include each training provider's track record of placing participants into suitable employment; (2) redesignating paragraph (8) as paragraph (10); and (3) inserting new paragraphs (8) and (9) after paragraph (7) to require (8) information on direct job placement, including employer commitments to hire covered workers, and (9) sustained outreach to workers likely to be certified for TAA (especially from underserved communities) and certified workers not yet enrolled in benefits or services.

This section modifies training approval criteria under the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers program (19 U.S.C. 2296) by (1) requiring that governmental or private training sources have a demonstrated ability to place participants into employment; (2) directing that every effort be made to ensure employment opportunities are available upon training completion, notwithstanding that such opportunities need not be immediately available or offered; and (3) adding pre-apprenticeship training to the list of approved training programs. The section also authorizes the Secretary of Labor to reimburse adversely affected workers for out-of-pocket expenses related to approved training programs that are incurred on or after the date of the worker's total or partial separation and before issuance of the worker's eligibility certification under section 222.

This section revises job search allowances under section 237 of the Trade Act of 1974 by (1) requiring states to use funds available for sections 235 through 238A as necessary to provide such allowances (previously discretionary use of funds for sections 235 through 238); (2) requiring approval of allowances meeting criteria (previously may grant); (3) increasing the federal reimbursement rate to 100 percent (from not more than 90 percent); and (4) increasing the maximum allowance to $2,000 (from $1,250), subject to annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustments by the Secretary of Labor beginning 30 days after enactment (using FY2025 as the base year, rounding increases to the nearest dollar, and ignoring increases under 1 percent). Parallel revisions are made to relocation allowances under section 238. This section establishes child and other dependent care allowances under new section 238A of the Trade Act, requiring states to use funds available for sections 235 through 238A as necessary and authorizing the Secretary of Labor to grant up to $2,000 per minor dependent per year (subject to the same CPI adjustment process) to assist adversely affected workers covered by a trade adjustment assistance certification in attending training or seeking employment by covering dependent care costs. (As background, these allowances under the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers program support workers displaced by foreign trade competition.) The section makes conforming amendments to update statutory references to sections 235 through 238A, including in prior provisions on administrative expenses and services (19 U.S.C. 2295a) and training approvals (19 U.S.C. 2296).

This section amends state agreement requirements under the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers program (TAA)—which provides trade-impacted workers with income support, training, and reemployment services—by (1) requiring cooperating state agencies, when arranging training, to measure progress toward specified outcomes including satisfactory completion and living-wage placement rates, skill development for career advancement, service to underserved communities facing employment barriers (e.g., low-income individuals, people of color, immigrants, persons with disabilities, formerly incarcerated), and reemployment upon training completion; (2) directing agencies to facilitate cooperation among training programs, workers, employers, and communities for fair workplaces; (3) adding agency duties to review layoffs of more than 5 workers for trade impacts and TAA eligibility, conduct sustained outreach to firms for petitions and to underserved workers for barrier mitigation plans, engage local workforce institutions, and develop staffing strategies; and (4) requiring non-inherently governmental TAA functions to be performed by merit-system state employees.

This section modifies the reemployment trade adjustment assistance (RTAA) program—which provides wage-loss payments (50% of the difference between prior and reemployment wages) for up to two years to trade-impacted workers age 50 or older who secure full-time reemployment within 26 weeks of separation—by (1) increasing the annual reemployment wage eligibility cap to $70,000 (from $50,000), and (2) increasing the maximum payment amount under paragraph (5)(B)(i) to $20,000 (from $10,000). It further adds a new paragraph (8) requiring the Secretary of Labor to adjust both amounts for inflation using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, initially 30 days after enactment and annually at the start of each fiscal year thereafter (with fiscal year 2025 as the base year, rounding to the nearest dollar, and ignoring increases below 1%).

This section extends trade adjustment assistance eligibility to workers in public agencies (i.e., departments or agencies of state, local, or federal government) by establishing certification criteria if (1) a significant number or proportion of such workers have become totally or partially separated, or are threatened with separation; (2) the public agency has acquired from a foreign country services like or directly competitive with services supplied by the agency; and (3) such acquisition contributed to the workers' separation or threat thereof. It further (1) defines "public agency"; (2) clarifies that the term "firm" excludes public agencies for purposes of existing eligibility criteria under subsections (a) and (b); and (3) makes conforming changes to definitions and cross-references. (As background, trade adjustment assistance provides benefits such as training, cash payments, and health coverage to workers certified as adversely affected by trade-related causes.)

This section amends the definitions applicable to the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) for Workers program (i.e., income support, training, and reemployment services for workers separated from employment due to trade competition), as follows: (1) expands the definition of "State" to include Guam, the Virgin Islands of the United States, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, in addition to the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (thus extending TAA eligibility to workers in those territories); and (2) adds a definition of "underserved community" as a community with populations sharing a particular characteristic that have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, or civic life, such as Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, other persons of color, members of other minority communities, persons with disabilities, persons who live in rural areas, and other populations otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.

This section directs the Secretary of Labor to establish requirements modifying provisions of the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers program—including eligibility for trade readjustment allowances (TRA) and limits on administrative expenditures—to address the particular circumstances of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. (As background, the program provides TRA and other benefits such as job training and relocation allowances to workers certified as adversely affected by foreign trade; thus, these territories may receive adjusted implementation rules.)

This section amends subpoena authority under the Trade Act of 1974 by authorizing states to require, by subpoena, firms to provide information on workers employed by or totally or partially separated from the firm—including names and addresses—necessary for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) determinations or worker outreach. It further establishes state enforcement mechanisms for such subpoenas, including under state law or by petitioning an appropriate U.S. district court for a compliance order.

This section revises the petition process and eligibility criteria for certification of firms to receive Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) under the Trade Act of 1974, as follows: (1) requires the Secretary of Commerce to publish notice in the Federal Register of a petition's receipt and investigation initiation not later than 15 days after receipt (previously, promptly upon receipt); (2) expands eligibility to service sector firms (in addition to production and agricultural firms) and revises certification criteria to require either worker separations or threats thereof, or specified declines or failures to increase in the firm's sales or production (or those of a principal article or service representing at least 25% of total sales or production) compared to the prior 24- or 36-month average, with such effects contributed to by either import increases of like or directly competitive articles or services, or decreases in the firm's exports or imports of production inputs (previously, required absolute sales or production declines with import increases contributing "importantly"); and (3) deems a firm eligible if the Secretary does not determine eligibility within 55 days of investigation initiation (previously, no such deeming provision). (TAA for Firms provides technical assistance to help import-impacted firms restructure and compete.)

This section amends the application and approval process for technical assistance under the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms program (i.e., aid to U.S. firms harmed by import competition) by (1) requiring applications to include an assessment of the potential employment outcomes of the firm's economic adjustment proposal; (2) revising the approval criterion in 19 U.S.C. 2342(b)(1)(B) from giving adequate consideration to worker interests to being in such interests; and (3) establishing a $300,000 limit on assistance per firm (previously uncapped), subject to annual adjustment for increases in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers from FY2025 levels (with increases under 1% ignored and rounded to the nearest dollar), and a matching funds requirement equal to the assistance received. (Thus, the prior termination provision is redesignated as subsection (d).)

This section expands technical assistance for implementing economic adjustment proposals under the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms program to include skills training programs for the firm's employees. (The program provides technical assistance to U.S. firms certified as adversely affected by increased imports or shifts in production abroad.)

This section adds to the definitions applicable to Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms a definition of “underserved community” as having the meaning given that term in section 247.

This section requires the Secretary of Commerce to develop a plan for sustained outreach to firms potentially eligible for adjustment assistance under chapter 3 of title II of the Trade Act of 1974 (i.e., Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms, which provides technical assistance to U.S. firms harmed by increased imports). The plan must include (1) outreach to the U.S. International Trade Commission and firms in industries with increased imports identified in the Commission's annual trade agreements report; (2) outreach to service sector firms; (3) outreach to small businesses; (4) outreach to minority- or women-owned firms; and (5) outreach to firms employing a majority or substantial percentage of workers from underserved communities. The Secretary must update the plan annually and submit the plan and updates to Congress.

This section establishes a new Subchapter A—Trade Adjustment Assistance for Communities in Chapter 4 of title II of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2371 et seq.), designates the existing chapter content as Subchapter B—Trade Adjustment Assistance for Community Colleges and Career Training, and redesignates former sections 271 and 272 as sections 279 and 279A, respectively. (As background, existing Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) programs provide aid to workers certified under section 223, firms under section 251, and agricultural commodity producers under section 293 when trade causes job losses or economic harm; this new program extends TAA to affected communities via the Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA).) It directs the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Assistant Secretary for Economic Development, to establish the program within 180 days of enactment to award grants to eligible communities for developing or updating strategic plans (per section 275 requirements) and to eligible entities (i.e., eligible communities, institutions of higher education or consortia, or public/private nonprofits cooperating with local officials) for implementing such plans' projects. Eligibility requires a community to be impacted by trade via a certification under an existing TAA program; an application within 180 days of that certification (or, for certifications since January 1, 1994, by September 30, 2029); and either a per capita income of 80% or less of the national average, an unemployment rate at least 1% above the national average over the most recent 24-month period, or significant job loss/threat or economic transition due to trade as determined by the Secretary. Certifying agencies must notify the relevant state governor of application eligibility. Grant provisions include requirements to maintain revolving loan funds' operation and integrity (with flexibility for amendments, consolidations, asset transfers for liquidation, and no new obligations post-disbursement) and allow savings from decreased construction project costs to remain available (text incomplete).

This section revises the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) grants program for community colleges and career training (i.e., grants to eligible institutions to develop and offer training programs for TAA-eligible workers and their families) by broadening eligibility to "eligible entities," defined to include an eligible institution or a consortium of eligible institutions; increasing the maximum grant amount to $2.5 million (from $1 million) for an eligible institution; and establishing a new maximum grant amount of $15 million for a consortium of eligible institutions. The section further (1) requires recipients to use at least 15% of grant funds for student support and emergency services (e.g., childcare, transportation, mental health services, direct financial assistance, coaching); (2) directs the Secretary of Labor to ensure grants effectively serve individuals from underserved communities (as defined in section 247 of the Trade Act), including by developing and annually updating an outreach plan submitted to Congress; (3) requires the Secretary to award grants to eligible entities from geographically diverse areas; and (4) authorizes grants to support industry or sector partnerships to develop or expand quality academic programs and curricula.

This section revises definitions applicable to the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Farmers program (19 U.S.C. 2401)—which provides cash benefits and technical assistance to eligible agricultural producers whose prices or production quantities have declined due to import competition—by (1) striking the definition of "contributed importantly" (previously, a cause that is important but not necessarily more important than any other cause, as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture); (2) redesignating paragraphs (4) through (7) as paragraphs (3) through (6), respectively; and (3) adding a new paragraph (7) defining "underserved community" with the meaning given that term in section 247.

This section revises group eligibility requirements for Trade Adjustment Assistance certification for agricultural commodity producers by lowering the required national average price decline threshold to less than 80 percent of the five-year average (from 85 percent) and adding an alternative to import increases as a contributing cause. Specifically, the Secretary must now certify a group if the price condition is met and either (1) imports of competing articles increased and contributed importantly to the price decline or (2) exports of the producers' commodity declined compared to the average of the prior three marketing years and such decline contributed to the price decline, a decline in production quantity, production value, or cash receipts. (Thus, this expands eligibility beyond import competition to include export-related losses.) The section also strikes "importantly" from the contribution standard for certain non-price factors, adds "or exports" to the definition of a qualified commodity, and makes related structural changes.

This section directs the Secretary to develop a plan to conduct targeted sustained outreach and offer assistance to agricultural commodity producers from underserved communities.

This section modifies Trade Adjustment Assistance for agricultural commodity producers (i.e., cash payments, technical assistance, and other support for producers whose net farm income declines due to import competition in certified commodities) by (1) extending the application filing period to 120 days after certification (from 90 days), (2) increasing specified benefit amounts to $12,000 (from $4,000) in subsection (b)(3)(B) and to $24,000 (from $8,000) in subsection (b)(4)(C), (3) increasing the amount in subsection (c) to $36,000 (from $12,000), and (4) requiring the Secretary of Agriculture to annually adjust all dollar amount limitations for inflation based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (beginning 30 days after enactment, using FY2025 as the base year, with increases under 1% ignored and rounding to the nearest dollar).

This section extends Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) programs—including termination provisions, worker benefits, reemployment trade adjustment assistance, firm assistance, and farmer assistance—through 2033 (from 2021). It further (1) increases the cap on funds for case management and training under TAA for workers to $1 billion for each of FY2027 through 2031 (from $450 million); (2) extends authorizations for TAA for workers through 2033 (from 2021) and permits the Secretary of Labor to reserve up to 1% of appropriated funds for administration, technical assistance, pilots, demonstrations, and evaluation; (3) authorizes $50 million for each of FY2027 through 2033 for TAA for firms; (4) authorizes $1 billion for each of FY2027 through 2031 for TAA for communities (subchapter A of chapter 4 of title II, as added by section 301), of which up to $40 million may be used for salaries and expenses (amounts to supplement, not supplant, other funds); (5) authorizes $1.3 billion for each of FY2027 through 2033 for TAA for community colleges and career training (subchapter B of chapter 4 of title II, as designated by section 301), of which the Secretary of Labor may reserve up to 5% for administration, technical assistance, outreach, pilots, demonstrations, and evaluation; and (6) decreases the authorization for TAA for farmers to $50 million annually (from $90 million) through 2033 and limits the Secretary of Agriculture's reservation to up to 5% of appropriated funds for technical assistance, pilots, demonstrations, and evaluation. (The TAA programs provide training, cash benefits, job search and relocation allowances, and technical assistance to workers, firms, farmers, and communities harmed by import competition and production shifts abroad.)

This section establishes transition rules for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) for workers under chapter 2 of title II of the Trade Act of 1974 (i.e., benefits including training, trade readjustment allowances, and reemployment services for workers dislocated by trade) and for firms under chapter 3. For workers certified as eligible before enactment, such workers remain eligible only under chapter 2 as in effect on the date of enactment (or as amended thereafter), with prior benefits included in maximum benefit determinations; the Secretary of Labor may adjust such benefits during the 90-day period beginning on the date of enactment to ensure parity with workers certified thereafter. For petitions filed under section 221 on or after January 1, 2021, and before enactment where no certification determination was made, the Secretary of Labor must apply pre-enactment section 222 criteria; previously denied certifications must be reconsidered and approved if such criteria are met. Workers certified pursuant to such petitions are eligible only under post-enactment chapter 2 (or as amended), with prior benefits included in maximum determinations. This section repeals temporary TAA provisions in (1) the Trade Act of 2002, (2) the Trade and Globalization Adjustment Assistance Act of 2009, (3) the Trade Adjustment Assistance Extension Act of 2011, and (4) the Trade Adjustment Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2015. Parallel rules apply to firm TAA petitions under section 251 (i.e., technical assistance for firms harmed by imports), with the Secretary of Commerce applying pre-enactment criteria to pending petitions filed on or after January 1, 2021.

This section makes permanent the Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC)—a refundable tax credit covering 72.5% (now 80%) of qualified health insurance premiums for eligible individuals (i.e., certain Trade Adjustment Assistance recipients, PBGC pension recipients, and others)—for coverage months beginning after December 31, 2021 (previously limited to months before January 1, 2022); and increases the credit percentage to 80% (from 72.5%). The section further (1) directs the Treasury Secretary to implement advance payments of the credit as soon as practicable and not later than 90 days after enactment (from one year after the 2015 TAA Reauthorization Act); (2) applies the 80% rate to such advance payments; (3) permits retroactive advance payments for coverage months after enactment; and (4) allows elections for coverage months after December 31, 2021, and before enactment to be made after enactment on amended returns within applicable limitations periods.