Elizabeth Warren Calls Out House GOP: They Just ‘Made It Easier To Offshore Jobs’

6 months ago

On Monday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) questioned experts on protecting U.S. jobs during a Senate Finance Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00 The concept behind the important work Senator Brown is doing. He is talking

00:05 about workers who have been laid off through no fault of their own. That's who

00:11 we're talking about here. And he is coming up with ideas to get those folks

00:16 back in the winner's circle. And he is pointing out that a lot of the programs

00:21 as he calls it is essentially losing insurance. You know you've lost things

00:26 are bad, everybody's hanging crepe. And Senator Brown is saying no that's not

00:30 the way we're gonna go. We're gonna talk about programs that get workers back in

00:34 the winner's circle. I'm proud to work with him. Okay I believe Senator Warren

00:44 is next but then Senator Blackburn would be next if nobody comes to hand. Senator

00:48 Warren. Thank You Mr. Chairman and thank you Senator Brown for your leadership on

00:53 these trade issues. It's so important to working people all across our country

00:57 and I completely support what you're doing here. You know for too long our

01:02 trade policy has been a global race to the bottom. Corporate lobbyists and trade

01:07 negotiators worked in back rooms to ink deals that lowered labor and

01:12 environmental standards and made it easier to offshore jobs. American workers

01:17 have had enough and finally some politicians in Washington are starting

01:22 to listen to those workers. But not everyone. House Republicans just

01:27 advanced a bill to extend the generalized system of preferences or GSP.

01:32 A program that lowered US tariffs on goods imported from certain countries

01:37 without requiring those countries to cut tariffs on our exports as well. And those

01:45 same Republicans oppose renewing the trade adjustment assistance program or

01:50 TAA that Senator Brown was talking about which helps American workers get back on

01:55 their feet when they lose their jobs due to trade. So I also would like to talk

02:00 about TAA and other policy tools that we have to protect US competitiveness and

02:06 workers. So let's just start with a little econ 101. Ms. Gill you're the

02:11 legal director of global labor justice so tell me when the US cuts tariffs and

02:17 imports more goods from abroad is it just a win-win for Americans? Thank you

02:26 Senator. No I think it's really clear that even with very careful

02:29 tailoring of programs gains from trade are not always equally distributed and

02:33 some workers do lose out. Okay so we have workers losing out when that happens and

02:38 this is basic economics that even free traders have to admit to. Some people

02:44 lose from trade. So what are we going to do about that? Number one we need to

02:48 protect our workers from unfair trade and that's why President Biden is

02:53 raising tariffs on massively subsidized Chinese imports like cars and computer

02:59 chips and steel and aluminum that undercut American workers. Number two we

03:05 need to invest in American competitiveness like we have with our

03:09 domestic semiconductor industry and clean energy manufacturing. But even with

03:14 all that some workers will lose their jobs due to trade and that is where TAA

03:19 comes in helping those workers find new jobs. Ms. Gill what does TAA mean for the

03:26 workers who receive it? As I noted in my remarks you know we believe that labor

03:32 justice begins here at home. We stand with the US labor movement to call for

03:38 TAA together with a renewal of GSP. TAA provides resources for retraining

03:44 workers who have lost their jobs due to trade. It provides sort of

03:48 extended unemployment insurance and some analysis of the program shows that about

03:53 ten years out workers who've received a helping hand from TAA have earned

03:58 $50,000 more than workers who haven't received the assistance. Okay so people

04:02 get training and as a result of the training they're actually able to get

04:06 good paying jobs and they're earning I think you said about 50,000 more a year

04:11 ten years out because they got some assistance after they lost their jobs.

04:16 You know since TAA lapsed in mid-2022 over a hundred thousand workers have

04:23 lost their jobs due to trade but have been unable to get these TAA benefits.

04:29 Meanwhile House Republicans advanced legislation renewing GSP which would

04:35 retroactively cut US tariffs already among the lowest in the world. Under this

04:42 Republican bill large businesses and importers who decided it was worth

04:46 paying a tariff to import goods from overseas as far back as three years ago

04:51 would get a windfall refund of 2.6 billion dollars. By the way that is five

04:59 times the cost of TAA. Ms. Gill I know there's a lot of work that we can do to

05:07 update GSP to raise labor and environmental standards in the

05:11 countries that benefit from it but wouldn't you agree that if we're going

05:15 to renew a tariff cut program like GSP we should also renew TAA? Simply put yes.

05:23 Yes yes I like that answer exactly right. You know thank you I appreciate this

05:29 American workers are sick and tired of the race to the bottom in trade and the

05:35 slashing of investments in our domestic economy and I'm glad that under

05:40 President Biden's leadership we're turning things around. Since he came into

05:45 office the United States has added 80,000 new manufacturing jobs but there

05:51 is still so much more to do. Over a hundred thousand American workers across

05:56 the country are waiting for Congress to renew TAA and to help them get back on

06:02 their feet. We owe it to them let's get this done. Thank You Mr. Chairman.

06:09 I was thinking about a modest filibuster in hopes that some of our other

06:15 colleagues but we've got very committed to trade policy for example Senator

06:20 Carper chairman of a key committee dealing with environmental issues has

06:24 been a champion on these issues and just is in the middle of it.

Elizabeth Warren Calls Out House GOP: They Just ‘Made It Easier To Offshore Jobs’

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