Politics | Thu Jun 25, 2015 1:26pm EDT

House approves aid for workers hit by trade deals

WASHINGTON | BY RICHARD COWAN

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted to renew assistance for American workers hurt by liberalized trade, an important step in President Barack Obama's drive for a massive Pacific Rim trade deal.

Without action by Congress, the worker aid program would have expired on Sept. 30, just as the Obama administration could be trying to wrap up a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal encompassing 40 percent of the world's economy and ranging from Chile to Japan.

The Senate passed the legislation on Wednesday. With House passage, it now goes to Obama for signing into law.

By a vote of 286-138, the House approved a renewal of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, which has been in place for decades to ease the domestic impact of free trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico in 1993.

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