UPDATED: U.S. Department of Labor Announces Final Rule On Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor made publicly available today a final rule to update regulations governing its program for assistance to workers adversely affected by foreign trade. The updated regulations reduce regulatory burden by modernizing, simplifying and clarifying state administration of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Program.

The regulations governing the TAA Program have not been updated since 1994. Since that time, five major reauthorizations have occurred. The most recent occurred in 2015 with the passage of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2015, Title IV of the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 (Pub. L. 114-27).  In addition, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (Pub. L. 113-128) went into effect in 2014, reaffirming the TAA Program as a mandatory partner program in the one-stop delivery system for workers seeking reemployment.

Through this final rulemaking, the Department modernizes the TAA Program, provides additional flexibilities to states, consolidates all applicable program regulations into a single section of the Code of Federal Regulations and continues to align the program with WIOA. The Department has undertaken both regulatory and deregulatory actions, eliminating 20 CFR part 617 and 29 CFR part 90, and including all program regulations in 20 CFR part 618. 

“With this final rule, the Department seeks to build on the staffing flexibilities we announced earlier this year under the Wagner-Peyser program,” said Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training John Pallasch.  “States will now have the ability to leverage TAA, Wagner-Peyser, and WIOA funds to provide more responsive customer-centered services without the burden of cumbersome staffing requirements.”

ETA administers federal job training and dislocated worker programs, federal grants to states for public employment service programs and unemployment insurance benefits. These services are provided primarily through state and local workforce development systems.

The mission of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.

Editor’s note: This release was updated with a link to the rule as published in the Federal Register