U.S. Department of Labor Awards Over $40 Million in Grants Through Trade Adjustment Assistance Program

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the U.S. Department of Labor announced the award of nearly $41 million in grants to 47 states and Puerto Rico through the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Program. This annual formula grant provides funding to states for training and other activities, including training services, job search, and relocation allowances, and employment and case management services to serve eligible workers affected by foreign trade.

The Department distributed $266.4 million to states in FY 2020 Training and Other Activities funding in an initial allocation in April 2020, $102.5 million in July 2020 in a second distribution, and will distribute nearly $41 million by the end of September in this final distribution of funds, for a total of nearly $409.8 million.

Trade-affected workers experience losses in income when their wages or hours are reduced or jobs lost when their employers send their work to firms overseas. The Department uses the TAA Program to provide training, reemployment services, and income support in the form of Trade Readjustment Assistance to eligible workers and Reemployment Trade Adjustment Assistance to eligible workers age 50 and older to help them find new employment.

“This announcement underscores our commitment to not only provide the Trade Adjustment Assistance funding states need to serve American workers, but to provide tools to ensure funding is used in the smartest and most efficient ways possible. Our recently-modernized regulations allow states to leverage TAA funds with Wagner-Peyser and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act funds to offer a more responsive and seamless set of customer-centered services,” said Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training John Pallasch.  “We are committed to implementing new strategies, including serving all workforce customers with all available resources, regardless of program, to ensure Americans get on a path to good, family-sustaining careers.”

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.

A list of state receiving funding in this distribution follows this release.

FY 2020 TAA Program Training and Other Activities Funds by Distribution and by State