Dislocated Workers

Proposed Re-employment Assistance Program Gao ID: HRD-94-61 November 12, 1993

A proposed Department of Labor re-employment assistance program would target workers who lose their jobs as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)--either through rising imports or through plant relocations to Canada and Mexico. The proposed program basically replicates the existing Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program but sets new eligibility criteria for NAFTA-affected workers and changes the certification process. The proposed bridge program to help NAFTA-affected workers, however, suffers from many of the same shortcomings that have plagued TAA. GAO questions two major changes that the bridge proposal makes to the basic TAA approach. First, changes to expedite the certification process would require Labor to complete a TAA certification in 30 days, a task that has previously taken 60 days. Second, although eliminating the training waiver allowed under TAA is a positive step, other services, such as job search assistance, should be included as allowable training activities for receiving income support assistance. If NAFTA is passed, Labor should address these concerns as it develops the implementing regulations.

GAO found that: (1) the proposed program contains similar problems identified in the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) programs; (2) the proposed program would address three significant problems concerning the TAA certification process including ensuring equal access to services by changing eligibility criteria, ensuring timely service delivery, and eliminating TAA training waivers by requiring that all recipients of income support programs be enrolled in training courses; (3) the program will not likely meet the key goals of an effective re-employment assistance program because expedition of the certification process seems unrealistic and DOL has not determined whether job search activities should be valid substitutes for classroom training in considering participants' eligibility for income support assistance; and (4) if NAFTA is passed, DOL can address these problems as it develops implementing regulations.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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