The Bush Administration's FY 2009 Budget: Programs for Job Training and Jobless Workers

The Department of Labor (DOL) invests in job training and provides assistance to unemployed workers through a number of important broad-based and targeted programs administered by the Employment and Training Administration, including the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). The President’s FY 2009 budget proposes to eliminate WIA adult, youth and dislocated worker programs and consolidate funding into state block grants to be used for unproven Career Advancement Accounts that would provide less help to unemployed workers.

Additionally, the budget would cut the total commitment to all training and assistance programs immediately. As indicated in Table 1 below, the President proposes to cut the resources available for WIA job training and employment programs to $2.8 billion – nearly $2 billion less, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than what was available for these programs in FY 2001 and $704 million less (after adjusting for inflation) than the amount allocated by Congress for FY 2008.

Table 1. Cuts to Workforce Investment Act Programs

FY 2001 (in FY 2009 $)
FY 2008 (in FY 2009 $)
FY 2009 Budget Request
FY 2009 Request – FY 2001, Inflation Adjusted
FY 2009 Request – FY 2008, Inflation Adjusted
Adult Training
$1,177 million
$862 million
$712 million
- $465 million
- $169 million
Youth Training
$1,397 million
$945 million
$841 million
- $556 million
- $105 million
Dislocated Worker Assistance
$1,780 million
$1,373 million
$1,099 million
- $681 million
- $274 million
Other National Programs [1]
$363 million
$265 million
$110 million
- $253 million
- $156 million
Total: WIA Services
$4,717 million
$3,465 million
$2,761 million
- $1,956 million
- $704 million

Cuts hurt dislocated and disadvantaged workers

Our nation’s workforce training programs are often the last resort for low-income and disadvantaged workers who have been neglected by their employers and the under funded student financial aid system. The President’s continued cutting of job training funding and assistance for unemployed workers compounds the labor market problems working families have experienced since 2001 and worsens their economic anxiety.

As of the first quarter of 2008, it appears that the U.S. economy is heading into a severe recession. In January 2008, the economy suffered a loss of 17,000 jobs, with substantial numbers of jobs shed in the manufacturing and construction industries. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a severe recession in 2008 could have a long-lasting impact on the labor market, potentially increasing the unemployment rate to 8.4 percent (by 2011) and adding 5.8 million people to the pool of unemployed workers. A total of 4.6 million jobs could be lost between 2008 and 2011.[2]

Table 1.1. Employment and Training Administration FY 2009 Budget Comparisons (in thousands)
	FY 2001	FY 2001 (in FY 2009 $)	FY 2008¹	FY 2008 (in FY 2009 $)	FY 2009 Proposed²	FY 2009 Proposed - FY 2001, Nominal	FY 2009 Proposed - FY 2001, (in FY 2009 $)	FY 2009 Proposed - FY 2008, Nominal	FY 2009 Proposed - FY 2008, (in FY 2009 $)
WIA Training and Employment Services
Adult Training	$950,000	$1,176,500	$861,540	$881,217	$712,000	-$238,000	-$464,500	-$149,540	-$169,217
Youth Training	$1,127,965	$1,396,895	$924,069	$945,174	$840,500	-$287,465	-$556,395	-$83,569	-$104,674
Dislocated Worker (DW) Assistance
DW State Grants	$1,162,032	$1,439,085	$1,183,840	$1,210,878	$942,956	-$219,076	-$496,129	-$240,884	-$267,922
DW National Reserve	$275,508	$341,195	$280,867	$287,282	$280,867	$5,359	-$60,328	$0	-$6,415
Less funding reserved for Community College Initiative	N/A	N/A	$122,816	$125,621	$125,000	N/A	N/A	$2,184	-$621
Dislocated Worker National Reserve	$275,508	$341,195	$158,051	$161,661	$155,867	-$119,641	-$185,328	-$2,184	-$5,794
Total: Dislocated Worker Assistance	$1,437,540	$1,780,280	$1,341,891	$1,372,539	$1,098,823	-$338,717	-$681,457	-$243,068	-$273,716

Native Americans	$55,000	$68,113	$52,758	$53,963	$45,000	-$10,000	-$23,113	-$7,758	-$8,963

Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers	$76,770	$95,074	$79,668	$81,488	$0	-$76,770	-$95,074	-$79,668	-$81,488

National Activities
Pilots, Demonstrations and Research	$97,432	$120,662	$48,508	$49,616	$16,000	-$81,432	-$104,662	-$32,508	-$33,616
Evaluation	$9,098	$11,267	$4,835	$4,945	$9,000	-$98	-$2,267	$4,165	$4,055
Responsible Reintegration of Youthful Offenders	$55,000	$68,113	$0	$0	$0	-$55,000	-$68,113	$0	$0
Prisoner Re-entry	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
Ex-Offender Activities³	$0	$0	$74,493	$76,194	$39,600	$39,600	$39,600	-$34,893	-$36,594
Total: National Activities	$161,530	$200,042	$127,836	$130,756	$64,600	-$96,930	-$135,442	-$63,236	-$66,156

Total: WIA Training and Employment Services	$3,808,805	$4,716,904	$3,387,762	$3,465,136	$2,760,923	-$1,047,882	-$1,955,981	-$626,839	-$704,213

Community Service Employment for Older Americans
Community Service Employment for Older Americans	$440,200	$545,153	$521,265	$533,170	$350,000	-$90,200	-$195,153	-$171,265	-$183,170
State Unemployment Insurance and Employment Service Operations
Unemployment Compensation
State Operations	$2,353,795	$2,914,989	$2,454,134	$2,510,184	$2,623,145	$269,350	-$291,844	$169,011	$112,961
National Activities	$10,000	$12,384	$9,727	$9,949	$12,893	$2,893	$509	$3,166	$2,944
Total: Unemployment Compensation	$2,363,795	$2,927,373	$2,463,861	$2,520,134	$2,636,038	$272,243	-$291,335	$172,177	$115,904

Employment Service
Total: Employment Service Allotments to States	$761,735	$943,349	$703,376	$719,441	$0	-$761,735	-$943,349	-$703,376	-$719,441
ES National Activities	$49,680	$61,525	$32,194	$32,929	$2,349	-$47,331	-$59,176	-$29,845	-$30,580
Reemployment Services	$35,000	$43,345	$0	$0	$0	-$35,000	-$43,345	$0	$0
Total: Employment Service	$846,415	$1,048,218	$735,570	$752,370	$2,349	-$844,066	-$1,045,869	-$733,221	-$750,021

One-Stop Career Centers/ Labor Market Information	$150,000	$185,763	$52,059	$53,248	$16,880	-$133,120	-$168,883	-$35,179	-$36,368

Work Incentives Grants	$20,000	$24,768	$14,393	$14,722	$0	-$20,000	-$24,768	-$14,393	-$14,722

Total: State UI and ES Operations (SUIESO)	$3,380,210	$4,186,123	$3,265,883	$3,265,883	$2,655,267	-$724,943	-$1,530,856	-$610,616	-$685,206

¹Based upon funds appropriated by the US Congress in Consolidated Appropriations Act (HR 2764), December 2007. Amounts include rescission of 1.747%.
²Office of Management and Budget, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2009, Appendix: Department of Labor. Available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/appendix/lab.pdf .
³In the FY 2009 proposed budget, two ex-offender demonstration programs (Prisoner Reentry Initiative and Responsible Reintegration of Youthful Offenders) are combined into a new program, “Reintegration of Ex-offenders.”

American workers continue to face a weak job market, increased long-term unemployment, and significant declines in living standards for those who have been displaced.

Millions of Americans who want to work do not have jobs. In January 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 7.6 million Americans were officially unemployed – 1.6 million more than when President Bush took office. Millions of persons are under-employed, discouraged from seeking work or working part-time because of the weak labor market. Economists estimate that 9 percent of the labor force is underemployed – the highest level in more than two years.[3]

Long-term unemployment has increased under President Bush. About one in five unemployed workers (1.4 million people) have exhausted their unemployment compensation benefits because they have been jobless for more than 26 weeks, the maximum time period for receiving regular unemployment insurance benefits. Conditions are expected to worsen throughout 2008. According to the Economic Policy Institute, some 1.9 million persons will likely enter the ranks of the long-term unemployed by the end of the year.[4]

Displaced workers continue to struggle. The consequences of job loss are profound for workers and their families. The majority—particularly those who lose long-held jobs—will see their living standards decline substantially—some permanently. Those laid off from well-paying manufacturing jobs suffer particularly long lasting economic hardship. According to the most recently available figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:[5]

From 2003 to 2005 the number of displaced workers, including short- and long-tenured workers, totaled 8.1 million.
About 28 percent of long-tenured workers (those with three or more years on the job) lost jobs in manufacturing.
About half of long-tenured workers who were displaced from full time wage and salary jobs and who were reemployed had earnings that were less than those on the lost job. Twenty-nine percent experienced earnings losses of 20 percent or more.

Unemployment Insurance and Employment Service Programs

The Employment Service and Unemployment Insurance programs are federal-state partnerships created more than 70 years ago to provide income protections and job search assistance to unemployed workers. The federal government funds the Employment Service to match job seekers to employers looking for workers and provides the UI system with administrative resources.

Our nation’s Employment Service, the bedrock of our workforce system, helped more than 13 million workers look for jobs in Fiscal Year 2007.[6] At a cost per participant of $55, the Employment Service is one of the workforce system’s most cost-effective programs.[7] Workers who were helped by the Employment Service saw an earnings increase of more than $1,500 in 2006.[8]

Table 2. Cuts to Unemployment Insurance/Employment Service Programs

FY 2001 (in FY 2009 $)
FY 2008 (in FY 2009 $)
FY 2009 Budget Request
FY 2009 Request – FY 2001, Inflation Adjusted
FY 2009 Request – FY 2008, Inflation Adjusted
Unemployment Compensation
$2,927 million
$2,520 million
$2,636 million
- $291 million
- $116 million
Employment Service
$1,048 million
$752 million
$2 million
- $1,046 million
- $750 million
One-Stop Career Centers/ Labor Market Information
$186 million
$53 million
$17 million
- $169 million
- $36 million
Work Incentives Grants
$25 million
$15 million
0
- $25 million
- $15 million
Total: State UI and ES Operations (SUIESO)
$4,186 million
$3,340 million
$2,655 million
- $1,531 million
- $685 million

Large cuts in Employment Security programs mean less help for jobseekers

The FY 2009 budget proposes to cut Employment Security programs that support state UI and Job Service activities, national activities and one-stop/labor market information programs by $685 million in real dollars compared to FY 2008. The FY 2009 budget represents a $1.5 billion cut from FY 2001 for these programs. Such cuts will significantly impair the ability of our nation’s workforce system to provide career information to jobless workers and reduce the capacity to link employers and jobseekers in an effective manner.

Eliminating the U.S. Employment Service will hurt millions of jobless workers

President Bush’s plan to eliminate the Employment Service will undermine the principle of an unbiased, nonpartisan agency to administer job referrals and assist in the payment of UI benefits. The president’s plan will lead to the privatization and contracting out of vitally important employment security functions, thereby compromising control over and accountability for federal resources.

Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Programs

Unfair and inequitable trade policies are shrinking the middle class and fostering the flight of good jobs overseas. The damage has been severe:

The manufacturing sector, a source of some of our nation’s best jobs, has lost 3.4 million jobs since the start of the Bush Administration.

Because of the persistent trade deficit between the U.S. and China, an average of 353,000 net jobs per year were displaced between 2001 and 2006.[9]

Corporations have closed down more than 40,000 manufacturing establishments, large and small, since 2000.[10]

Between 2001 and 2006, an average of 159,000 workers per year were certified as eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), a program designed to provide income support and training to workers who lose their jobs due to trade with certain countries.[11]

Renewed in 2002, and combined with the NAFTA Transitional Adjustment Assistance Program, the new TAA program combined NAFTA-TAA and TAA, and significantly increased the number of workers potentially eligible for training and income support when they lose jobs because of international trade. It also extended some health care coverage to eligible participants. Lack of resources and ineffective administration, however, has resulted in significant problems in the adequacy and responsiveness of the program. The President’s FY 2009 budget proposal will only worsen those problems.

Table 3. Changes to Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Programs (in thousands)
	FY 2004 (in FY 2009 $)	FY 2008 (in FY 2009 $)	FY 2009 Budget Request	FY 2009 Request – FY 2004, Inflation Adjusted	FY 2009 Request - FY 2008, Inflation Adjusted
Training	298,266	265,631	259,800	- 38,466	- 5,831
Benefits	1,222,062	619,841	676,000	- 546,062	56, 159
NAFTA Adjustment Assistance Benefits	8,005	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Wage Insurance (Alternative TAA)	11,507	23,525	23,000	11,493	-525
Total: TAA (FUBA)	1,539,840	908,997	958,800	- 581,040	49,803

Cuts to Trade Adjustment Assistance benefits will impair opportunities for long-term training

The FY 2009 budget proposes to decrease funding for income support benefits under the TAA program, assuming that fewer workers will take advantage of the program. As indicated in Table 3 above, the FY 2009 budget proposes inflation-adjusted cuts of $581 million in TAA benefits funding compared to FY 2004.

While the number of workers covered by TAA certifications has increased in recent years, the Bush administration is planning to serve far fewer workers than those who may be eligible for services. Between FY 2006 and FY 2007, the number of workers covered by certifications increased by 23 percent (from 120,000 to 147,000 persons).[12] The DOL proposes to serve 107,738 eligible persons in FY 2009. There is a substantial shortfall here. Assuming that US government trade policies continue to eliminate jobs for American workers, nearly 40,000 affected workers will not receive assistance because of the limited resources the administration proposes to make available in the FY 2009 budget.

Inadequate Department of Labor administration hurts trade-impacted workers

In the past five years, court decisions have directed the DOL to reconsider erroneous denials of TAA income and training assistance to hundreds of trade-affected workers. In 2005 alone, court decisions found that DOL had ignored substantial amounts of factual evidence, conducted hasty and “merely perfunctory” investigations, and interpreted the TAA law in a rigid fashion that undermined the basic purpose of the program.[13] Workers have suffered protracted delays in getting assistance as a result of many errors and the DOL’s reliance on biased corporate officials in collecting information. Many workers have become discouraged or lack the resources to pursue appeals.

Cuts to TAA income support benefits are compounded by shortfalls in training funds and other administrative failures by the DOL. Research studies have shown that many states exhaust their training funds before the end of each fiscal year, precluding numerous workers from being able to take advantage of training programs to which they are entitled. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), 35 states expected that available TAA training funds for FY 2004 would not cover the amount they would obligate and spend for TAA-eligible workers. Eighteen states estimated the gap at over $1 million.[14] The GAO also has found that the DOL distributes substantial amounts of its training funds to states on the last day of the fiscal year, making it nearly impossible for states to direct training resources to eligible workers in a timely fashion. Bush administration policies have made it more difficult for states to use TAA to respond to mass layoffs, the GAO concluded.[15]

Help for secondary workers is minimal

The new TAA program was expanded to cover secondary workers, such as parts manufacturing workers who lose their jobs when a client-manufacturing firm moves its operations to another country. Poor program design and inadequate guidance to identify affected workers, however, have meant that few secondary workers are receiving benefits.

Just over 2 percent of workers covered by TAA were secondary workers in FY 2003.

No state has developed procedures to identify workers who are secondarily affected by a trade-related layoff in another state.[16]

Despite criticism by Congress that the DOL has failed to inform secondary workers of the availability of TAA services, DOL proposes no strategies to remedy this lack of outreach in their FY 2009 budget proposal.

Proposed Policy Changes

Career Advancement Accounts (CAAs) are a bad deal for workers

Once again, the Bush Administration has asked Congress to eliminate current WIA programs for adult workers, dislocated workers, and youth as well as the Employment Service and transfer the funding for those programs to state block grants to pay for unproven Career Advancement Accounts (CAAs). Under President Bush’s plan, each eligible individual will receive a maximum yearly CAA contribution of $3,000 but no longer have access to the more valuable existing training programs and employment services. Table 4 below shows the seven employment and training programs that President Bush has targeted for elimination in the FY 2009 proposed budget.

Table 4. Career Advancement Accounts are a bad deal for workers
Program
FY 20081
FY 2009 Proposed
WIA Adult Programs
$849.1 million
$0
WIA Dislocated Worker Programs
$1,446.2 million
$0
WIA Youth Programs
$924.1 million
$0
Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers
$79.7 million
$0
Employment Service Grants to States
$703.3 million
$0
Work Opportunity Tax Credits (WOTC)
$17.4 million
$0
Work Incentive Grants
$14.4 million
$0
Total: Current Programs
$4,034.2 million
$0
Career Advancement Accounts
N/A
$2,826.0 million
Total Cut in WIA and ES Services
- $1,208.2 million
1U.S. Department of Labor, Budget Justification of Appropriation Estimates for Committee on Appropriations, Fiscal Year 2009. Table 4 presents dollar amounts, taken directly from this Department of Labor document, that are lower than the figures provided by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in their FY 2009 proposed budget.

CAAs take resources from current programs and provide fewer benefits

The Bush Labor Department is shifting existing WIA and Employment Service funds to create CAAs despite the fact that earlier legislative proposals to establish similar accounts have gone nowhere in Congress. The benefit from CAAs would be very limited, and workers receiving CAAs would actually experience reduced rather than expanded services and benefits relative to what they get now.

Current law imposes no caps on reemployment services or job training services unemployed workers may access through the WIA system. CAAs create a $3,000 federal cap (or $6,000 over two years) on the combined amount of reemployment services and job training an individual worker may receive. Under the current WIA system, states offer job training help through training accounts of up to $10,000 with an average value of roughly $5,000 to $6,000.[17]
Bush Administration officials have touted CAAs as a program that will increase the number of workers receiving training. This maneuver is really a cruel ruse. Fewer dollars will be spread among more workers–leaving workers with less funding and less help.
As indicated in Table 4 above, the total amount of federal resources available for job training and employment programs would be reduced from more than $4 billion (appropriated by the Congress for FY 2008) to about $2.8 billion (proposed for FY 2009). This reduction of 30 percent in available funding would have a dramatic impact on the number of workers receiving training-related services.

CAAs would provide services to far fewer workers

As indicated in Table 5 below, more than 14.5 million workers participated in the seven employment and training programs that President Bush has marked for elimination in FY 2009. In comparison, according to the DOL, only 524,000 persons would receive federally-funded CAAs. The implementation of CAA vouchers would leave more than 14 million job-seekers out in the cold.

Table 5. Participants Involved in Employment and Training Programs to be Eliminated and Replaced by Career Advancement Accounts1
Program
# of Participants Under Current Employment and Training Programs (FY 2007 Levels)
# of Participants Under Proposed Career Advancement Accounts
WIA Adult Programs
293,945
0
WIA Dislocated Worker Programs
355,383
0
WIA Youth Programs
251,470
0
Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers
18,655
0
Employment Service Grants to States
13,016,054
0
Work Opportunity Tax Credits (WOTC)
639,663
0
Work Incentive Grants
11,478
0
Career Advancement Accounts
N/A
524,000
Total Number of Participants
14,586,648
524,000
Difference between FY 2007 participants in current programs and projected recipients of federal Career Advancement Accounts
- 14,062,648
1U.S. Department of Labor, Budget Justification of Appropriation Estimates for Committee on Appropriations, Fiscal Year 2009.

CAAs will eliminate Rapid Response Programs

Rapid Response services under the WIA would be eliminated in favor of CAAs. States and communities would no longer have the resources to provide early intervention assistance to companies and workers facing mass layoffs and plant closings.

CAAs will severely restrict industry and workplace based training programs

Current WIA funding can be used to support sector partnerships with employers, unions and educational institutions to identify skill needs and develop customized training programs that meet worker and employer needs. The Bush proposal requires that states allocate two-thirds of their CAA money to local areas, while requiring that not less than 90 percent be used for CAA individual training vouchers. These strictures would preclude the use of these funds to support work-based training programs.

CAAs are a back door to school vouchers

Under the president’s proposal, WIA youth programs for high school dropouts, the homeless and runaway youth would be eliminated. The in-depth counseling and linkages to alternative education and training programs would be eliminated. Instead, these most vulnerable at-risk youth would be given CAA vouchers to purchase education and/or training with no support systems available to ensure they connect with quality secondary and post-secondary education programs.

Major Changes Will Undermine the Unemployment Insurance Safety Net

Proposed state waivers will allow diversion of Unemployment Insurance benefits

The Bush FY 2009 budget proposes to waive fundamental requirements of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program, including the requirement that states use their UI trust funds only to pay for UI benefits, and the requirement that states assess UI employer taxes based on employers’ experience rating. This alarming proposal threatens the ability of the UI system to provide unemployment compensation to displaced workers.
The proposal would allow states to divert UI trust funds to purposes other than UI benefits. DOL’s proposal imposes no restrictions on the size of such diversions, so it would allow states to divert the entire balance of their UI trust funds to other purposes.
.
Diverting UI trust funds to other purposes threatens the ability of states to provide unemployment compensation to workers who need it. Moreover, it makes it far less likely that states will be able to make needed reforms such as expanding UI eligibility or increasing UI benefit levels.
.
Diversion of UI trust funds may also compromise the role of the UI system as an economic stabilizer. If trust funds are diverted to flawed and unproven “demonstration projects,” they may have a less stimulative effect on the economy.
.
Allowing UI trust funds to support untested “demonstration projects” will offer workers less security and foster downward mobility.

Proposed re-employment and eligibility assessments privatize important UI functions

The Bush administration proposes to shift responsibility for major unemployment insurance activities, such as eligibility assessments, to the WIA One-Stop System, using $40 million in proposed funding.
This move would transfer resources available through the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund to privatized WIA operations, setting the stage for outsourcing of UI administration to private contractors and “non-State entities.” Such critical public services should be reserved to the staff of public agencies.

Proposals to prevent and detect UI fraud must be balanced

Monitoring the UI system to ensure that jobless workers receive their UI benefits and employers pay UI taxes is appropriate.
Erroneous overpayments of benefits to workers and deliberate or negligent failure to make employer contributions on behalf of covered employees, along with erroneous underpayments and mistaken denials, should be tracked and corrected.
The Bush FY 2009 budget, however, lacks important details on how it plans to achieve a balanced approach that addresses workers, employers, and programmatic error.

States need adequate administrative resources

At a time when UI administrative budgets are regularly cut, states should receive the full administrative resources necessary to help detect employer fraud and claimant overpayments.
The Department of Labor should provide funding to states to track down employers who are cheating. It should give states more tools to detect fraud on the part of employers and their accounting firms, including employer misclassification of employees as independent contractors.

Collecting UI overpayments should be done appropriately

The Department of Labor should not authorize states to use the federal income tax system to recover overpayments, as the FY 2009 budget proposes.

Many states have implemented overpayment collection systems that reflect the unique circumstances of the overpayment and individual workers’ financial situations. Authorizing reliance on the federal tax system would undermine these carefully tailored programs and unfairly penalize workers.

Collection of overpayments should not be privatized

The President’s plan to allow states to use private debt collection agencies to collect “uncollectible” fraud overpayments and delinquent employer taxes is also deeply troubling.
Privatizing the collection function, coupled with the powerful financial incentive the budget proposes for private collection agencies, will lead to abusive and potentially fraudulent collection practices. The Treasury Department reports that the Bush proposal would allow states to permit such collection agencies to keep up to 25 percent of the amounts collected.[18] Such policies would compromise the privacy of UI claimant and employer records and undermine the work of the state workforce agency.
States should receive adequate resources for collection activities, and they should be allowed to dedicate a portion of their overpayment funds to support increased detection and auditing functions.

[1] Other National Programs includes the following: Native Americans; Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers; Pilots, Demonstrations and Research; Evaluation; and Ex-offender Activities.

[2] John Schmitt and Dean Baker, What We’re In For: Projected Economic Impact of the Next Recession, Center for Economic and Policy Research, January 2008, http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/JSDB_08recession.pdf

[3] Economic Policy Institute, Recessionary Conditions Appear in the Labor Market, February 1, 2008.

[4] Economic Policy Institute, Long-term Unemployment Warrants Action Now and is Projected to Get Worse, February 4, 2008.

[5] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Worker Displacement, 2003 – 2005, August 17, 2006.

[6] U.S. Department of Labor, Budget Justification of Appropriation Estimates for Committee on Appropriations, Fiscal Year 2009, Volume 1, http://www.dol.gov/dol/budget/

[7] The Cost per Participant has held steady in recent years. During FY 2006, ES staff also achieved a cost per participant rate of $55.

[8] ETA Workforce System Results, June 2006.

[9] Robert E. Scott, Costly Trade with China: Millions of U.S. Jobs Displaced with Net Loss in Every State, Economic Policy Institute, October 9, 2007.

[10] Yudken, Joel, and Alan Tonelson, A Defense Base at Risk, U.S. Business and Industry Council, 2007. Calculation of closed establishments based upon analysis of data from the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program.

[11] U.S. Department of Labor, Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Estimated Number of Workers Covered by Certifications, 1975-2007, http://www.doleta.gov/tradeact/taa_certs.cfm. Persons who lose their jobs due to trade with China are not eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance benefits and services.

[12] U.S. Department of Labor, Budget Justification of Appropriation Estimates for Committee on Appropriations, Fiscal Year 2009.

[13] Robin H. Gilbert, “Trade Adjustment Assistance Cases – 2005 Developments”, Georgetown Journal of International Law, Fall 2006.

[14] GAO, Trade Adjustment Assistance: Reforms Have Accelerated Training Enrollment, but Implementation Challenges Remain, GAO-04-1012, September 2004, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d041012.pdf

[15] GAO, Trade Adjustment Assistance: Changes Needed to Improve States’ Ability to Provide Benefits and Services to Trade-Affected Workers, GAO-07-995T, June 14, 2007, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07995t.pdf