ABSTRACT
Trade adjustment assistance (TAA) is a federal program designed to assist workers who are totally or partly unemployed because of foreign competition. The largest component of the program is cash assistance, which accounted for nearly $1.5 billion of total program cost in fiscal year 1981. To be eligible for trade adjustment assistance, a worker must meet two criteria: first, the worker's firm must be certified by the secretary of labor and second, the worker must apply for assistance within a specified length of time and must have been employed during twenty-six of the fifty-two weeks preceding layoff. The cash assistance component of TAA is an appropriated entitlement. The reconciliation act sought to control federal spending on TAA by restricting the entitlement portion of the program. At the time of the reconciliation act, the TAA program had grown rapidly and uncontrollably. The cost of the program exploded with the onset of the 1979 recession.
