House Passes Fast-Track Trade Authority Bill Again, Includes Health Benefits for Trade-Displaced Workers

The House on June 26 voted 216-215 to approve a trade bill that includes a provision that would help American workers displaced by international trade pay for health insurance, the AP/Nando Times reports. The bill, which would give President Bush the authority to present trade agreements to Congress for straight up-or-down votes without amendments, "largely repackaged" a similar bill passed by the House last December that did not include health benefits, Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) said. Thomas added that the bill was a "procedural step designed to strengthen the hand of House negotiators in [upcoming] compromise talks with the Senate." The legislation would give uninsured trade-displaced workers a health insurance subsidy set at 60% of the overall cost of coverage (Epso, AP/Nando Times, 6/26). Last month, the Senate passed a bill that would provide as many as 100,000 uninsured trade-displaced workers with advanceable tax credits to cover up to 70% of the cost of health insurance premiums. The workers could use the tax credits to purchase health insurance through COBRA -- the 1986 Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, which allows unemployed workers to retain employer-sponsored health coverage by paying 102% of the premiums -- or through group health insurance pools established by states (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 5/24). Despite the addition of a health provision to the House bill, fewer Democrats voted for this measure than for the one proposed last year, in part because of "anger over GOP tactics in bringing the vote to the floor," the Wall Street Journal reports. The vote authorizes House negotiators to begin talks with the Senate on a compromise trade package (King, Wall Street Journal, 6/27). William Morley, vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that the completion of a conference report on the bill by August is a "viable possibility" (Norton, CongressDaily/AM, 6/27).