House-Senate Conferees Close to Agreement on Trade Bill

House and Senate conferees on July 24 said they are "on the cusp" of reaching an agreement to reconcile the trade bills passed by both chambers, which include provisions that would help American workers displaced by international trade pay for health insurance, CongressDaily/AM reports (Norton, CongressDaily/AM, 7/25). Both the House and Senate measures would give President Bush the authority to present trade agreements to Congress for straight up-or-down votes without amendments. In May, the Senate passed a bill its version, which would also 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. Although the House last December passed a version of the bill that did not contain health benefits, a similar bill passed in the House last month would give uninsured trade-displaced workers a health insurance subsidy set at 60% of the overall cost of coverage (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 6/27). House Ways and Means Committee Chair Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), one of the chief negotiators on the legislation, on July 24 proposed a compromise bill that would include a 65% health care subsidy for displaced workers, an aide said. But in a letter sent to Senate conferees on July 22, about two dozen Senate Democrats "demand[ed]" that a compromise bill retain the 70% subsidy included in the Senate-passed legislation. Such a provision is "vital to maintaining the bipartisan coalition of senators that supported passage of the bill," the letter said. In an effort to reach agreement on a trade bill before the August recess, negotiators may "dispense with the usual series of offers and counteroffers" and instead "go straight to the deal they know they will have to cut," according to Calman Cohen, head of the Emergency Committee for American Trade (Norton/Koffler, CongressDaily, 7/24).