Brown: Extend two programs for jobless
Youngstown Vindicator – When the U.S. Senate returns to session Jan. 25, Sherrod Brown said he’ll work to extend two programs for the unemployed.
Speaking Friday at the Mahoning County One-Stop office in the Boardman Plaza, the senator said Congress must extend the Health Care Tax Credit and the Trade Adjustment Assistance program. Both expire in mid-February.
Brown, a Democrat from Avon, said the programs are critical to thousands, including Delphi Corp. salaried retirees, whose pensions have been cut and health-care coverage eliminated.
The programs “are lifelines for tens of thousands of Americans who, through no fault of their own, lost their job or their pensions and health-care benefits,” Brown said. “We can’t pass trade agreements that undermine Ohio workers, and then turn our backs on those workers when they lose their jobs.”
Mary Ann Hudzik, vice president of Warren’s Delphi Salaried Retiree Association, who also was at the One-Stop, said without extensions many Delphi retirees will have to go without health care.
