I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1807
To amend the trade adjustment assistance program under the Trade Act 
of 1974 to establish a demonstration project to provide self-employment 
training and assistance to eligible adversely affected workers. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 11, 2003
Mr. REYNOLDS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To amend the trade adjustment assistance program under 
the Trade Act of 1974 to establish a demonstration 
project to provide self-employment training and assist-
ance to eligible adversely affected workers.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Trade Adjustment As-
sistance for Self-Employment Act of 2003’’.
SEC. 2. DEMONSTRATION PROJECT FOR SELF-EMPLOY-
MENT TRAINING AND ASSISTANCE UNDER 
THE TRADE ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE PRO-
GRAM. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF PROJECT.—Subchapter C of 
chapter 2 of title II of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 
2311 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 246 
the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 246A. DEMONSTRATION PROJECT FOR SELF-EMPLOY-
MENT TRAINING AND ASSISTANCE. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—
‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 1 year 
after the date of enactment of the Trade Adjustment 
Assistance for Self-Employment Act of 2003, the 
Secretary shall establish an alternative trade adjust-
ment assistance program for workers that provides 
the benefits described in paragraph (2). 
‘‘(2) BENEFITS.—
‘‘(A) TRAINING.—A State shall use the 
funds provided to the State under section 241 
to provide, for a period not to exceed 2 years, 
to a worker described in paragraph (3)(B), self-
employment training. 
‘‘(B) PAYMENT FOR START-UP COSTS.—A 
State shall use the funds provided to the State 
under section 241 to provide to a worker de-
scribed in paragraph (3)(B) who successfully 
completes the self-employment training de-
scribed in subparagraph (A), and for which a 
self-employment business plan described in 
paragraph (3)(B)(ii) is approved, an amount to 
pay, in whole or in part, the start up costs at-
tributable to the business enterprise of the indi-
vidual. 
‘‘(3) ELIGIBILITY.—
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 
provide the opportunity for 1 or more workers 
in a group of workers on whose behalf a peti-
tion is filed under section 221 to request that 
the individual workers be certified for the alter-
native trade adjustment assistance program 
under this section at the time the petition is 
filed. The Secretary shall determine whether the 
individual workers in the group are eligible for 
the alternative trade adjustment assistance pro-
gram by the date specified in section 223(a). 
‘‘(B) INDIVIDUAL ELIGIBILITY.—A worker 
that the Secretary has certified as eligible for 
the alternative trade adjustment assistance pro-
gram under subparagraph (A) may elect to re-
ceive benefits under the alternative trade ad-
justment assistance program if the worker—
‘‘(i) is covered by a certification under 
subchapter A of this chapter; 
‘‘(ii) agrees to submit to the appro-
priate State agency for approval a self-em-
ployment business plan; 
‘‘(iii) is likely to obtain self-employ-
ment in accordance with such plan not 
later than 26 weeks after the date of sepa-
ration from the adversely affected employ-
ment; 
‘‘(iv) is likely to be engaged in self-
employment on a full-time basis; and 
‘‘(v) is likely not to return to the em-
ployment from which the worker was sepa-
rated. 
‘‘(4) TOTAL AMOUNT OF PAYMENTS.—
‘‘(A) TRAINING.—The amount of payments 
described in paragraph (2)(A) made on behalf 
of a worker may not exceed $2,500 per worker 
during the 2-year eligibility period. 
‘‘(B) START-UP
COSTS.—The amount of 
payments described in paragraph (2)(B) made
to a worker may not exceed $10,000 per worker 
during the 2-year eligibility period. 
‘‘(5) LIMITATION ON OTHER BENEFITS.—Ex-
cept as provided in section 238(a)(2)(B), if a worker 
is receiving payments pursuant to the program es-
tablished under paragraph (1), the worker shall not 
be eligible to receive any other benefits under this 
title. 
‘‘(b) TERMINATION.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-
graph (2), no payments may be made by a State 
under the program established under subsection 
(a)(1) after the date that is 5 years after the date 
on which such program is implemented by the State. 
‘‘(2) EXCEPTION.—Notwithstanding paragraph 
(1), a worker receiving payments under the program 
established under subsection (a)(1) on the termi-
nation date described in paragraph (1) shall con-
tinue to receive such payments provided that the 
worker meets the criteria described in subsection 
(a)(3)(B). 
‘‘(c) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘self-em-
ployment training’ means entrepreneurial training, busi-
ness counseling, technical assistance, and related activi-
ties, including training and services provided by federally-
funded resource partners of the Small Business Adminis-
tration, that are engaged in for the purpose of establishing 
a business and becoming self-employed, as approved by the 
appropriate State agency, or the Secretary, in consultation 
with the Administrator of the Small Business Administra-
tion.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of con-
tents of the Trade Act of 1974 is amended by striking 
the second item relating to section 246 and inserting the 
following:
‘‘Sec. 246. Demonstration project for self-employment training and assist-
ance.’’.
SEC. 3. BENEFIT INFORMATION TO WORKERS. 
Section 225(a) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 
2275(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following 
new sentence: ‘‘In providing full information to workers 
about benefit allowances, training, and other employment 
services available under this chapter in accordance with 
this subsection, the Secretary shall include information on 
the demonstration project for self-employment training 
and assistance under section 246A.’’.
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