VIRGINIA LAW PORTAL

• Code of Virginia
• Virginia Administrative Code
• Constitution of Virginia
• Charters
• Authorities
• Compacts
• Uncodified Acts
• RIS Users (account required)

SEARCHABLE DATABASES

• Bills & Resolutions
  session legislation
• Bill Summaries
  session summaries
• Reports to the General Assembly
  House and Senate documents
• Legislative Liaisons
  State agency contacts

ACROSS SESSIONS

• Subject Index: Since 1995
• Bills & Resolutions: Since 1994
• Summaries: Since 1994

Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.

2000 SESSION

• history | hilite | pdf | print version

006073524
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 97 Senate Amendments in [ ] -- February 10, 2000 Memorializing Congress to enhance the benefits for individuals eligible for NAFTA transitional adjustment assistance. ---------- Patrons-- Reynolds; Delegates: Armstrong and Day ---------- Referred to Committee on Rules ----------

WHEREAS, ratification of the NAFTA treaty was a congressional policy decision which could benefit the continent as a whole; and

WHEREAS, one of the effects of NAFTA has been to set the United States and other countries on the road to economic globalization; and

WHEREAS, professional economists continue to analyze and to debate the efficacy of economic globalization; and

WHEREAS, however, professional economists and most policy makers are not directly or dramatically affected by economic globalization; and

WHEREAS, although the United States continues to experience economic prosperity, pockets of the United States and Virginia have not benefited from the financial boom; and

WHEREAS, when plants close because of out-sourcing of labor costs to other countries, the people who lose their jobs are not likely to feel sympathy for the benefits of a global economy to the rest of the country or the Commonwealth; and

WHEREAS, these displaced workers are frequently entitled to elect such benefits as the 18-month COBRA extension of health care insurance coverage; and

WHEREAS, the costs of the COBRA extension are often beyond the means of unemployed individuals with families; and

WHEREAS, those individuals who lose their jobs because of the effects of NAFTA and globalization are tax-paying and responsible citizens who, through no fault of their own, must face an uncertain future in the new millennium that may include retraining, the search for new employment, and inadequate access to health care; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the [ House of Delegates, the Senate Senate, the House of Delegates ] concurring, That the Congress be urged to enhance the benefits for individuals eligible for NAFTA transitional adjustment assistance by providing expanded and short-term eligibility for medical assistance services to such individuals and their families; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the [ House of Delegates Senate ] transmit copies of this resolution to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President of the United States Senate, and the members of the Virginia Congressional Delegation in order that they may be apprised of the sense of the Virginia General Assembly in this matter.