Congress needs to expand government aid to workers displaced by trade and globalization, but it should not tie that to renewal of the president’s trade negotiating authority, the Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said today.

The Trade Adjustment Assistance program “is going to travel on its own track,” although ranking Republican Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, suggested the TAA reauthorization be tied to an extension of fast-track trade negotiating authority, which lapses June 30.

Under fast-track, the administration negotiates trade deals that Congress can vote for or against but cannot amend. Debate over renewal has been contentious, with Democrats demanding that tougher labor and environmental standards be included in pending and future trade agreements.

Created in the 1960s to help manufacturing workers left unemployed by trade, the trade adjustment program is set to expire Sept. 30. Baucus and others want to adapt it to the modern economy — for example, by providing help to displaced financial services and agriculture industry workers.