By Colby Itkowitz, CALL WASHINGTON BUREAU

6:39 p.m. EDT, June 20, 2011

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey has made it clear he's unlikely to support the Obama administration's push for free trade agreements left unfinished by the Bush administration.

But with the White House moving forward, thePennsylvania Democrat is asking that before any trade agreement is decided, workers and U.S. companies are promised protection from any resulting closures or lost jobs.

Monday morning Casey visited a small chemical manufacturing company in Bethlehem — Puritan Products — to stress the importance of trade assistance in the face of more foreign competition.

"All of us would agree that, if anything, in a very tough economy businesses need help," Casey said at the factory. "We have to compete every day of the week with countries that frankly cheat and make it much more difficult to have a level playing field for folks trying to manufacture a product in this difficult environment."

Congressional lawmakers are nearly ready for talks with the White House on a package that would cement pending trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, and also on a reauthorization of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program. That program started in the early 1960s to provide aid to Americans who lost jobs because of foreign trade agreements and grants to companies that are having trouble competing.

But Casey, who faces re-election next year, wants Congress to vote on the trade adjustment assistance as a stand-alone bill before the trade agreements are debated. And he wants the assistance extended for five years at the same rate — about $1 billion — that was included in an enhanced version in the 2008 stimulus law.

He introduced his own legislation Monday afternoon to do just that, offering it as an amendment to an economic development bill pending on the U.S. Senate floor.

The program has long been noncontroversial, but in these budget-cutting times, some lawmakers argue that the increased assistance in the stimulus was meant to be temporary. But others, like Casey, say that with unemployment still so high, it's not the time to be cutting aid.

Standing with Lou DiRenzo, owner of Puritan Products, Casey stressed the need for the program.

DiRenzo said his 24-year-old business had to be redesigned to compete with foreign markets. With the help of a $75,000 federal grant matched by the company, he hired a consulting firm to make better use of industry-specific software that in turn helped him broaden his reach to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. DiRenzo said he's added 15 jobs and tripled his sales.

"It's a remarkable story ... adding jobs and the innovating and adapting to new environments in a very complicated part of our economy," Casey said.

Casey said he expects the Senate could take votes on these trade issues as early as July. The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee had planned to begin informal debates this week on the trade agreement. It would then send its recommendations to the White House for the administration to consider before it sends its formal trade proposal to Congress.