NORWICH – With bipartisan support, the nation’s need for jobs and trade negotiations topping Congress’ fall agenda, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said a bill he introduced six years ago is finally on track to pass in the Senate, perhaps as early as today.

The Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011 would crack down on China’s unfair trade practices that, according to Schumer, have given the country’s manufacturers a 30 to 40 percent cost advantage and left too many American’s out of work.

“They’ve been skirting trade laws and keeping their currency artificially low ... paying their workers next to nothing,” he said in a press call Wednesday.

For upstate New York, the Senator pointed to an Economic Policy Institute study that found nearly 75,000 jobs have been lost over the past decade to Chinese companies. In the 24th Congressional District, which encompasses Chenango County, 5,477 jobs were lost.