Hopefully everyone has heard the news by now-- a group of U.S. Senators, led by Sherrod Brown, (D-OH), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), have introduced a bill to address China's ongoing currency manipulation.

McClatchy News reporter Kevin Hall explains that the bill would "instruct the Commerce Department to consider China's undervalued currency an illegal subsidy. With that designation, U.S. companies on a case-by-case basis could seek relief through compensatory penalties against Chinese imports."

Hall quotes Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) Executive Director Scott Paul on the need for such legislation:

"The decimation of our middle class, our manufacturing sector, and the American economy as a whole has come in large part because developing nations like China have used illegal currency manipulation and other aggressive, mercantilist tactics to tilt the playing field in their favor," Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, representing smaller U.S.-based manufacturers, said in a statement endorsing the bill.

Read the full McClatchy article.

The Senate bill comes on the heels of a new report released earlier this week showing 2.8 million U.S. jobs lost in the past decade due to the trade deficit with China.  AAM has posted an interactive map detailing specific job loss in all 50 states and every Congressional district.