 |
 |
 |
| Home |
Updated on February 21, 2005 |
|
|
 |
 |
IACPA's brief on recent outsourcing legislation."
The first stand-alone legislative responses to the outsourcing issue were introduced by Congresswoman Maxine Waters on March 2 and 4, 2004. Congresswoman Waters introduced H.R. 3878 and H.R. 3911 to quantify and curb outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries by American companies.
Additionally, Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) introduced an amendment to S. 1637 that would prohibit Federal Government contracts from being awarded to firms that outsource the work. The amendment was to S. 1637, a corporate tax restructuring bill.
An analysis of all of these pieces of legislation is below. For this analysis, “outsourcing” is defined as “hiring employees to perform services outside the United States when the services previously had been performed in the United States.”
H.R. 3878
H.R. 3878 is titled the “Commission on American Jobs Act” and seeks to create a bi-partisan commission to accomplish four tasks. The commission will collect information on corporate outsourcing, quantify the amount of jobs being outsourced, conduct studies on why these jobs are leaving the country and suggest ways to prevent corporate outsourcing.
While the President will appoint members to the six-person commission, the commission will report directly to Congress in the form of annual reports. The commission is empowered to hold hearing, collect data, issue subpoenas and grant immunity from criminal prosecution. H.R. 3878 authorizes $25 million for fiscal year 2005 to carry out the duties of the commission.
H.R. 3878 was referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce where it has not had a hearing. The bill has no cosponsors.
H.R. 3911
H.R. 3911 is a bill that seeks to make companies that have outsourced jobs during the previous five years ineligible for Federal contracts, grants, and loans (funding). With certain exceptions (such as national security waivers), the bill would ban Federal agencies from funding any companies that have outsourced jobs overseas within the last five years.
If a company has outsourced jobs in the past five years, in order to again receive funding from the government, it would have to create and maintain at least half as many domestic jobs as the ones that it shipped overseas over the past five years. Additionally, the company must be able to prove that it has not outsourced jobs within the past two year. Companies would be subject to fines equaling 125% of the total amount of funding if accepts the funding and does not create these jobs or acts in bad faith.
H.R. 3911 was referred to the House Committee on Government Reform where it has not had a hearing. The bill has no cosponsors.
S.AMDT. 2660
S.AMDT 26660 was introduced on March 3, 2004 to prohibit Federal contracts from being performed by overseas workers. The straightforward measure stipulates that no Federal contract can be entered into if the work of the contractor will be done by offshore labor.
The measure makes exceptions for national security considerations, if the product or expertise is unavailable domestically, or if Federal Government employees outside of the United States previously did the work.
Additionally, the Dodd amendment was itself amended by Senator McConnell (R- KY) to stipulate that this measure cannot go into effect until it is certified that no additional jobs more jobs to be lost due to enforcement of the measure.
The Amendment, including the McConnell provision, passed the Senate by a vote of 70-26. The House has not considered a similar measure yet.
|
|
|
Copyright © 2001-2004, Indian American Center for
Political Awareness. All rights reserved.
|
|
| |