The U.S. Senate voted to approve an amendment restricting federal tax dollars from being used on jobs going overseas, a day after a U.S. representative introduced a bill prohibiting federal grants and loans from going to some companies that send jobs out of the country.
The Senate, by a vote of 70 to 26, voted to approve Senator Chris Dodd’s amendment, which would prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to outsource or take offshore work formerly done in the U.S. The Connecticut Democrat’s amendment, added on to a bill to restructure corporate taxes, would prohibit outsourcing in three areas of government contracting: privatizing of federal work, federal procurement of goods and services and state government procurement using federal funds.
“American workers are hurting,” Dodd said in a statement. “Our nation’s chief export shouldn’t be jobs for foreign workers. Thankfully this measure says enough is enough. Taxpayers’ hard-earned money shouldn’t be used to bankroll the loss of taxpayers’ jobs to overseas workers.”
The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), which has opposed limits on offshore outsourcing, criticized Dodd’s amendment and a bill introduced by Representative Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent. Sanders’ bill, introduced Wednesday, would bar companies from receiving federal grants, loans and loan guarantees if they lay off a greater percentage of workers in the U.S. than they lay off in other countries.
It’s unclear how many U.S. companies could potentially be affected by Sanders’ bill, which had the support of 50 cosponsors when it was introduced. Sanders’ office didn’t return repeated phone calls.
The Sanders bill takes a “very mistaken” approach, said Bob Cohen, senior vice president of the ITAA. “We entirely disagree with its general direction and its specific language,” Cohen said. “There’s nothing about it we would agree with.”
read the full story:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/03/05/HNoffshoregovt_1.htm

Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed