McNerney introduces anti-outsourcing bills
Citing the need to boost job growth locally and around the United States, Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton, has introduced legislation that would close tax loopholes that encourage companies to send jobs overseas and that would make companies reveal their outsourcing.
The idea behind the legislative package is to provide greater transparency of corporations that routinely outsource American jobs and levy stronger penalties against businesses that falsify information on their outsourcing when applying for government contracts or make illegal transactions involving “tax havens.”
“We should not continue providing incentives that make it easy for American companies to ship jobs overseas at a time when good-paying jobs are still difficult to come by here at home,” McNerney said in a statement. “With this legislation, I want to shine a light on these abusive loopholes that result in corporations sending jobs abroad. … When companies outsource jobs they are choosing to invest in the economies of other countries at the expense of the American worker.”
Between 2000 and 2009, multinational corporations cut an estimated 2.9 million U.S. jobs while adding 2.4 million jobs outsourced abroad.
One bill, the “Stop Outsourcing and Create American Jobs Act” proposed by McNerney, would direct the secretary of the Treasury to establish a list of corporate tax haven countries and increase civil and criminal penalties for corporations found to make any transaction involving these tax havens. The bill would also allow federal agencies to request the history of outsourcing practices of any corporation seeking government contracts and to give preference to those who have not outsourced jobs within the previous year.
The second, the “Outsourcing Accountability Act” would require corporations with annual revenues of $1 billion or more to disclose the number of employees working domestically and the number working abroad on a yearly basis and the change in percentage of U.S. workers.
“Many consumers want to buy products, goods and services from companies that put American workers first. … (The legislation would) make a company’s outsourcing behavior publicly available,” McNerney said in a statement.
Both bills are co-sponsored by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, Mark Takano, D-Riverside, and Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, The bills need to go through the committee process before they can be voted on by the House of Representatives.
McNerney represents the 9th Congressional District that includes much of San Joaquin County, including Stockton, Lathrop, Lodi and Mountain House; part of southern Sacramento County, including Galt; and parts of eastern Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Lee represents the 13th District, which includes much of the East Bay, including Oakland, from Albany to San Leandro.
