Jobs and Outsourcing

It is disappointing that even amid the gloomy economic indicators, the Bush Administration's annual report on the economy praised the practice of outsourcing American factory jobs, other manufacturing jobs, and white-collar work to other countries. I have been hard pressed to find many Americans who agree with this policy and I believe that we need a comprehensive strategy to deal with this alarming trend.

First, we must provide support for workers whose jobs have been outsourced and ensure that our workforce has the skills and training to stay at the forefront of emerging economic trends. I have consistently supported policies to improve training and educational opportunities for all workers. Along with Congressman Adam Smith, I sponsored legislation that would expand the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which provides retraining and other assistance for workers in the manufacturing sector whose jobs have been outsourced. Our bill would expand the program to cover service sector employees like computer programmers and call center workers.

Second, we need to enact policies that will discourage companies from outsourcing and reward them for investing in American workers. We need to eliminate tax incentives that encourage the outsourcing of jobs. We must also use the tax code to encourage the development and domestic manufacture of new technologies.

Providing incentives for companies to create high-wage American jobs is a centerpiece of the New Apollo Energy Project, an initiative I'm championing in Congress that encourage the development of the clean energy industry in the United States. By investing in new industries and technologies, we can ensure we're using our nation's greatest resource -- the ingenuity and can-do spirit of the American worker.