New York, March 3 (Reuters): About 50 US House of Representatives members plan to introduce a bill that would deny US companies federal financing and loan guarantees if they shift jobs overseas.
The proposed Defending American Jobs Act was written by Bernard Sanders, Independent of Vermont, and will be co-sponsored by about 50 other representatives, including Republicans Ron Paul of Texas and Virgil Goode of Virginia.
Warren Gunnels, Sanders’ legislative aide, said it’s the first national attempt to deal with the issue of “offshoring”, or sending US manufacturing and service jobs to lower-cost venues abroad.
The Defending American Jobs Act would target corporate assistance offered by agencies like the US Export-Import Bank, a 70-year-old unit that provides trade financing and other help to US companies that conduct business abroad.
Sanders singled out Motorola Inc., for receiving $190 million in Ex-Im Bank assistance to build its China operation while firing 42,900 workers in the US, and General Electric Co. for receiving $2.5 billion to finance China expansion while firing 260,000 US workers. He did not say when the layoffs took place or when the Ex-Im Bank loans were made.
A GE spokesman said the company’s US employment had remained around 160,000 for the past decade and added that exports of products like jet engines and turbines had kept American workers employed. He didn’t comment on the proposal.
A Motorola spokesman said the company employed about 88,000 worldwide and derived about 45 per cent of sales outside the country. He declined to comment on the bill.
Ex-Im Bank spokesman Ron Kogan said the bank had never financed foreign expansion by Motorola, GE or any other company.“We finance exports,” he said. He added the House members misunderstand the bank’s mission.
The bill would require a loan applicant to specify the number of employees in the US and abroad as well as a general wage scale. If the number of non-US workers increases while US worker numbers fall, the loan would be cancelled. “If the companies don’t create jobs in the US, we don’t believe the Ex-Im Bank should be in existence,” Gunnels said.
To date, lawmakers in about 20 states have proposed laws that would ban state contracts from being awarded to non-US companies.
