Proposed jobs bill would target foreign outsourcing by U.S. companies

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/proposed-jobs-bill-would-target-foreign-outsourcing-by-us-companies/2012/01/31/gIQAPLHOhQ_story.html

Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) will introduce a bill Wednesday requiring large U.S. companies to disclose how many of their jobs are based on U.S. soil and how many are based abroad, an attempt to shed light on the number of American jobs being outsourced.

Such data is closely guarded by some of the country’s biggest multinationals, including Pfizer, Apple and IBM. Public filings by these firms disclose their total number of employees, but don’t specify where those jobs are located. Meanwhile, other data shows that multinationals overall cut 2.9 million jobs in the United States and added 2.4 million overseas between 2000 and 2009.

The Outsourcing Accountability Act would require firms with revenues over $1 billion to report how many employees they have in the United States and break them down by state; jobs abroad would have to be broken down by country. Firms would also have to track the percentage increase or decrease of these figures from the previous year.

“This is fairly easy for a company to do,” said Peters. “They certainly have that information readily available, and I think it’d be surprising for a company to say it doesn’t know where it sends its paychecks.”

Some of the companies that keep these numbers secret have lobbied for tax breaks in the name of job creation, as reported by The Washington Post last August. But without firm-specific data on where jobs are located, it can be tough for lawmakers to track which companies are adding jobs in this country.

Thank you to co-sponsors: Reps. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) and Jerry McNerney (D-Ca.)

[LiberalEsto]

1. Great idea nt

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2. ALL businesses receiving US federal tax breaks or subsidies should have to do this nt

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3. agreed...but I'll take this for starters. n/t