McNerney Aims To Keep American Jobs From Going Overseas

Press Release

Today, Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Stockton) introduced legislation to stop American jobs from going overseas. The Stop Outsourcing and Create American Jobs Act of 2013 will crack down on tax loopholes that encourage corporations to ship jobs abroad and penalize corporations that unethically utilize overseas tax havens.

"In our community, we need to work together and focus on creating family-wage jobs. We cannot continue to stand by while big corporations use federal tax loopholes to send American jobs overseas," said Rep. McNerney.

The bill first directs the Secretary of the Treasury to establish a list of "corporate tax haven countries" that enable outsourcing. Secondly, the bill would increase civil and criminal penalties for corporations guilty of a variety of transactions related to an offshore tax haven, such as fraud or false claims.

"We are never going to get our economy back on track if corporations keep sending jobs overseas. To do so while honest, hard-working people can't find jobs is unacceptable. These big corporations' profits keep getting larger and larger, while real people are struggling to survive in today's economy," said Rep. McNerney. "We have qualified people ready and willing to work right here in our region. We need to be focused on putting those people back to work, not generating jobs in other countries."

McNerney's legislation requires federal agencies to request information about corporations' outsourcing practices when applying for government contracts and allows preference to be given to companies that have not outsourced jobs in the last year. The penalty for falsifying information regarding outsourcing on an application would be subject to a fine up to the value of the contract. A corporation committing this offense would be disqualified from seeking new federal contracts for two years. Any revenue generated by the Stop Outsourcing and Create American Jobs Act will be used to pay down the national debt. It will now move to House committees for further consideration.

The Stop Outsourcing and Create American Jobs Act of 2013 is cosponsored by Reps. Gary Peters, Tim Bishop and Matt Cartwright.

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