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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 11, 2004

SENATORS URGE PRESIDENT TO RENOUNCE HIS POSITION THAT SENDING JOBS OVERSEAS IS A GOOD THING

Schumer, Daschle, Byrd, Reid, Kennedy, Clinton, Johnson, Corzine, Stabenow, Durbin, Levin, Leahy, Dayton, Dorgan, Sarbanes, Edwards, Akaka, Harkin, Feinstein ask President to personally reverse his support for sending jobs overseas

Journalists could see their jobs go overseas as well; Reuters recently announced plans to hire reporters in India to cover the US financial sector

US Senators Charles Schumer, Tom Daschle, Mark Dayton, Byron Dorgan, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Tim Johnson, Jon Corzine, Debbie Stabenow, Richard Durbin, Carl Levin, Robert Byrd, Patrick Leahy, Paul Sarbanes, John Edwards, Daniel Akaka, Tom Harkin, Edward Kennedy, Dianne Feinstein, and others are sending a letter to the President today asking him to repudiate the Council of Economic Advisers position stating that the outsourcing of US jobs to workers overseas is good for the nation's economy and to amend the Economic Report of the President to reflect that change.

"The President always said he had a jobs program. It's just too bad it's for jobs overseas," Schumer said. "The President needs to personally repudiate this position immediately and show a little more sensitivity to helping the million of American workers who have seen their jobs go abroad. To do anything less is tantamount to giving all those companies who are moving jobs out of the US a wink and a nod telling them 'keep it up, boys.'"

The annual Economic Report of the President that was released on Monday stated: "One facet of increased services trade is the increased use of offshore outsourcing in which a company locates labor-intensive service industry functions to another country. For example, a US firm might use a call-center in India to handle customer service-related questions. The principal novelty of outsourcing services is the means by which foreign purchases are delivered. Whereas imported goods might arrive by ship, outsourced services are often delivered using telephone lines or the Internet. The basic economic forces behind the transactions are the same, however. When a good or service is produced more cheaply abroad, it makes more sense to import it than to make or provide it domestically."

In a letter being sent to the President today, Schumer, Corzine, Clinton, Stabenow, Durbin, Levin, Byrd, Leahy, Sarbanes, Edwards, Akaka, Harkin, Kennedy, and Feinstein wrote:
"We are troubled by the report's tone and its conclusions, which fail to capture the human toll behind the recent rise in offshore outsourcing. Offshore outsourcing is not simply a phenomenon of low-paying, inefficient jobs moving overseas or an Internet-driven "novelty." As we have seen from recent announcements, virtually every job category up and down the pay scale is now at risk: software engineers, machinists, newspaper reporters, accountants and radiologists. These are hard-working Americans who, in a very short period of time, have been forced to grapple with the introduction of enormous new pools of much lower paid but highly skilled workers now accessible in developing countries. This is a scale of change that we have not faced before. It is surprising that your advisors would categorize this new phenomenon so casually, when, in fact, we understand that the government has very little data on the true nature or extent of offshoring.

"We are also troubled by the astonishing statement of the Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Gregory Mankiw, that "outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade. More things are tradable than were tradable in the past and that's a good thing." He displays an alarming lack of sensitivity to the millions of unemployed Americans or low-wage workers who still can't make ends meet, and he fails to consider the new and extraordinary challenges facing U.S. workers.

"Mr. President, the number one concern we hear from our constituents is jobs. These working men and women and their families do not share the inexplicably cavalier attitude of your economic advisors. We once again respectfully request that you repudiate the Council's report and instead work with us to better understand the effects of the new phenomenon of offshoring on American jobs and businesses and how we preserve the strength of the U.S. economy and workforce."

Reuters recently announced plans to hire six journalists in Bangalore, India to do financial reporting on 3,000 US companies. Although Reuters, is headquartered in London, it draws most of its revenue from its financial reporting products. These plans are part of a pilot project related to a much larger effort, announced by Reuters late last year, that will send about 200 of its data-entry jobs to Bangalore from England and the United States.

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