Outsourcing in Senate’s crosshairs

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Outsourcing in Senate’s crosshairs

By SEUNG MIN KIM | 6/27/12
The Senate is likely to take up legislation aimed at curbing job outsourcing after the July 4 recess, a vote that would come amid the Obama campaign’s relentless hammering against Mitt Romney and Bain Capital’s overseas investments.
It’s another example of election-year coordination between the White House and Senate Democrats, who have already held votes on the Buffett Rule, pay-equity legislation and student loan interest rates that aligned with the administration’s message.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, whose organization will be staging rallies and demonstrations in favor of the bill, said the vote would be a chance for Romney to “put your money where your mouth is.”

“I would ask Mitt Romney, do you support his bill or don’t you?” Trumka told POLITICO on Wednesday. “His companies were the pioneers of this outsourcing and now he says he’s against it. This is a chance for him to prove it, so he can say ‘I’m for this bill’ or ‘I’m against the bill.’ And that’ll tell the American public a lot.”
The outsourcing bill, sponsored by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), would give qualifying companies a 20 percent tax credit for costs associated with bringing jobs that are now overseas back to the United States. It would also end a certain tax deduction for companies that outsourced jobs. The legislation is called the Bring Jobs Home Act.
Trumka said he expected a vote in the Senate around July 10. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Wednesday that while the floor schedule for July has not been finalized, a vote on Stabenow’s bill around then is a “strong possibility.”
Reid hinted as much in his weekly news conference on Tuesday, telling reporters that the Senate will bring up measures that deal with small businesses, as well as the outsourcing issues, during the next work period.
“We have a lot of things to do that create jobs, and I think the test of bipartisanship is whether [Republicans] will work with us to create jobs or continue betting on how bad the economy is going to be,” Reid said then.