Arlington, Va. – Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) President Dave McCurdy issued the following statement in reaction to the recent introduction of Senator Tom Daschle’s (D-SD) “Jobs for Americans” legislation that would require companies to report on how many jobs are moved overseas: 

“The furor over recent comments made by White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman N. Gregory Mankiw concerning the offshore outsourcing of U.S. jobs, coupled with the Jobs for Americans legislation introduced last week by Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD) and other Democrats in Congress as well as rhetoric on the presidential campaign trail, unfortunately only illustrates our nation's short-term attention span when it comes to the future of the U.S. economy.

We need to face reality. Offshore outsourcing is happening, in part, because once-poor nations are enacting economic reforms, educating their workforce, gaining consumers and creating markets for products. Having said that, offshore outsourcing is a very real and legitimate issue for U.S. workers and one certainly deserving of our attention.  But the trend is merely a symptom of a much more pressing concern:  the future of innovation -- and high-tech job growth -- in the U.S. 

In the past 30 years, innovation has given us the Internet, cell phones and WiFi.  Innovation has also generated millions of high-skilled jobs.  Down the road, innovation will help us create a new wave of technological advances and high-skilled jobs -- if we plan for it now. 

Requiring that companies report how many jobs are being shipped overseas, as the Jobs for Americans bill would do, is similar in many ways to manufacturing plant closure notice legislation that was introduced in the 1980s when it was feared that “Japan, Inc.” was about to overtake the U.S.  Since that time the net wealth of Americans has increased dramatically.  The U.S. economy did not fold as a result of competition from Japan.  Instead, it adapted.

We need to pinpoint ways for our economy to adapt again by fostering innovation.  But our ability to adapt, to compete and to innovate alongside emerging world economic powers such as China and India is threatened here in the U.S. by a systematically weak education system, a lack of federal dollars for R&D funding, a post-9/11 security policy that prevents us from keeping talented student innovators, and a business climate less-friendly than other countries.

We appreciate the concern both political parties are starting to devote to this issue.  But partisan crossfire on job losses during an election year will get us nowhere. We need to decide what our nation's economy will look like in 6 years, let alone 6 months.  We need more than rhetoric. We need innovation legislation.   Because if we don't determine what tomorrow will look like, others will determine it for us.”