Murray, Cantwell vote to ‘Bring Jobs Home’ but GOP kills bill

UPDATE (July 19) — from AFL-CIO Now — Senate Republicans say ‘Don’t Bring Jobs Home’— Given the choice between supporting American workers or the corporations that ship U.S. jobs overseas, Senate Republicans sided with the job exporters last Thursday and blocked a vote on the Bring Jobs Home Act. Republicans filibustered to block the measure; a 56-42 vote fell just four votes of the 60 required to advance the legislation. (Both Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray voted in favor of the bill.)

(July 13) — As CEO at Bain Capital, Mitt Romney earned “jaw-dropping profits” by closing U.S. factories, laying off hundreds of workers, sending those jobs overseas and stashing money in offshore tax havens. The Washington Post ran a scathing article on Romney’s Bain Capital for owning “companies that were pioneers” in the practice of shipping work from the U.S. overseas.

Congress must fix these outsourcing practices. We have lost 6 million manufacturing jobs while our trade deficits have ballooned and the largest nonfinancial companies in the United States sat on record amounts of cash.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Right now, we can take a big step toward stopping some of this destruction. In the coming weeks, the U.S. Senate is expected to take up the Bring Jobs Home Act. This bill would stop corporations from deducting their moving expenses when they export U.S. jobs to other countries.

This week, the House Republicans — including Washington’s Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, “Doc” Hastings and Dave Reichert — blocked the Bring Jobs Home Act from consideration. But the Democrat-controlled Senate can force the issue by passing this important legislation.

Call Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell (or your state’s U.S. senator) RIGHT NOW at 1-888-659-9401 and tell them to support the Bring Jobs Home Act.

Our primary focus should be helping working families — not Big Business — by creating and saving good jobs at home and supporting the patriotic companies that create jobs in the United States. Companies like Boeing, which The Seattle Times reported this week is bringing back 787 supply chain work from overseas and permanently assigning it to in-house workers in Everett and Charleston. Bringing jobs home — as Boeing is doing — should be encouraged, but instead, U.S. tax policy actually rewards companies from offshoring American jobs.

We need to work together to hold our senators accountable and make sure they support not only the Bring Jobs Home Act but other measures that would:

• Stop currency manipulation by our trading partners;
• Tax the overseas income of U.S. corporations the same way we tax their domestic income, so they no longer can lower their tax bill by shifting income and jobs overseas;
• Bar companies that send call center jobs overseas from receiving federal grants and tax breaks; and
• Push for fair trade policies that benefit workers—not just multinational corporations.

Thank you for taking action for good jobs for working families. To find a Bring Jobs Home event near you, click here.

ALSO at The Stand — Former Kimberly-Clark workers urge Congress to pass bring Jobs Home Act