9.7.06 GAO CONFIRMS THAT U.S. JOBS STILL GOING OVERSEAS

Washington, DC - Today, the GAO released a report on the offshoring of American jobs. This report, entitled OFFSHORING: U.S. Semiconductor and Software Industries Increasingly Produce in China and India (GAO-06-423), largely confirms the findings in the Technology Administration's long-suppressed report on off-shoring in knowledge intensive industries.

GAO found, as Commerce analysts did before them, that offshoring continues to increase in both the Semiconductor and Software industries.

House Science Committee Ranking Member Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) offered the following comment on the new GAO report:

"Offshoring is moving up the technological food chain with more sophisticated jobs and facilities going overseas. For workers this translates into flat job growth and stagnant wages, which is hard on American families and our communities. We need to find ways for American workers to compete in the world economy without sacrificing their standard of living.

I applaud the GAO for initiating this study and would welcome additional studies on offshoring trends and their impact on the U.S. workforce. What has been a disappointment to me is the Administration's and the Republican Congressional Leadership's lack of interest in understanding what is happening to working Americans. Without that understanding, we cannot develop effective solutions to keep high-wage, high-tech jobs in the United States."

Science Democrats have worked to bring the truth about offshoring to light. They released a report this July, written in 2004 by Technology Administration analysts, after the Department of Commerce repeatedly refused to make it public. That report is entitled An Overview of Workforce Globalization in the U.S. IT Services and Software, U.S. Semiconductor and the U.S. Pharmaceuticals Industries. It largely supports the GAO's findings.

Last fall, Rep. Gordon and Science Committee Democrats also introduced Congress' first package of competitiveness legislation to address key recommendations of the widely-recognized Rising Above the Gathering Storm report on U.S. competitiveness and jobs in the global marketplace. That package includes H.R. 4434, 10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds Science and Math Scholarship Act, H.R. 4435, Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) Act, and H.R. 4596, Sowing the Seeds Through Science and Engineering Research Act.

The House Science Committee passed legislation in June which incorporated much of the Democrats' legislative package. Democrats continue to push for further action on the legislation.