[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 3126]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       AMERICA'S ECONOMIC ISSUES

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise to very briefly address two subject 
matters. As I understand it, we will be moving later this morning to 
this ETI bill, or the extraterritorial income legislation. My fervent 
hope is that in addition to debating the underlying bill itself, we 
will also have an opportunity to raise questions about a staggering set 
of issues that is unfolding in our country, and that is the outsourcing 
of jobs all across this Nation to foreign lands.
  We all understand this happens from time to time, but the explosion 
that has occurred in the last 36 months is deeply alarming to many 
Americans. We now have lost some 2.6 million to 2.7 million jobs over 
the last 36 months in the manufacturing sector alone. Many of these 
jobs are showing up either offshore in places such as India, 
Bangladesh, the People's Republic of China, or elsewhere. There is 
great concern in this country that we are losing a very important 
strategic base in our Nation, not to mention these critically important 
jobs which can never be replaced.
  I inform my colleagues, and I know others feel similarly as I do, 
when we get to this bill there will be some opportunities to offer 
amendments and to address the very issue of American jobs.
  When we hear the administration say, as the chairman of the 
President's Council of Economic Advisers did just a few days ago, that 
outsourcing of jobs was a good thing for America, we begin to 
understand the depths of concern people have when the administration 
fails to understand, at least through its leadership, how critically 
important it is that we stand up and do what we can to preserve 
critically important jobs, although not at the expense of international 
trade. We all understand the importance of trade in a global economy, 
but we also understand if we are going to be a vibrant participant in a 
global economy that we have to produce the goods or the services to 
compete.
  If not only low-income jobs are given away but also high-technology 
jobs, information technology jobs, and engineering jobs, for instance, 
are leaving, then the ability of this country to compete in the 21st 
century is going to be severely disadvantaged.
  I look forward to the coming hours today, tomorrow, and possibly 
Friday, to engage with my colleagues in some of this debate and 
discussion. It will be the first time since we have returned that we 
are going to have a real debate and discussion about jobs in this 
country and what we might do in this body to address those issues.

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