October, 05 2020, 12:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Derrick Robinson (202) 909-6355, Rdrobinson@citizen.org
Matthew Groch (202) 454-5111, mgroch@citizen.org
During Trump Presidency, 200,000 Jobs Offshored and Corporations Involved Awarded $425 Billion in Federal Contracts
Public Citizen releases new report "promises made, workers betrayed: Trump’s bigly broken promise to stop job offshoring."
WASHINGTON
President Donald Trump has awarded more than $425 billion in federal contracts to corporations listed among those responsible for offshoring 200,000 American jobs during his presidency, according to a new report released today by Public Citizen.
In 2016, Trump promised voters in key industrial swing states that he would end job offshoring. He said he would deny firms that offshored from U.S. government contracts so that they would bring jobs back to America in order to keep billions in lucrative government business. Yet eight out of the top 10 firms receiving government contracts during the Trump presidency have been government-certified as having offshored jobs, the report reveals.
Public Citizen's report, which analyzes U.S. Labor Department (DoL) trade-related job loss and USASpending procurement data includes tables of firms, contract amounts and jobs offshored.
Key report findings include:
- To date, 311,427 American workers have been government-certified as losing jobs to trade during Trump's presidency, with 202,543 jobs explicitly certified as offshored.
- Under Trump, one-in-four taxpayer dollars spent on federal procurement contracts - at least $425.6 billion - went to firms offshoring jobs during his presidency.
- Half of the top 10 recipients of Trump-era contracts were certified by the U.S. government as having offshored jobs during the Trump administration.
- Trump is currently pledging to ban federal contracts to firms that offshore to China, but to date has awarded $113.9 billion to firms that did just that. Top-100 federal contract recipients, Boeing, General Electric, Dell, Honeywell and Merck collectively offshored 6,038 jobs to China during the Trump administration and were awarded $113.9 billion in government contracts starting in FY 2017.
- United Technologies (UT) was a top recipient of Trump government contracts, receiving $15.1 billion dollars from FY 2017 to FY 2019 even as it offshored at least 1,300 of the Carrier jobs that president-elect Trump pledged to save. Jobs of 600 workers at Carrier's Indianapolis plant and all 700 at Carrier's Huntington, Indiana plant were offshored to Mexico in 2017. Under Trump the DoL certified UT as offshoring a total of 1,572 jobs and previously certified 11,459 jobs offshored among the 16,981 jobs that the DoL shows that UT eliminated due to trade.
- Of the top 50 federal contractors, by dollars awarded in FYs 2017, 2018 and 2019, 28% were government-certified as having engaged in offshoring during the Trump administration, and of the top 100, 25% had offshored American jobs during his term. Many of the top 100 firms to which the Trump administration awarded government contracts offshored jobs during his administration and were notorious chronic job offshorers certified for tens of thousands of job losses.
- Boeing, General Electric and UT were among the largest recipients of government contracts during the Trump era even as they all offshored jobs. During the Trump administration, Boeing offshored 5,800 jobs; General Electric offshored 2,046; and United Technologies offshored 1,572 jobs - including many from its Carrier division, the firm whose workers Trump promised to save.
- The Trump administration awarded on average 2.5 times the amount, or $10 billion more, in contracts to firms that offshored during his term than to those that did not.
The report was released at a press conference (recording available here). Participating members of Congress discussed the report's findings:
Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources said:
"Trump lied to America's workers when he told them jobs were staying in the United States. Under his watch jobs have left while he continues rewarding outsourcing corporations with millions of dollars in lucrative government contracts - in the middle of a pandemic. This latest report by Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch confirms the gaping hole between Trump's campaign promises and his failed leadership. Hard-working Americans who have dedicated decades to these companies are now forced to fend for themselves in an unstable job market that continues reeling from the impacts of COVID-19. Working families deserve better."
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said: "After promising Michiganders the moon, there's been a net loss of over 50,000 manufacturing jobs under Trump. And he's currently the first president in generations to oversee a net job loss. This report shows what workers in my state already know: the Trump administration awarded at least $425 billion in government contracts to corporations that offshored U.S. jobs. He may have promised workers to end job offshoring. But his actions show, he was really just paying billions to corporations who took away American jobs. Bringing the supply chain back to America strengthens domestic manufacturing and improves national security."
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) said: "I first ran for Congress to put an end to the destructive trade deals that were shipping jobs overseas. In 2016, Trump struck a chord with voters in my district, and across the country, by promising to bring those jobs back - but he has done just the opposite. Since elected, President Trump has given tax incentives and awarded hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts to corporations that send jobs overseas. Enough is enough. It is past time to level the playing field and cut American workers in on the deal."
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said: "Time and time again, Donald Trump has proven that he will always put his corporate friends' profits over the lives of American workers. An administration that has promised to bring jobs back to our country - including Wisconsin - has given some of the largest government contract handouts to companies known for offshoring jobs. The people of Wisconsin are fed up with the endless broken promises from Donald Trump and job losses that have only gotten worse because of his failure to respond to this pandemic. Donald Trump has failed American workers."
Rep. Brendon Boyle (D-Pa.) said: "As a candidate in 2016, President Trump said he'd stop job offshoring and quickly. As President, his administration has overseen 200,000+ jobs offshored. Working families know this economy is stacked against them as American workers face stagnant wages, benefit reductions and unfair foreign competition. Many of the top 100 firms to whom the Trump administration awarded government contracts, are notorious & chronic job offshorers. President Trump simply failed in holding up his end of the bargain when he allowed these jobs to land in foreign countries."
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass. ) also commented on the report: "This report is more evidence that Donald Trump is the King of Offshoring. For his entire term in office, Trump has awarded billions in new government contracts to firms notorious for serial American job outsourcing, showered giant multinational corporations with tax giveaways, shrugged his shoulders while people get laid off and jobs are shipped overseas - and he keeps lying through his teeth about it all. We need a President and a Congress that will defend our workers and create jobs here at home."
Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch said: "This is straight up promises made, workers betrayed. Trump won in 2016 by pledging to voters in key industrial swing states that he would end job offshoring but 200,000 more American jobs have been offshored during his presidency. Trump said he would bar firms that offshored from getting U.S. government contracts so that they'd bring jobs back to America in order to keep that lucrative government business but eight out of the top 10 firms receiving government contracts during the Trump presidency have been government-certified as having offshored jobs with at least one of every four taxpayer dollars spent on federal procurement contracts - at least $425.6 billion - going to firms offshoring jobs during his presidency."
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
(202) 588-1000LATEST NEWS
Rights Groups Urge Biden to Make Delayed Report on Israel's Use of US Arms Public
The report—due Wednesday under the terms of a White House directive—has been indefinitely postponed, according to congressional aides.
May 07, 2024
Before Tuesday's reporting that the Biden administration will delay a highly anticipated report on whether Israel is using U.S. military aid in compliance with international law, a coalition of advocacy groups circulated a letter urging the White House to share the document with the public once it's published.
In February, President Joe Biden issued National Security Memorandum (NSM)-20, which requires Secretary of State Antony Blinken "to obtain certain credible and reliable written assurances from foreign governments" receiving U.S. arms "that the recipient country will use any such defense articles in accordance with international humanitarian law" and then provide Congress with periodic reports "to enable meaningful oversight."
The first report is due by Wednesday. However, four congressional aides
toldPolitico Tuesday that publication would be postponed indefinitely.
"It is not clear if your administration intends to... make this report available to the public," coalition members Amnesty International USA, Defending Rights & Dissent, Freedom of the Press Foundation, National Press Photographers Association, Radio Television Digital News Association, and Reporters Without Borders said in a letter to Biden drafted ahead of Politico's reporting.
"We strongly urge you to make the report available to the public and the press to the greatest extent possible," the groups added.
Access to the document, the coalition argued, "will allow the press to more fully and accurately report on how elected leaders are making decisions about military aid to foreign countries" and "will help Americans make informed judgments about our leaders' decisions on foreign military aid."
"We strongly urge you to make the report available to the public and the press to the greatest extent possible."
The letter comes as Israel uses U.S.-supplied arms and ammunition to wage what hundreds of international legal experts and others say is a genocidal war on Gaza. These include 155-millimeter artillery shells and 2,000-pound guided "bunker-buster" bombs, which Israel says are necessary to target Hamas' underground tunnels.
Aided by artificial intelligence-based target selection systems, Israel Defense Forces commanders are ordering strikes they know will cause large numbers of civilian casualties. In a bid to assassinate a single Hamas commander, the IDF dropped at least two 2,000-pound bombs on the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp on October 31, killing more than 120 civilians.
Even the U.S. military—which since 2001 has killed hundreds of thousands of people during the open-ended so-called War on Terror—avoids using 2,000-pound bombs in densely populated areas due to the tremendous damage they cause.
One prominent U.S. military historian called Israel's Gaza onslaught "one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history," comparing it to the Allied firebombing of Dresden during World War II, which also killed tens of thousands of civilians.
The letter also comes as the Biden administration reportedly believes that Israel's nascent ground invasion of Rafah does not cross the president's "red line" warning that any "major operation" in the southern city—where more than 1 million Palestinians forcibly displaced from other parts of Gaza are sheltering alongside around 280,000 local residents—would damage U.S.-Israeli relations.
The International Court of Justice found in January that Israel is "plausibly" perpetrating genocide in Gaza, where Israeli bombs, bullets, and blockades have left more than 123,000 Palestinians—most of them women and children—dead, injured, or missing since October 7, and hundreds of thousands more suffering full-blown famine.
While the Biden administration has accepted the Israeli government's claims that it is not breaking international law when using American weapons, a number of House Democrats have challenged Israel's assurance, citing "mounting credible and deeply troubling reports and allegations" of human rights crimes committed by IDF troops in Gaza, and by soldiers and settlers in the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Officials at the United States Agency for International Development also concluded in a confidential April memo to Blinken that Israel is violating NSM-20 by blocking humanitarian aid from entering the besieged Gaza Strip as children there starve to death.
Furthermore, a leaked State Department memo revealed last month that officials at four of the agency's bureaus concluded that Israel's assurances of legal arms use are "neither credible nor reliable."
In addition to NSM-20, federal legislation including the Arms Control Export Act and Leahy Laws also proscribe U.S. arms transfers to human rights violators—although there are many examples of these statutes being ignored for the benefit of key allies including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other nations.
"The public has a profound interest in understanding how the U.S. ensures that its military aid doesn't go to human rights abusers," Caitlin Vogus, deputy advocacy director at Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement Tuesday.
"If the Biden administration can stand behind its decisions about defense assistance, it should have no reason to withhold the report that members of Congress will see from the press and the public," Vogus added.
While Biden has criticized Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza and is reportedly holding up two shipments of precision-guided bombs to send a message to Israeli leaders, the president continues to affirm his steadfast support for Israel and has recently approved the transfer of more warplanes, 2,000-pound bombs, and other arms to its key Middle Eastern ally. The administration is also pushing Congress to approve the sale of $18 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Israel.
Earlier this year, a group of mostly Democratic members of Congress asked Blinken to explain what they called "highly unusual" moves by the Biden administration to bypass lawmakers in order to fast-track emergency military aid to Israel. Biden—who recently signed off on $14.3 billion in new armed aid to Israel atop the $4 billion it already gets from Washington each year—has also come under fire for approving more than 100 weapons sales to Israel since October.
Human rights defenders slammed Biden's reported decision to postpone publication of the report due on Wednesday.
"It's obvious why Biden is burying the NSM-20 report on Israel: He won't hold Israel accountable," Georgetown University adjunct professor Josh Reubner asserted on social media. "There's no way to conclude that Israel hasn't violated assurances it won't use U.S. weapons to break international law or block aid. Of course it's doing both."
Palestinian American author and political analyst Yousef Munayyer asked: "Hey, Joe Biden, what are you hidin'?"
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Overdue But Welcome': Biden Reportedly Holds Back Bombs for Israel
"The White House must leave no stone unturned in its effort to stop the Israeli government's offensive on Rafah—the hundreds of thousands displaced there do not have more time," said the head of Win Without War.
May 07, 2024
Anti-war voices on Tuesday welcomed Politico's reporting that U.S. President Joe Biden's administration is delaying "shipments of two types of Boeing-made precision bombs to send a political message to Israel," which on Monday launched a long-awaited invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
"The U.S. has yet to sign off on a pending sale of Boeing's Joint Direct Attack Munitions—both the munitions and kits that convert them to smart weapons—and Small Diameter Bombs," according to Politico, which cited unnamed congressional and industry sources. "While the Biden administration has not formally denied the potential sale, it is essentially taking action through inaction—holding off on approvals and other aspects of the weapons transfer process."
The piece followed Axiosreporting Sunday that Israeli officials said the administration "last week put a hold on a shipment of U.S.-made ammunition" and The Wall Street Journal's Monday revelation that it "has held up delivery of Joint Direct Attack Munitions."
"If President Biden is taking the overdue but necessary step... he cannot leave his intentions open to miscommunication or spin."
The White House has neither confirmed nor denied Politico's report, which came as Biden again conflated campus protests against Israel's war on Gaza with antisemitism. Since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the U.S.-backed offensive in October, Biden has faced mounting pressure to cut off arms to the country and use his influence to end the bloodshed.
"Reports that the Biden administration is delaying the sale of at least two types of bombs to the Israeli government, in reaction to its disastrous conduct of the war in Gaza, are highly welcome. That conduct is again on international display in Rafah this week, where the Israeli military has begun an invasion that, as we at Win Without War have previously warned, could lead to further horrific war crimes," the group's executive director, Sara Haghdoosti, said in a statement Tuesday.
"Now that this news has leaked, senior administration officials must publicly confirm this policy shift," she said. "If President Biden is taking the overdue but necessary step to condition weapons sales in line with U.S. law and policy and to force changes in Israeli government strategy, he cannot leave his intentions open to miscommunication or spin from those, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, who are continuing this conflict for their own political benefit. The White House must leave no stone unturned in its effort to stop the Israeli government's offensive on Rafah—the hundreds of thousands displaced there do not have more time."
Over a million Palestinians from across Gaza have crowded into Rafah since October, as Israeli forces have killed at least 34,789 people, wounded another 78,204, and destroyed civilian infrastructure in the strip, which has been under Hamas control for nearly two decades. The International Court of Justice has said Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in the besieged enclave.
While multiple congressional Republicans condemned the Biden administration's supposed move to delay the delivery of the bombs to Israel, critics of the Israeli assault joined Haghdoosti in welcoming the development—which comes on the heels of Congress and the president approving billions more in military aid for Israel.
"Glad to see it. I wish they would've started sending this message thousands of lives ago, as so many urged," Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, said on social media.
Brian Finucane, senior adviser to the Crisis Group's U.S. program, agreed the move is "good if true" and "an easy step the Biden administration should have taken months ago."
Refugees International president Jeremy Konyndyk, called it an "overdue but welcome development" that "hopefully... signals a pivot to beginning to impose more overt conditionality on U.S. arms transfers."
Politico separately reported Tuesday that according to congressional sources, "the Biden administration's report on whether Israel has violated U.S. and international humanitarian law during the war in Gaza has been delayed indefinitely."
The Israeli War Cabinet—made up of Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Benny Gantz, former chief of the general staff for the Israel Defense Forces—opted to attack Rafah on Monday despite Hamas agreeing to a cease-fire and hostage release deal. Biden previously said that Israel invading the crowded city was a "red line" and is now facing calls to stand by that position.
"The Israeli government has once again proven that it will respect no red lines and that it will go to any lengths to slaughter Palestinians and push them off their land," said Council on American-Islamic Relations national executive director Nihad Awad.
"The Biden administration can no longer enable these genocidal war crimes or Benjamin Netanyahu's brazen flouting of the United States," Awad added. "We urge the Biden administration to condemn the Israeli government's latest crimes, suspend military funding, and use American leverage to secure an immediate end to the genocide."
Keep ReadingShow Less
NYC Driver Rams Into Anti-Genocide Protest, Hospitalizes One
"Zionists on the streets and in police precincts have declared open season on young people fighting for Palestinian liberation," said one Columbia University student group.
May 07, 2024
One pro-Palestinian protester was hospitalized on Tuesday after a pro-Israel driver "intentionally drove" into a group of picketers outside the home of one of Columbia University's trustees on New York City's Upper East Side, as demonstrations against Israel's bombardment of Gaza continued.
According to Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), the protesters "were attacked on the crosswalk" by an "Upper East Side Zionist."
CUAD reported that the man drove up to the demonstrators, who have been calling on Columbia to divest from companies that contract with Israel and for the U.S. government to stop supporting the Israel Defense Forces, and asked for a flyer before grabbing a protester by the arm.
He then "circled the block to drive into our peaceful demonstration," striking one person who was "arrested and handcuffed to the bed while in the hospital," said CUAD.
The New York Police Department
toldUSA Today that an argument broke out between the driver and the protesters and that "as the group of roughly 25 demonstrators walked away, a driver hit one person with his Volvo."
CUAD noted that the alleged attack took place as U.S. politicians including President Joe Biden have condemned the campus protest movement, with at least one lawmaker
applauding abusive behavior by anti-Palestinian counter-protesters and New York City Council member Vickie Paladino (R-19) saying last week that the student movement is being led by "monsters, and it's now our job to slay them."
Paladino's "call for vigilante justice was almost fulfilled today," said CUAD.
USA Today also reported that at a separate protest on the Upper West Side near the apartment building of the co-chair of Columbia's board of trustees, "a woman punched a demonstrator in the face, seemingly at random."
In Los Angeles last week, city police stood by while a mob of pro-Israel counter-protesters
attacked nonviolent students who had set up an encampment in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has killed at least 34,789 and on Monday invaded Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced.
On Tuesday, in honor of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Annual Days of Remembrance, Biden gave a speech on antisemitism, conflating protests in support of Palestinian rights with the hatred of Jewish people.
CUAD and independent reporter Talia Jane said the driver is a relative of the late Meir Kahane, an American-born Israeli far-right extremist.
The driver's "actions today model a trend in which Zionists weaponize their discomfort over political slogans as an excuse to assault Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Black, brown, and dissident Jewish protesters in violent retaliation for imagined threats," said CUAD. "Just as white supremacists ran over a protester in Charlottesville, Zionists on the streets and in police precincts have declared open season on young people fighting for Palestinian liberation."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular