Donnelly Reproves Carrier, Advises Penalties For Moving Jobs

U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., hasn’t written a bill on how to dissuade companies from moving jobs overseas. Instead, he’s written policy recommendations that he’s sent to the Senate Finance Committee. He says it’s faster.

“The advantage is trying to get it done as quickly as possible, and by sending it to the Finance Committee, they can incorporate it in pieces of legislation that are already in process,” Donnelly says.

The recommendations come as Indiana-headquartered Carrier is moving more than 2,000 jobs from Indiana to Mexico.

Among those recommendations – not allowing companies to deduct costs of moving jobs overseas from their federal taxes, and giving tax incentives and training grants first to companies who have invested in an American workforce or returned jobs to the U.S.

Donnelly says for companies like United Technologies and Carrier that do send jobs out, the federal government should require the return of all incentives given within the past five years.

“I think they have the ultimate cynical business model, which is trying to make a product in the lowest cost place they can find, and then try to ship it back into the same country where they fired the workers,” he says. “They have almost $6 billion in federal contracts and we are looking at every single one.”

Donnelly also says he wants the U.S. to prioritize awarding federal contracts to companies that use domestic labor.

Donnelly’s fellow Hoosier Senator, Republican Dan Coats, sits on the Senate Finance Committee. But Donnelly says he hasn’t yet discussed his policy recommendations with Coats.