Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., announced a new plan Thursday to keep jobs in the country and promote corporate transparency.
According to a news release, the bill would require customer service call centers to inform callers about the location of the call center.
“We have seen employment fall dramatically in recent years,” McCaskill said. “Some of that is due to the recession, but some is due to outsourcing.”
She said almost everyone has had an experience when they called a customer service number and were routed to a foreign call center. McCaskill said she once asked what country she was calling and was refused the information.
“This legislation requires call centers to declare the location of the call center,” McCaskill said.
She said most Americans prefer to speak to someone in the same country when they ask for customer service. McCaskill said companies should pay attention to customer preferences, especially since keeping the call centers in the U.S. would stimulate the economy.
“It gives an advantage to the center,” she said. “Smart companies will advertise it.”
She said that although this bill won’t be saving the economy, it will certainly help, and makes more sense to keep business local.
“Will it make a huge difference?” McCaskill said. “I don’t know, probably not, but they spend a lot of time and money training foreigners for these jobs.”
Some businesses are already on board, like MBS Textbook Exchange, Inc., which operates the Columbia call center where McCaskill announced her plan.
“We kept the call centers in America to better serve our customers,” MBS Director of Human Resources Jerome Raider said.
In response to questions about whether this legislation would seem too invasive, McCaskill said we need regulations such as these to maintain our quality of life.
“We take for granted that our children can drink tap water,” she said. “Most countries can’t say that.”
She also said the government ought to enforce existing regulations meant to help the economy. McCaskill said although companies often are investigated for violating regulations, they are rarely punished.
Speaking about the economy as a whole, McCaskill said everyone, including the federal government, needs to “reign in spending.”
“Government spending to create jobs only works in the short term — it doesn’t work in the long term,” McCaskill said.
When asked if Speaker of the House John Boehner’s scheduling conflict with President Barack Obama over a joint session of Congress was a political fight, the senator denied it was anything but a simple scheduling conflict.
“I’ve seen fights,” McCaskill said. “This was not a fight.”
She then called out the media for trumping up minor incidents like these to try to get fights started.
She also assured reporters that Joplin would be getting relief funds from the federal government, despite the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s aid cuts. She praised the political parties for uniting over the issue of Joplin’s recovery.
“I think we’re going to be fine,” McCaskill said.