Political Appointees Re-Write Commerce Department Report On Offshore Outsourcing

[mrbowler]

Looks like another possible attempt to control information by Commerce & White House. Has anyone seen any other reports in regards to this?

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"According to those who have tracked the report's whereabouts, it was completed well before the November 2004 presidential election but was delayed for clearance by the White House and the Republican-controlled Congress due to the controversial nature of the subject."


I did locate this discussion from transcripts on CNN:
(not sure if link still works?)

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BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This 12-page report cost more than $300,000 and was delivered to Congress over a year late. It is a report by the Commerce Department on the impact of the off shoring of American jobs.

Its release came only after a Freedom of Information Act filing by "Manufacturing and Technology News," which first drew attention to the doctored report, and under pressure from the House Science Committee, which funded the study. RICHARD MCCORMACK, "MANUFACTURING & TECHNOLOGY NEWS": I'm not sure if it's a lie or if it's just a cover-up or -- they won't answer those questions so I don't know.

I asked the questions but they didn't answer them. So what it is, is 12 pages of not breaking any ground on a really important issue.

TUCKER: Even more disturbing is the report presented to Congress is not the report that analysts wrote.

RON HIRA, AUTHOR, "OUTSOURCING AMERICA": This is a very disturbing revelation and questions a lot of the integrity of reports that come out of the government.

TUCKER: In the rewritten report, Congress is told that it is, quote, "not possible to determine whether the shift of U.S. work to non-U.S. locations resulted in job losses for U.S. workers."

Yet at a presentation in December, the report's authors acknowledged that there is a, quote, "surplus of low-cost, technically-skilled labor in other countries," and that there is, quote, "growing pressure in corporate America to offshore I.T. work."

MARTIN KENNEY, UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA-DAVIS: We the people expect our government to be unbiased and therefore providing us the best possible information and providing our representatives in Congress the best possible information from which to make policy. And I think in this case the report fails.

TUCKER: Representative David Wu is on the committee that commissioned the report and has issued a statement saying the report did not address the congressional mandate and he is concerned that it was substantially changed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCKER: Well, late tonight the committee's ranking member, Congressman Bart Gordon from Tennessee called me and called the report, quote, "a scrubbed down, white-washed report," unquote.

The Commerce Department denies that the report was changed or is, in fact, biased. The spokesman also noted, Lou, that the department is in the middle of a second study on off shoring. This is a two-year deal and it's funded for $2 million.

DOBBS: Well, I think we ought to -- as we have said -- straight out, the government has in point of fact lied to us and we would like to have anyone from the Commerce Department, the United States government come here and set us straight on that because I'm tired of hearing people say it appears it was changed, it was this. It was changed. It was doctored straightforwardly.

TUCKER: You talk to the people who saw the original presentation and the one that was presented to Congress -- it was changed. DOBBS: And as I remind everybody on this broadcast, our staff, our producers, and what we try to bring to you at home every night is a nonpartisan reality. That's our responsibility.

It's also the responsibility of our government, and a responsibility that they fail altogether to fulfill in this case.

Thank you very much, Bill Tucker.