President Obama Issues Call to Action to Invest in America at ‘Insourcing American Jobs’ Forum

Washington, DC — Today, President Obama called on companies across the nation to invest in America at an “Insourcing American Jobs” forum at the White House.

The forum focused on the increasing trend of insourcing – where companies are bringing jobs back to the United States and making additional investments here in America.  The President, Vice President, members of the Cabinet and other Senior Administration Officials will lead a discussion on ways to encourage companies across the country to insource American jobs and help rebuild our economy for the future.

In the coming weeks, the President will put forward new ways to encourage

American companies to seize this opportunity to increase investment here at home and bring jobs back to America.

The President will put forward new tax proposals to reward companies that choose to invest or bring back jobs to the United States, and to eliminate tax advantages for companies moving jobs overseas.

“Today I am meeting with companies choosing to invest in the one country with the most productive workers, best universities, and most creative and innovative entrepreneurs in the world: the United States of America,” President Obama said in prepared remarks.

“That’s exactly the kind of commitment to country we need – especially now, at this make-or-break moment for the middle class.  And I’m calling on those businesses that haven’t brought jobs back to take this opportunity to get the American people back to work.  That’s how we’ll rebuild an economy where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded – and a nation where those values live on.”

“Since day one, this Administration has been focused on encouraging investment and job creation here at home,” *Vice President Biden* added.

“The business leaders coming here from across the country today have looked at the facts and concluded what the President and I have been saying all along: that America is the best place in the world to do business and create jobs,” Biden said.  “We’re calling on other companies to follow their lead and bring jobs back to America—jobs that provide middle-class families not just with a paycheck, but with a fundamental sense of dignity.”

In conjunction with the forum, the White House today released a report that details the emerging trend of “insourcing” and how companies are increasingly choosing to invest in the United States.

For example, real business fixed investment has grown by about 18% since the end of 2009. In the past two years, 334,000 manufacturing jobs have been created, while manufacturing production has increased by about 5.7% on an annualized basis since its low in June of 2009, its fastest pace in a decade.

In addition, continued productivity growth has – as several outside analysts have noted – made the United States more competitive in attracting businesses to invest and create jobs by reducing the relative cost of doing business compared to other countries.

While other countries often advocate at the national level for business investment, the United States has historically left this activity to the states.

The President launched the *SelectUSA program in 2011 to address this critical gap, creating the first federal program to promote and facilitate U.S. investment in partnership with our states.

To build on early success, the President will propose, in his FY13 Budget, $12 million in new resources to increase SelectUSA to 35 full-time employees.  An expanded SelectUSA will: build investment programs and support more investment cases.

As a part of the administration’s ongoing “We Can’t Wait” efforts, the administration also announced several common-sense steps it has taken to incentivize insourcing, inclusive of: building use of Small Business Administration’s Trade Loan program to support small businesses seeking to insource; launching a partnership between Commerce and the State

Department to promote investment in 10 priority countries through the

Foreign Commercial Service supported by the U.S. Embassies; and increasing support for states’ efforts to promote investment through federal officials in Export Assistance Centers (USEACs) in more than 100 cities.