WASHINGTON -- October 29 -- A new Public Citizen report on the offshoring of U.S. jobs by major companies from the finance, computer and telecommunications sectors has found that the companies exported tens of thousands of jobs and benefited from a cozy relationship with President Bush. The president supported numerous pro-offshoring policies as the companies provided major financial support to his campaigns.

The report estimates that the 29 leading offshoring companies in the three skilled, white-collar sectors exported at least 53,000 jobs since 2000. Job losses are almost certainly much higher because the companies resist disclosing such information, and no federal or state reporting requirements exist for jobs sent offshore.

Public Citizen also found that executives, board members and employees of the 29 companies have been major contributors to Bush's presidential campaigns. Twenty-three Rangers and Pioneers from the three industry sectors bundled together a minimum of $3.5 million to assist Bush in the 2000 and 2004 campaigns. Rangers and Pioneers are the honorary titles given by the Bush campaign to fundraisers who bundle at least $200,000 or $100,000, respectively, in maximum $2,000 contributions.

The same 29 companies and their employees have given a total of at least $19.1 million in campaign contributions to Bush and the Republican National Committee since the 2000 election cycle, with an average of $657,000 per company contributed to benefit Bush.

The report documents numerous actions the Bush administration has taken to promote the offshoring of jobs or actions that it failed to take to stem the flow of jobs abroad. These include Bush's opposition to adding anti-offshoring provisions to government procurement contracts, encouraging companies to create jobs overseas by supporting the deferral of taxes on overseas profits, and ignoring the threat that offshoring poses to consumer privacy protections for medical and financial information.

"George W. Bush is the first U.S. president since Herbert Hoover to preside over a nation that has fewer jobs at the end of his first term than when he took office," said Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. "The major difference is that during the Depression, the U.S. economy collapsed and jobs disappeared completely. During the Bush years, the U.S. economy has continued to grow, and many jobs that disappeared from within our borders reappeared in far-off locations where labor costs are significantly lower."

Added Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch and an author of the report, "Central to President Bush's unprecedented fundraising machine has been the support of the leading companies moving U.S. jobs abroad. Having a friend in the White House ensures that there are no impediments to companies freely moving jobs around the globe - no matter what the cost to American workers and communities."

The report, Offshoring American Jobs: Corporations, Campaign Cash & Bush Administration Policies, is available at: www.whitehouseforsale.org

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