Rarely is federal legislation something other than a vehicle for government overreach and aggrandizement. Despite its populist-sounding title, the Global Investment in American Jobs Act – introduced in the Senate last week – is one of those rarities. The bill calls for an assessment of U.S. policies that influence decisions by foreigners about investing in the United States.
Properly modest in scope, the legislation simply authorizes to Commerce Department to produce a report that documents the importance of foreign investment, identifies home-grown impediments to such investment, and recommends policy changes that would make the United States a more attractive investment destination.
What is so refreshing about the bill is that its premise is not that the practices of foreign governments or the greed of U.S. corporations that allegedly “ship jobs overseas” are to blame for U.S. economic stagnation – themes so prominent in the past couple of Congresses and the current White House. Rather, the premise is that U.S. policy and its accumulated residue have created a web of impediments that discourage foreign investment in the United States, and that changes to those policies could serve to attract new investment. This kind of thinking is long overdue.
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