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President Obama raised concerns over the impact of last week's Supreme Court decision on campaign spending by foreign corporations in his State of the Union Address. However, the law in this area is clear, election spending by foreign companies and foreign nationals are already prohibited. Conversely, the U.S. operations of foreign companies and the 5.5 million Americans they employ should have the same political rights as any other U.S. company.
Click here to read OFII's full press release regarding this issue.
Building off of President Obama's comments, many congressional Democrats are pushing for legislation to counter the recent Supreme Court ruling on campaign spending. However, OFII President & CEO Nancy McLernon warned against such a rush to judgement, saying in a recent Washington Post article, "...it's not good policy in today's economy."
Click here to read the full Washington Post article and click here to read a Wall Street Journal op-ed on the subject.
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On December 7th the Department of Energy released its second Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E). The FOA includes revised language on eligibility for the program and now permits the full participation of US operations of foreign companies, or Insourcing Companies.
This is a significant reversal of the DOE's earlier discriminatory eligibility restrictions and today's FOA signals a welcome environment in DOE procurement policy that allows OFII members to equally compete with other companies.
Click here to read the full FOA |
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Insourcing Companies & America's Energy Challenges
OFII recently released a new paper, "Achieving U.S. Energy Goals: How Americans at Insourcing Companies are Already on the Job," highlighting the many contributions of Insourcing Companies in helping solve America's energy challenges. Written by Dartmouth Professor & OFII Economic Advisor, Matthew Slaughter, the paper also warns against goverment policies that severely limit the participantion of the millions of Americas working for these firms.
USA TODAY ran the article "Energy Projects Limit Role of Foreign Firm's U.S. Units'' on Nov. 30 citing OFII's new paper. The article quotes Nancy McLernon, OFII President & CEO, stating, "The definition of an American company is not the same today as it was 50 years ago. If the administration makes decisions based on outdated views, they're not doing all they can to generate jobs now." |
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