Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2004 10:37:20 -0400
From: "Currinder, Marian" <Marian.Currinder@mail.house.gov>
Subject: RE: offshoring info
To: "'Joseph Mack NA3T'" <jmack@wm7d.net>
Content-type: text/plain

Dear Mr. Mack,

Hope this helps some ....

1.  Mr. Price has met w/ and heard from numerous folks who have lost their
jobs as a result of the recession -- including an organized group in the
district. He also spoke at an "out of jobs" high tech group several months
ago. He is very well aware of the problem and is concerned about it.

2.  He feels strongly that RTP will recover and that it will continue to be
a center of high tech growth and innovation.  

3.  Fundamentally, this is a problem that must be addressed through economic
development efforts and the recruitment of new businesses to the Triangle.  

3.  His response has been multi-faceted.  First, he has tried to make sure
workers have what they need.  He has fought for and cosp'd legislation to
extend unemployment benefit eligibility and the TEUC program to make sure
that those who have lost their jobs have the funds to make ends meet while
they are looking.  These efforts have included additional funds for worker
retraining.  Secondly, he has tried to limit the impact of offshoring,
outsourcing, inversion, etc.  Among other things, he has cosponsored
legislation to make sure that US workers are not being displaced by foreign
workers with L-1 and H-1B visas.  Third, he has fought for a variety of
economic stimulus initiatives to help the economy recover and to maintain
the quality of life in the Triangle.  The latter is critical to the
Governor, who has responsibility for recruiting new industry to North
Carolina.

4.  Bringing funds for research and other key initiatives is a top priority
of Mr. Price as a member of the Appropriations Cmte, and he has delivered
funding for projects to help stimulate and keep pace with growth in our
area, esp. in the area of wastewater management, infrastructure, . . .  He
also has fought for high programmatic funding levels in research (NIH, NSF,
NASA), which drives much of the job growth in the Triangle.

Marian


-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Mack NA3T [mailto:jmack@wm7d.net]
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 11:51 AM
To: Currinder, Marian
Subject: RE: offshoring info


On Wed, 7 Jul 2004, Currinder, Marian wrote:

> Dear Mr. Mack,
>
> I do not have anything specific on promoting computing jobs in the
district
> ... I am not quite sure what, exactly, you mean??

When I arrived in this area, it was being promoted by (I thought) the
State as being the 3rd most important area of computer/software
developement in the country, after Silicon Valley and Rt 128 (?) in
Boston. As well as computing, there is other high tech employment in the
area (pharmaceuticals) and the aggregation is supposed to mutually boost
the skills and productivity here. I would expect that with a large enough
base of employment here that workers would be able to move easily between
jobs.

Following the recent unrealistic expectations of vernture capitalists who
funded the recent dot.com implosion, there are now many IT workers
unemployed (some for over a year, some having to take jobs at half the
salary and commute 1.5hrs each way to out of the area). With lay-offs
being announced by the week, morale at meetings of computer people is low.
I expect with this area having a high concentration of IT workers, that it
is harder hit than others.

A solution often offered is for the workers to polish up their skills
and/or go elsewhere. With many highly skilled people being laid off,
and the jobs being lost not through lack of skills, the first option
is not realistic. Asking people to move out of the area would mean
that our elected officials have abandonned RTP as a center of employment
and skills.

I would have thought that Congressman Price's activities would have
included bringing more companies, projects, money to the area and
addressing the problem of unemployment for IT workers here. However there
is nothing that I can see on his webpage to show that he is working on
this or on making RTP bigger, better or stronger or that he has any
awareness that there has been a dot.com implosion here.

Thank You

Joe

-- 
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
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