Increasing our global competitiveness

Inbound global investment grows our economy here at home, which means good-paying and enduring American jobs. The United States is the premier location for companies from around the world to invest and establish operations, but the reality is that other nations are getting better at challenging us in attracting these foreign direct investment opportunities. In fact, the United States’ share of global investment has declined from over 41 percent in 1999 to 17.6 percent in 2009. 

Further, we learned earlier this month from a World Economic Forum report that the United States’ global economic competitiveness ranking went from 5th to 7th, and has fallen for the 4th year in a row. This is unacceptable and we need to turn things around. We have millions of Americans who have simply given up on looking for work and millions more who remain unemployed and are struggling. In fact, my home state of Illinois just saw its unemployment rate climb to 9.1%.
 
This week, the United States House of Representatives did something important to help address this. The House unanimously passed a bipartisan jobs bill that will help to increase our global competitiveness and attract companies to invest here in America. The Global Investment in American Jobs Act, which I introduced with my colleagues Representatives Barrow (D-Ga.), Peters (D-Mich.), and Roskam (R-Ill.), passed the House and is on its way for consideration in the Senate. You may not have heard about this success, because it isn’t popular these days to talk about Congress coming together and getting things done- but that’s exactly what happened earlier this week. Republicans and Democrats put their differences aside and united on a shared value, that of working together to spur the economy and empower job creators to grow here at home.
 
This legislation provides a road map for enhancing U.S. competitiveness and attracting foreign direct investment into the United States. It does this by creating a process by which we can identify the policies and regulations – whether those are in existence intentionally, or more importantly, indirectly and unintentionally, that might uniquely create a barrier for investing in the United States. It also helps us gain a better understanding of which current policies promote this much-needed global investment into the United States and into our communities.
 
With other nations actively reforming their policies, in an effort to make their countries increasingly competitive for these global investments, it is critical that the United States do the same. I am proud of what we were able to accomplish and I would urge the Senate and the president to follow suit and help us get something done for the millions of Americans who are so desperately in need of work.

Dold is a mermber of the House Financial Services Committee.

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