(Washington, D.C.) – The Obama Administration never could have earmarked taxpayer loans to politically-connected corporations — guilty of offshoring jobs — had House Democrats included ‘Buy American’ language authored by Congressman Tim Murphy (R-PA).

ABC News revealed Fisker Automotive, a recipient of a $529 million loan in 2010, is building electric vehicles in Finland instead of a shuttered Delaware auto plant as promised. SunPower, which received a $1.2 billion loan from the stimulus bill, is opening a plant in Mexico to manufacture solar panels.

“In the two and a half years since the ‘stimulus,’ we’ve been asking the Obama Administration, where are the jobs? Today, we finally found them…in Finland. We could have prevented this travesty from ever happening had Democrats considered my ‘Buy American’ amendments,” said Rep. Murphy.

Here is Rep. Murphy’s January 28, 2009 press release:

Murphy “Buy American” Requirements Stripped out of Spending Bill
          
(Washington, D.C.) – With the House set to vote today on an $825 billion spending package, Congressman Tim Murphy (PA-18) worked on putting strict Buy American provisions in place to keep billions of U.S. tax dollars from going to foreign companies and overseas jobs.  Ultimately, these provisions were stripped out by the Democrat majority.
 
“With 11 million Americans out of work, the $825 billion in spending should be focused on getting idled American factories back up and running and getting Americans back on the job,” said Congressman Murphy. “Asking Americans to foot the bill without any guarantee that those jobs will be based in the U.S. just will not fly.”
 
Congressman Murphy offered an amendment, which was adopted unanimously in the Energy and Commerce Committee, to require any health information technology system bought under the $20 billion dollar grant program in the stimulus package be manufactured in the United States by American workers.
 
“With all the tech firms throughout this country, we can easily find places for this work to be done in America. The Pittsburgh Tech Council alone has 1,422 member companies dedicated to information technology needs. Surely we can find health IT companies in the United States that are more than capable and ready to do this important work.” 
 
While the Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously agreed to Murphy’s provision, it mysteriously was left out of the bill brought to floor.

Last night, Congressman Murphy made another attempt to keep it “Made in the USA” and went before the House Rules Committee to get the Buy American provision restored, and apply similar Buy American rules to the infrastructure and construction sections to create American jobs.
 
“If we are going to spend billions to help American jobs, let’s make sure we have a clause in this bill that helps American jobs,” Murphy said before the Rules Committee Members. “Let’s not make the same mistake when we approved building a fence line at the border with Mexico, and then it was built with Chinese steel.  Our concrete, our steel, the cars that are going to be bought with this spending ought to be made in America.”

While the bill spends billions on goods and products, such as $400 million for fuel efficient busses; $20 billion for Health IT; $345 million for Agriculture Department computers; $276 million for State Department computers; $250 million for state purchase of computers; $900 million for a new computing center for the Social Security Administration, $200 million for scientific equipment for the U.S. Geological Survey; $500 million for new detection systems for the Department of Homeland Security - the Rules Committee did not approve any Buy American provisions with the exception of one applying to textiles.
 
“From the iron mines to the manufacturers, to the mills, let’s use it to buy America. Let’s return those amendments to this bill. If we really are going to be serious about American jobs, we should require the billions in taxpayer funds go only towards American jobs and to buy products that say ‘Made in the USA.’ ”