The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is hiring foreign workers to take over computer jobs in the nation’s electrical grid.
“Sending crucial IT jobs to overseas firms and outside TVA … would be a dumb idea any day of the week,” Matt Biggs, a director of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, wrote in a KnoxNews.com op-ed.
“To do it now, when we are under threat of attack and millions of Americans are desperate for work, is worse than dumb. It’s irresponsible,” Biggs said.
The TVA’s networks of power stations, power lines, and dams are part of the nation’s 16 “critical infrastructure” sectors. The sectors’ ability to survive attacks are overseen by the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies. Some of the other sectors include healthcare, transportation, and finance.
President Donald Trump “is missing an opportunity to strengthen his ‘Hire American’ credentials,” said Mark Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Trump issued an Executive Order on June 22 curbing the H-1B outsourcing program.
He should use his position to “shine a light on [the TVA outsourcing] and say ‘This is bad news, why is this happening? My staff has contacted the board of directors to ask why is this going on?'” Krikorian said.
The top management at the TVA is in the process of switching 200 jobs to H-1B workers to be recruited by three foreign companies: Paris-based Capgemini, Canada-based CGI, and Accenture, a former U.S. company that relocated to Ireland. Officials say the workers will not be hired for cybersecurity tasks or for operating the grid’s software controls.
The new workers are not expected to save any money, but they will help bring in commercial software, said Jim Hopson, the TVA’s public information officer. “There is not a significant cost difference once way or the other,” he told Breitbart News.
The TVA defended the outsourcing:
A great deal of misinformation is being circulated that makes this difficult situation even harder. The three companies selected to perform much of this work all have U.S.-based headquarters and workforces. Like their contracts with other federal agencies, their TVA contracts require all work to be performed in the U.S.
However, requiring “U.S.-based headquarters and workforces” does not necessarily require American workers. The term could include some of the 600,000 H-1Bs already imported to take white-collar jobs or some of the 500,000 foreign graduates who get jobs via the universities’ “Practical Training” work-permit programs.
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