The House successfully passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act introduced by Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT) that will allow the government to gather job creation information and consider that information in contracting decisions.

Murphy's bill, which was re-cast into an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, will give manufacturers the opportunity to provide information to the Department of Defense regarding how their bid for a contract will affect domestic employment. The potential contractor would list on their bid the number of jobs created or retained if the bid is awarded. The bill would then allow the Defense Department to take this "Jobs Impact Statement" into consideration when deciding between different bidders.

Murphy explained: "Our premise is simple: the Defense Department should give preference to American manufacturers when awarding contracts. Most people assume we already consider American jobs when we hand over our defense dollars to contractors. Well, we don't, but we should."

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