More than twenty years ago, I had a job at an American call center in Mandaue City, Cebu Province here in the Philippines. Back then, the call center industry of the nation was very young and yet quickly growing in terms of revenues, new foreign investments and new jobs. Today, the Philippines has a large information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) sector.
That being said, America today is quickly reforming under the leadership of President Donald Trump and already business ties and trade relationships have quickly been changing. In the United States Senate (US Senate), a bipartisan bill was formally filed – the Keep Call Centers in America Act of 2025.
Already, the proposal is already disturbing the information technology and business process management sector of the Philippines as revealed by the Manila Bulletin in its business news report.
To make things clear, I am not taking sides here. I am a citizen of the Philippines who worked for a few months in an American call center a very long time ago and at my age, I have no intention to return to call center work. I am already engaging in a new business that has nothing to do with call centers and business process management. As for how America’s leaders deal with call centers and business processing centers located in different parts of the world, that is their decision to make. It would be interesting, perhaps intriguing, to see how the Philippines IT-BPM sector will adjust if ever the Keep Call Centers in America Act of 2025 becomes a law someday.
To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the news report of the Manila Bulletin. Some parts in boldface…
The Philippine information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) sector is bracing for the potential impact of a bill in the United States (US) Senate that seeks to end the practice of offshoring among American call centers.
The IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), the country’s leading IT-BPM group, said the industry is currently monitoring the progress of this proposed legislation.
“At this stage, we are continuing to track developments,” IBPAP told Manila Bulletin.
The proposed Keep Call Centers in America Act of 2025, filed as a bipartisan bill in the US Senate, is aiming to curb offshoring or relocation of business operations from one country to another as it pertains to call center jobs.
In a statement by Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, a Democrat, he said the bill looks to reverse the continued decline of call center operations in America, driven by the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) offshoring.
Citing data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Gallego noted that the American call center industry will lose approximately 150,000 workers by 2033 if such practices persist.
“The Keep Call Centers in America Act would work to reverse this trend by limiting federal benefits to companies that ship call center jobs overseas,” said Gallego, who filed the bill with West Virginia Senator Jim Justice, a Republican.
Under the proposed bill, companies are required to notify the US Department of Labor (DOL) at least 120 days before relocating operations overseas or contracting out call center work to another entity that relocates abroad.
The DOL, meanwhile, will be mandated to maintain a public list of employers that have relocated operations. Companies will remain on the list for five years “unless they return an equal or greater number of call center jobs in the US.”
Call center firms on this list will be ineligible for new federal grants and guaranteed loans and will not be given preference when awarding contracts.
In a CBS News report, Gallego said that aside from supporting the return of domestic jobs, the bill will likewise address consumer concerns when it comes to “security around their private information.”
The bill, if enacted, will cover businesses with either 50 or more full-time employees, or 50 or more employees whose combined work hours total at least 1,500 per week. As such, the measure will impact large-scale call center operations such as those that are currently operating in the Philippines.
Based on a 2023 report by the Ateneo Policy Center, more than 200 US-based firms have invested approximately $7.8 billion to set up operations in the Philippines since 2003.
The proposed Keep Call Centers in America Act could not have come at a worse time, given that the Philippines’ services exports are slowing down.
In a report, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) lead economist Emilio Neri Jr. noted that services exports shrank by 4.2 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2025, citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). This followed a 6.3-percent growth rate in the first quarter, which decelerated from a 13.2-percent expansion in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Neri said the services export sector is weighed down by a sharp drop in travel and signs of weakness in the IT-BPM sector.
To examine the details of the Keep Call Centers in America Act of 2025, click here and here.
Let me end this post by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this recent development? Do you know a lot of people here in the Philippines who work in American call centers? Do you seriously believe that if ever the Keep Call Centers in America Act of 2025 becomes a law, it will someday compel American companies to close down its call centers here in the Philippines and create a wave of new job losses? Without American companies and clients, do you think the Philippines IT-BPM sector will shrink dramatically? Do you think the Keep Call Centers in America Act of 2025 will be passed by US Congress and get signed into law by US President Trump?
You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.
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