Offshore Call Center Bills and Philippine BPO: The Real Risk

Since mid-2025, three US legislative proposals and one regulatory push have targeted offshore call center work, and each one made headlines in Manila. The question that matters for the Philippine BPO industry is not whether these measures exist. It is how far each has actually moved, and what the sector's exposure would be if any of them became law. The official record, checked on 6 August 2026, gives a clearer answer than the coverage suggests.

Three bills and an FCC proposal, none past first base

The most cited measure is the Keep Call Centers in America Act of 2025. The Senate version, S.2495, was introduced by Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona on 29 July 2025 with one cosponsor, Senator Jim Justice of West Virginia, and referred to the Senate Commerce Committee. The identical House version, H.R.4954, was introduced by Representative Kristen McDonald Rivet of Michigan on 12 August 2025 and referred to four committees. The bill would require agents to disclose their location at the start of a call, give consumers the right to demand transfer to a US-based human agent, including when AI handles the call, and place companies that move call center work overseas on a Department of Labor list that blocks new federal grants and guaranteed loans for up to five years.

The second measure is Senator Bernie Moreno's HIRE Act, S.2976, introduced on 6 October 2025 and referred to the Senate Finance Committee. As Inquirer USA reported, it would impose a 25 percent tax on payments to foreign workers serving US clients, with proceeds funding domestic job training.

Separately, Tech Pilipinas reported in June 2026 on a Federal Communications Commission proposal that pairs incentives for domestic call centers with location disclosure rules and English proficiency requirements. The public comment period closed on 22 June 2026, and no implementation date has been announced.

The legislative record favors the skeptics

Status matters, and as of 6 August 2026 every one of these bills remains exactly where it started. S.2495's last recorded action is its committee referral of 29 July 2025. H.R.4954's bill status record was updated by the Library of Congress as recently as 4 August 2026, and its latest action is still the referral of 12 August 2025, though it has attracted 16 cosponsors. The HIRE Act shows no cosponsors at all and no action since its referral to the Finance Committee.

History gives the same signal. Congress has seen versions of this idea for more than a decade. The United States Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act of 2013 got no further than a subcommittee referral in September 2013. Its most recent predecessor, S.4300 of 2024, was referred to the Senate Commerce Committee on 9 May 2024 and recorded no further action before the 118th Congress ended. Bills that do not pass by the end of a Congress die and must be reintroduced. The current Congress ends in early January 2027, which sets a hard deadline for all three pending measures.

The exposure is real and concentrated in voice services

None of this means the risk is imaginary. The Philippine IT-BPM sector earned above 40 billion dollars in 2025 and employed 1.9 million people, according to figures announced by IBPAP president Jack Madrid and reported by The Philippine Star, with a 2026 target of 42 billion dollars and 1.97 million jobs.

The voice segment carries most of that weight. Per CXAP figures reported in May 2026, contact centers generated 33.9 billion dollars in 2025, or 84 percent of total IT-BPM revenue, and employed 1.68 million full-time workers, 89 percent of the industry workforce. BusinessWorld notes that 70 percent of IBPAP members are North American or serve North American clients, and Inquirer USA reports that US clients account for the majority of outsourcing contracts.

Put those figures together and the theoretical ceiling on exposed headcount is the 1.68 million contact center workers, most of whom serve US accounts. The realistic near-term exposure is far narrower. The Keep Call Centers in America Act does not ban offshoring; its lever is eligibility for federal grants and guaranteed loans, which only bites for clients that hold or want them, plus disclosure rules that raise friction on every call. The HIRE Act is the sharper instrument because a 25 percent excise tax would touch every outsourcing payment, not just federal contractors. It is also the bill with the least congressional support so far.

Manila is lobbying, diversifying, and lowering its own targets

The Philippine response has moved on three tracks. Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez has said Manila is working with US lawmakers to seek exemptions for the Philippines, and the House of Representatives filed a resolution on 20 October 2025 directing trade and foreign affairs officials to consult with their US counterparts, per Inquirer USA. Trade Secretary Cristina Roque has pressed for diversification beyond US clients.

Industry voices are measured. Madrid told BusinessWorld the group is still studying the call center bill: "I don't know the likelihood of this passing. Obviously it is something we are monitoring." Economist John Paolo Rivera of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies called the bill a clear risk to the call center segment while noting the industry's shift into healthcare information management, finance, and software services that the bill does not reach. RCBC economist Michael Ricafort added a twist worth sitting with: cost pressure from any US penalty could push clients toward AI rather than toward US-based agents.

The sector is also recalibrating for reasons beyond Washington. In July 2026, IBPAP cut its 2028 roadmap targets from 59 billion dollars and 2.5 million jobs to a best case of 50.5 billion dollars and 2.14 million jobs, with a downside employment case of 1.85 million, citing AI, shifting buyer behavior, and competition. US legislation was not listed among the primary reasons.

What to watch through January 2027

Four signals would change this assessment. First, a committee hearing or markup on any of the three bills, since none has had one. Second, cosponsor growth, which is currently visible only on H.R.4954. Third, FCC action following the June 2026 comment period, because a regulation does not need a floor vote. Fourth, client behavior in earnings disclosures: Concentrix reported fiscal 2025 revenue of 9.83 billion dollars, up 2.2 percent, with delivery spread across more than 70 markets, a reminder that the largest providers are structured to shift work between geographies if rules change.

The sober reading: as of 6 August 2026, no US offshore call center bill has advanced past introduction, and a decade of predecessors died in committee. The exposure if that pattern breaks is heavily concentrated in the voice segment that still produces 84 percent of Philippine IT-BPM revenue. That combination, low probability against high concentration, is why the industry is watching committee calendars rather than panicking. We track these bills as they move in our industry news coverage.