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.

“The Philippines is supposed to be a top service exporter, but we saw the first contraction since the pandemic in the second quarter of 2025. Except for the Covid-19 pandemic, this hasn’t happened since 2012,” said Neri.

“Tariffs are hitting us on the merchandise side; our non-merchandise exports appear to be dragged by domestic factors,” he added.

So far, it is uncertain if the proposed bill will gain support from the US legislature.

However, it is important to note that such a bill, given its bipartisan nature, is being proposed during a period of US President Donald Trump’s highly protectionist policies.

Trump is currently leveraging the imposition of so-called reciprocal tariffs against America’s trading partners as a boon to revitalize US manufacturing.

The Philippines was officially slapped with a 19-percent tariff rate on Aug. 7, down from an earlier threat of a 20-percent tariff but higher than the initial 17-percent rate back in April.

IBPAP President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jack Madrid said in June that the local IT-BPM industry has yet to see a direct impact from the tariffs.

Madrid had even noted that it would be harder for companies that are currently offshoring in the Philippines to transfer their operations back to the US.

Taking into consideration the limited impact of US tariffs, the domestic IT-BPM industry is still on track to reach $40 billion in revenues this year, up five percent from last year’s $38 billion.

The sector is likewise projecting a four-percent growth in its workforce, from 1.82 million in 2024 to 1.9 million this year.

North America, which includes the US, remains the sector’s top source of investments, comprising 70 percent.