And I'm an Experienced Figure Skater

You may read the article in which he makes this statement here.

In the article, you will find elaboration on that theme and some discussion as to how Harris Miller's parents lost their home.

Now granted, after all of the articles and transcripts that I've read, I must confess to a moment of negativity when it crossed my mind that perhaps they owned several homes at the time. 
 
PaulVa has shared additional information clearly demonstrating that Harris made a false statement.  I am making an assumption that some individuals wish to know the truth about this matter and have an interest in whether or not that statement is indeed false. 

So here is even more information documenting Miller's advocacy of "shipping jobs overseas." Included are a number of quotes from copyrighted articles. I cannot include the entire articles; however, to the best of my ability I am quoting the relevant portions. Rest assured that I have not chopped these quotes up into 6 letter phrases and pasted them back together in a manner intended to mislead anyone to conclude the polar opposite of reality.

Links are embedded where this material is available on the net, references are included otherwise, and much of this material is available in your public and university libraries. Don't hesitate to ask your librarian for assistance if you encounter difficulties.  Alternatively, you may consider a trial subscription to Proquest.

Here is Miller talking to Indian press in November of 2003:

Contrary to what some experts have been telling their Indian IT clients recently, a failure in job recovery in the U.S. may actually mean IT offshoring to India or other destinations will be a difficult choice to corporate America to make, said a visiting U.S. IT trade body representative.

"Even the most optimistic people feel that no more that 7 to 9 per cent of IT jobs would be offshored," said Harris Miller, President, IT Association of America, here on Tuesday evening. He was talking to Indian IT industry representatives at a CEO Forum organised by ITAA's Indian counterpart, the National Association of Software Services Companies.

Mr. Miller's use of the word optimistic indicates that the more jobs that are offshored, to India in this particular case, the better. 

But let's go back to 1998.  The context here is visa numbers, and the claim being made then was that there was a shortage of skilled workers.  A shortage provides rationale for both offshoring and raising visa caps:

The very question itself generates controversy: Should the United States, which some claim cannot find enough trained technology workers inside its borders to meet demand, raise the limit on the number of high-tech immigrants allowed to work there each year? If you ask Harris Miller, head of the Information Technology Association of America, a 10,000-member trade group, he'll answer without hesitation.

"They're the rocket fuel of the information age," he says. The trouble is, says Miller and others, there just aren't enough technology workers in the U.S. to go around.

So Miller is one of many now urging the U.S. government to raise the limit on the number of immigrants given visas each year to work in the expanding technology sector.

"As an information-sensitive society, we cannot afford to stand by," Miller says. "We must solve this problem."[1]

But even back then offshoring issues were rift with disagreement, perhaps even a dollop of negativity:

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney describes complaints about a shortage of high-tech workers as "highly exaggerated." Labour advocates also charge that the industry is so keen on hiring foreign nationals because they constitute a cheap labour pool, driving down labour costs in general. The CWA says that technology and telecom firms have laid off 142,000 workers so far in 1998 - and yet the same industries claim they can't find enough workers in the United States.[1]

By March 2001 Miller sought to encourage his Indian audience:

The dismal picture painted on the slowdown in the US information technology sector is exaggerated, said the president of Information Technology Association of America (IATA) Harris Miller.[2]

IATA represents 26,000 IT companies in the US, including IBM,, and Oracle. In an interview with The Times of India, Miller said that the new developments in the US market may bring new opportunities to Indian IT companies.

"I believe that the US economy and the IT outlook are stronger than they may appear. Despite uncertainties of the current economy, most US IT executives are optimistic that IT spending will continue to rise this year," he said.[2]

The problem was only pessimism.

He said, "I see a growing disconnect in the US between the pessimism about the IT and Internet sector flooding financial markets and the continuing adoption of technology and Internet applications in the real economy." He said that the demand for IT services and solutions are increasing in the real sector as more and more companies are adopting to new technologies.

In fact, he said, the slowdown was mainly in the real (versus virtual) sector in the US. This is very much on the cards. "The US simply could not have sustained the growth levels experienced in I999 and 2000 indefinitely," he said. "Employment in the tech sector has seen layoffs hit, although we believe that technology workers are not being harmed the way that non-IT jobs within IT companies are," he added. [2]

Great opportunity for Indian IT companies:

He [Miller] said the US Census Bureau reported recently that the e-commerce sales in the US rose to $ 8.686 billion in the last quarter of 2000, an incredible increase of 35.9 per cent over the previous quarter and 67 per cent over the previous year. More than 25 per cent of US manufacturing firms are now on the Web, demonstrating a major potential upside and rapid growth continuing in business to business commerce.

Therefore, he said, there were conflicting signals on the health of IT industry and the overall health of the US economy. To me, this new development will provide a great opportunity for Indian IT companies. Increased emphasis on cost savings, given the need to cut costs and the need to show profits, may result in more businesses seeking contracts overseas, where the same work can be done for less money.

Therefore, he felt, India has great opportunities in the US market. However, he felt that to corner this opportunities, Indian companies will have to continue to perform. He cautioned, however, that they might face tough competition from other countries like Eastern Europe, Russia, the Philippines, Vietnam and China. [2]

Not just garden variety opportunity, while the US was hurting, Miller as ITAA employee encouraged Indian IT to compete with US companies.

He [Miller] said that efforts of many Indian IT companies to go up the value chain would also benefit them in maintaining the leadership position in the market place.

He said, "Many leading Indian IT companies that started out as staff supplementation firms and then moved on to project development now aspire to become full blown IT solution providers, planning to compete with well-known US firms such as EDS, Accenture and IBM Global Services." That is a lofty and worthy goal. But the challenges will be enormous, as matters such as business knowledge and cultural factors become as important as technical skills. [2]

One point that Miller wishes to convey to India is that the situation was NOT as bad as it seemed in the US press. But the picture he painted back home is the opposite.  We must tighten our belts.  And that's the good news.  Only a month before the previous article cited, in October 2003, Miller was at home addressing the House Committee on Small Business.  Small businesses are rarely helped at all by offshoring, and his tone - and solutions - are radically different that when speaking with Indian reporters.

As U.S. companies send more high-tech work overseas, they are creating a "downward pressure on salaries" that may help slow American job losses, a technology industry leader told Congress on Monday.

Indeed, U.S. workers may have to get used to lower wages, said Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America.[3]

So with increasing unemployment and unpopularity of offshoring, we can keep jobs with pay cuts:

Americans must face the "hard truth" that offshore companies not only offer information technology services for "a fraction of the cost," but they can "compete for increasingly more sophisticated and complex IT work," he said.

The silver lining of this wage pressure, Miller said, is that "a more competitive payroll picture may undercut [U.S. employers'] need to move jobs offshore."

Miller said cutting wages is not the only strategy for staying competitive. He said a key step is to provide greater value, which means raising the skills of U.S. workers and the creativity of U.S. companies. [3]

Many legislators, often at the state level, tried to get outsourcing under control. Michigan Lawmakers proposed a bill to curb outsourcing, and here's a complete abstract of another article:

"A great number of highly educated, skilled Michigan workers have lost their jobs because their jobs were outsourced to places overseas," [Steve Bieda] told the Detroit News. "We need to work to keep jobs in Michigan.

Bieda says outsourcing comes at a steep price. "This represents a huge drain of American jobs," said Bieda. "Our tax dollars shouldn't be sent to companies that distribute corporate revenues overseas. State contracts should support Michigan jobs and put more money into the Michigan economy."

Industry representatives have expressed dismay. "It's a huge error," said Harris Miller, presidents of the Information Technology Association of America, an Arlington, Va.-based technology industry trade group. "If the USA becomes a restrictionist society and sets up trade barriers, then others nations will do the same. We can't afford to get into a trade war with these countries." [4]

On March 4, 2004, the Senate voted 70-26 for new restrictions on government contractors to discourage outsourcing jobs overseas in Christopher Dodd's (D-CT) amendment aimed at restricting the use of federal taxpayer funds to pay for work done overseas.

"People are hurting," said Sen. Dodd, whose amendment took aim at China and India especially. "The fact that we're using taxpayers' money to ship somebody's job overseas, I don't think that's a good thing." [5]

"American workers are hurting. Our nation's chief export shouldn't be jobs for foreign workers," said Dodd. "Thankfully this measure says enough is enough. Taxpayers' hard-earned money shouldn't be used to bankroll the loss of taxpayers' jobs to overseas workers. American workers are the best workers in the world, and by investing in them, we invest in our nation's future. This measure is a significant step forward in the right direction." [5]

Miller's complete response in the article:

Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America, said the outcome was worrisome for pro-trade forces. "It's the wrong signal at the wrong time," Mr Miller said. [5]

The Coalition for Economic Growth and American Jobs is the working title for a coalition of business groups, including Miller's ITAA, which was established for the very purpose of countering growing support for anti-outsourcing legislation.

The newly-formed Coalition for Economic Growth and American Jobs, said Miller, was set up to educate the public and leading government officials that having United States be an active participant in the global economy is good, and to combat the "inaccurate and unhistorical" reporting that U.S. jobs going overseas was bad for the country, he told News India-Times in an interview.

"Much of the job-loss has nothing to do with overseas jobs loss," he said. "It has to do with oil price, the burst bubble, and other things. Reports that the IT industry is going to go like the textile industry is pure and absolute nonsense because these jobs require people to be here. The jobs going overseas are less qualified ones," Miller said.

But arguments made by the industry lobby stand in stark contrast to those made by American workers groups. Virtually all labor organizations, as well as more recently-formed IT workers associations, are ranged against employers, a classic confrontation that makes for election rhetoric. All Democratic candidates are posturing against outsourcing and currently there are some 88 bills pending in 38 states seeking to ban outsourcing. [6]

Yes, anything but overseas jobs loss. More from the News - India Times:

"Election season does heighten the rhetoric but it would be na+â-»ve to think it (the anti-out-sourcing hype) will go away after the elections. If unemployment continues to go down it might lessen concerns, but if unemployment remains after the elections, it would grow," Miller said.

"Part of our challenge is to explain that it's not a jobless growth taking place. Firstly, it's always the case that the last part of the economy to recover is the jobs. It happened in the 1990s," he said. [6]

An Economist article,   India's IT industry are hiring in America, starts out:

Offshore, the process by which a well-paying IT job in, say, Dayton, Ohio, becomes a much lower-paying IT job in Bangalore, India, has been spreading terror through America's cubicle farms recently. But even as jobs go to India+óGé¼GÇ¥this week, AT&T was the latest big firm to talk of shifting a chunk of its workforce there+óGé¼GÇ¥the Indians are hiring in America.

At the least, these foreign purchases should help tackle a growing image problem. As Indian firms have sucked jobs out of America, worries have grown in India about a protectionist backlash in Washington, DC. Work visas are harder to come by for travelling Indian programmers. Indian firms also worry about American government use of data-protection and homeland-security laws to thwart business. Nasscom has retained Hill & Knowlton, a big PR firm, to help manage politics and the press in America and Britain (where offshoring is also a hot issue). Their goal, says Harris Miller of the Information Technology Association of America, an industry lobby group, is to convince Americans that they are not just Indian companies but +óGé¼+ôglobal firms, with a local face here+óGé¼-¥.

[1] October 25, 1998: Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 'Battle brews in the U.S. over high-tech workers', Jay Dougherty.

[2] March 19, 2001: The Times of India. The Times of India.'Outlook For It Sector In Us Presents A Puzzling Picture,' Prabhakar Sinha.

[3]October 21, 2003: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 'Pay cuts may reverse tech job loss, expert says,' Marilyn Geewax.

[4] Aug 22, 2003: India - West. San Leandro, Calif.: .Vol.XXVIII, Iss. 42;  pg. A28, 'Michigan Lawmaker Proposes Bill to Curb Outsourcing', Swapan, Ashfaque.

[5] Mar 12, 2004: News India - Times. New York, N.Y.: .Vol.35, Iss. 11;  pg. 20, 'Senate voted 70-26 for outsourcing restrictions on government contractors,' Arora, Vasantha.

[6] Mar 12, 2004: News India - Times. New York, N.Y.: Mar 12, 2004.Vol.35, Iss. 11;  pg. 22,
'New coalition of trade groups hopes to change U.S. antipathy to outsourcing,' Dutt, Ela.

[7] November 20, 2003: The Hindu, 'Euphoria Over It Offshoring Premature?'

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