Why the Keep Call Centers in America Act Won’t Stop Global Support Operations

The conversation around offshore outsourcing is changing again. With the introduction of the Keep Call Centers in America Act of 2025, headlines have warned of potential threats to the outsourcing industry, especially for countries such as the Philippines and India. But those warnings miss a critical distinction. The legislation is not designed to end global support operations — it targets an outdated version of offshoring that no longer defines how modern, managed support partners operate.

At OnDutyOps, this evolution has already taken place. Support operations are structured, data-driven, and fully transparent. The company’s newly published Global Support Compliance and Transparency Policy outlines how today’s managed operations model remains compliant under current and proposed U.S. legislation. Understanding why this bill exists, what it actually regulates, and how managed support partners differ from traditional BPOs is key to seeing the full picture.

The confusion around the new U.S. call center bill

When Senator Ruben Gallego introduced the Keep Call Centers in America Act of 2025 in July, its intent was straightforward: increase accountability for large companies that move voice-based call center jobs overseas. The bill requires any employer with fifty or more full-time voice agents — or a combined total of 1,500 weekly call hours — to notify the U.S. Department of Labor 120 days before relocating those functions outside the United States. It also creates a public list of companies that offshore those operations and makes such firms ineligible for federal grants or loans.

Most media coverage, such as ABS-CBN’s report and the South China Morning Post’s analysis, framed it as a potential threat to the Philippines’ business-process outsourcing industry. In reality, the bill’s reach is far narrower. It focuses almost entirely on voice call operations tied to federal contracts or funding, not the global managed-support segment that drives modern customer experience and operations delivery.

That nuance is crucial. The outsourcing industry has evolved beyond phone queues and time-and-attendance metrics. What once relied on call scripts and agent headcounts now runs on integrated tools, asynchronous channels, and outcome-based service agreements. The legislation is responding to a model that dominated a decade ago, not the systems-driven structures that companies use today.

What the legislation actually covers

A close look at the U.S. Senate’s summary of the bill shows that its provisions address four specific obligations. Companies must (1) register call-center relocations with the Department of Labor, (2) accept placement on a public registry if they offshore voice operations, (3) disclose an agent’s physical location and any use of artificial intelligence during live calls, and (4) offer the caller an option to transfer to a U.S.-based agent upon request.

Each of those rules applies only to real-time voice communication. Chat, email, CRM-based tickets, community moderation, and data-driven back-office work remain fully outside the scope of the act. The bill does not restrict outsourcing as a concept. It does not prevent private companies from partnering with offshore providers for managed support or back-office operations. Its only enforcement mechanism concerns federal procurement and funding eligibility, meaning that organizations relying on U.S. government contracts may need to demonstrate domestic staffing for certain phone lines.

For startups, e-commerce brands, and SaaS companies — the audience that typically relies on outsourced customer support or managed operations providers — none of these constraints apply. These firms do not depend on federal subsidies or grants, and most of their customer interactions happen asynchronously through chat and email rather than inbound voice calls.

In effect, the Keep Call Centers in America Act seeks transparency, not prohibition. It adds disclosure requirements for traditional call centers while acknowledging that modern global support functions already operate under different conditions. The challenge lies not in compliance but in communication — explaining to clients and regulators how managed support operations differ from the commodity call-center model.

Why managed support operations remain unaffected

The most important distinction is structural. Managed operations providers like OnDutyOps do not rent seats or sell hourly labor. They manage entire support workflows, using defined SLAs, playbooks, and quality-assurance systems that align with each client’s internal processes. The focus is on reliability, consistency, and measurable outcomes — not headcount.

Because of that framework, global support operations are inherently compliant with emerging legislation. They meet the spirit of transparency and accountability that lawmakers want to encourage, without falling into the call-center classification the bill regulates.

For example, when a client partners with a managed support team, the engagement is governed by an SLA that defines ticket resolution times, QA scores, and coverage windows, not by per-call metrics. Support specialists handle multichannel tickets across helpdesk systems such as Zendesk, Intercom, or Gorgias, all of which log complete activity histories and provide clear operational data. That traceability satisfies the transparency objectives behind the legislation more effectively than legacy call systems ever could.

Furthermore, managed operations partners already comply with international data-protection laws such as the GDPR and CCPA, ensuring lawful processing of personal data regardless of location. OnDutyOps, for instance, publishes its commitments openly in the Global Support Compliance and Transparency Policy. The policy defines how the company handles AI disclosure, data residency, ethical employment, and location transparency — precisely the measures that the U.S. bill seeks to institutionalize within the older call-center segment.

This evolution is why the act cannot “stop” offshore support. The market has already shifted to models that are more controlled, auditable, and client-integrated than the environments lawmakers are trying to reform. The law targets call scripts and phone lines; managed support runs on systems and SLAs. They are not the same industry anymore.

For operations leaders, this is good news. It means that global partnerships remain viable and legally sound, provided they are structured properly. Teams like OnDutyOps represent a new generation of compliant outsourced support, one that combines global talent with transparent, measurable systems. That is precisely the opposite of what the legislation aims to restrict.

The new standard for compliant, transparent global support

If the Keep Call Centers in America Act becomes law, it will accelerate a shift that was already underway. Companies will move away from undifferentiated call-center vendors and toward structured managed operations partners that can prove compliance and control. The winners in this new environment will not be the lowest-cost providers but the ones able to show governance, data security, and ethical employment at scale.

For clients, the implications are straightforward. Offshore support remains not only legal but strategically essential for startups and digital brands that operate around the clock. What changes is the expectation of transparency. Clients will expect partners to publish operational policies, disclose geographic coverage, and demonstrate readiness for any jurisdiction’s compliance requirements.

OnDutyOps anticipated that standard early. Its compliance policy commits to full location transparency, AI-usage disclosure, GDPR and privacy alignment, and the ability to route sensitive support queues through U.S.-based coverage if necessary. The approach eliminates uncertainty while maintaining the cost efficiency and performance that global operations make possible.

Industry data supports the stability of this model. According to TSIA’s 2024 Support Services Benchmark, over 70 percent of technology firms already rely on hybrid support networks that combine onshore management with offshore execution. Those networks operate under strict SLAs and data-governance standards that meet or exceed proposed U.S. requirements. Similarly, Gartner’s 2025 Customer Service Trends report notes that AI-augmented, human-supervised support has become a compliance advantage rather than a liability, provided that companies maintain clear disclosure and control.

That is where managed operations teams outperform call centers. They integrate into a client’s ecosystem, use shared metrics, and operate with joint accountability. The result is a compliance-ready structure that satisfies both business performance goals and regulatory expectations.

The bigger story is not about a single bill. It is about how the definition of outsourcing has changed. True global support today is less about relocation and more about orchestration — ensuring that customer interactions, data, and workflows remain consistent regardless of geography. The Keep Call Centers in America Act recognizes only the surface layer of this system. The reality underneath is already far more sophisticated, transparent, and compliant than the legislation assumes.

For founders and operations leaders evaluating offshore partners, the message is clear. Choose vendors that own their processes, document their compliance posture, and publish their operational standards. Managed operations partners like OnDutyOps have built that framework from day one, allowing clients to scale without risk while maintaining trust with customers and regulators alike.

Global support is not going away; it is maturing. The companies prepared for that evolution — the ones that invest in structure, not headcount — will define the next decade of outsourcing.

Because reliable operations are not about location. They are about systems that run every hour, every day.

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