In March 2026, the FCC opened a proceeding about call center outsourcing. The number they cited: nearly 70% of US companies outsource at least one department. Part of what the FCC is looking at is whether more of that work, especially customer-facing call center work, should come back to the US. They pointed to customer service quality and security as the main concerns.
None of this surprised us. We have been running onshore customer support operations out of rural Michigan since 2005. But the FCC proceeding is worth paying attention to because it signals something that has been building for a while: the assumption that offshore is always the right call for customer support is starting to break down, particularly for government programs.
Government programs are not commercial customer service
There is a difference between outsourcing a retail customer service line and outsourcing a state benefits hotline. When someone calls about their EBT card not working, they are not shopping. They are trying to feed their family. The call might involve sensitive personal data, regulatory requirements, and a caller who is stressed and needs a clear answer in their language.
That kind of work has specific requirements:
- 24/7 availability, including holidays
- Language access (Spanish, Arabic, and others depending on the state)
- PCI DSS compliance if payment cards are involved
- Documented training, not just a script
- QA scoring and SLA reporting that the state can audit
Most offshore providers can check some of these boxes. Checking all of them consistently, under audit, across thousands of calls a day, is harder.
What onshoring actually requires
The conversation about onshoring usually gets simplified to “hire American agents.” That is the easy part. The hard part is everything around it.
You need a training program that is specific to the government program you are supporting. You cannot hand someone a script for a benefits line and expect the same results you would get from a team that has been trained on the program’s rules, the kinds of situations callers face, and the compliance requirements behind every interaction.
You need QA that actually works. Not spot-checking a few calls a month, but scoring calls systematically against criteria the client approved, then coaching agents based on what the scores show.
You need reporting that the government client can rely on. Service levels measured daily, not summarized quarterly. If answer times are slipping, the client should hear it from you before they notice.
And you need an environment that can handle sensitive data. PCI DSS compliance is not a certificate you hang on the wall. It is access controls, network segmentation, audit logging, and a team that lives with those systems every shift.
We know because we have done it
In 2005, Crusecom took on the Michigan EBT cardholder support program. At the time, that work was being handled from India and Mexico. We stood up a full contact center operation in Oscoda, Michigan, a small community on Lake Huron that had been struggling economically since Wurtsmith Air Force Base closed in 1993.
We hired locally. We wrote the training from scratch. We built QA and compliance processes that met state requirements. We ran 24/7 coverage with Spanish and Arabic language support. We even built out the voice infrastructure and IVR systems that route those calls. And we transitioned live call volume from the offshore provider without service disruption.
That was 20 years ago. We are still in Oscoda, still running contact center operations. At its peak the operation employed over 300 people in the region. The full case study has the details, including the data on the program’s scale (roughly 1.4 million food assistance recipients per month in Michigan).
What the trend means if you are evaluating partners
If you run a government program or a prime contract that includes customer support, the onshoring conversation is probably already on your radar. Here is what we would suggest looking at when evaluating a domestic BPO partner:
Ask about their training process. Not whether they train, but how. Is there a written curriculum for your specific program? How long is it? What does the assessment look like?
Ask about QA methodology. How do they score calls? Who defines the criteria? How often do agents get coached? Can you see the scores?
Ask about compliance infrastructure. If your program involves sensitive data, do not accept “we are PCI DSS compliant” at face value. Ask where the data sits, who can access it, how access is logged, and when the last audit was.
Ask about their reporting cadence. Weekly summary reports are not enough for a government program. You want daily SLA visibility and a provider who will flag issues proactively.
Ask about their workforce. Where are the agents? Are they employees or contractors? What is the turnover rate? A high-turnover center means your callers are constantly talking to people who are still learning the program.
The bigger picture
The FCC proceeding is not going to force anyone to onshore overnight. But it reflects a shift in how people think about where critical customer support should be done. For government programs especially, the answer is increasingly: close to the community being served, staffed by people who are trained on the program, working inside systems that meet the compliance bar. You can see how we approach all of this across our full service lineup.
We figured this out in 2005 in a small town in Northern Michigan. If you are working through the same question now, we are happy to talk about what we have learned.