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US okays Dodd’s outsourcing bill

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI: The US Senate has passed an amendment what its sponsor called was aimed at protecting "United States workers from the competition of foreign workforces for performance of Federal and State contracts." The amendment (No 2660) was proposed by Connecticut Senator, Christopher Dodd to Bill 1637 that was aimed at amending the internal revenue code to comply with the WTO. The amendment was passed 70-26 on March 4, 2004.



If signed to law, this would not only bar the Federal government to use foreign workers for government contracts, it would also ban state governments receiving Federal grants to use those funds for any contract that would result in offshoring of American jobs. In fact, it also would make mandatory for the companies getting such contracts not to offshore those jobs.



"If we continue to allow these jobs to flow out of our country, then I think we run the risk, at critical junctures, of having the human talent necessary for us to provide those services and to produce those goods which will allow us to compete effectively in the 21st century," said Dodd, sponsoring the amendment



The cosponsors to the amendment were senators Norm Coleman, Edward M Kennedy, Corzine, Jon Corzine, Barbara A Mikulski, and Russell D Feingold.



The amendment to the Federal Bill comes at a time when bills with similar objectives have been introduced in several state houses and senates. Some of the states that have seen bills with similar motive are California, Connecticut, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Washington.



SOME DODD SPEAK



"Look at India, look at other countries in the world that are closed to America, particularly the country of India. We hear about all the call centers going to India. We don't hear about goods being exported to India for a very good reason: India is by and large closed. They are closed to intellectual property rights, closed to so many markets, so many products. India is closed. What are we doing about that? Not much."



"In this legislation, we also, of course, make it clear that the Government procurement agreements between the US and some 27 other nations, that are predominantly Western European countries, are not affected by the prohibitions contained in this bill. Those 27 nations do not include, I would point out, India or the People's Republic of China."



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