WASHINGTON: An anti-outsourcing bill pending before the Colorado state legislature failed to move ahead when a Senate panel rejected it on Feb. 11. The measure, SB 170, would have restrained movement of jobs overseas and required companies to keep workers assigned to state contracts in the U.S. It collapsed after lawmakers on the Senate State Veterans and Military Affairs Committee voted 4-3 to postpone action on the measure indefinitely.

Republicans opposed the bill, while Democrats supported it. Business interests also fought the measure, said Rocky Mountain News, published from Denver, the state capital.

The bill was one of two introduced in the legislature under which companies that send jobs overseas would have been prevented from getting state contracts. “I don’t believe that protectionism makes anybody richer,” Senate president John Andrews, who opposed the bill, was quoted as saying. SB 170 required firms providing services or supplies to state agencies to certify that the employees working on the project operate from within the U.S.

“I’m talking about state jobs paid by taxpayer dollars,” Senator Deanna Hanna, Democrat from Lakewood, who sponsored the bill, was quoted as saying. She added that taxpayer money should not be funding jobs in countries such as India, China and Pakistan. To win over supporters, Hanna offered to amend her bill so it would target only services provided by outside contractors ---- but not supplies such as gasoline or office products such as computer equipment.

Businesses opposed the bill, saying it would hinder their operations, the report said. Heidi Heltzel, director of government affairs for Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, was quoted as saying that in today’s global economy, “almost everything you come across has components or services from other parts of the world. It’s difficult to roll it all into one neat little package that is 100 percent American-made.”