H. B. 4663
(By Delegates Manchin, Caputo,
Martin and Longstreth)
[Introduced February 21, 2006; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary then Finance.]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new article, designated §21-1D-1, §21-1D-2,
§21-1D-3 and §21-1D-4, all relating to the "Keep Jobs in West
Virginia Act."
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new article, designated §21-1D-1, §21-1D-2,
§21-1D-3 and §21-1D-4, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1D. "KEEP JOBS IN WEST VIRGINIA ACT."
§21-1D-1. Short title.
This article shall be called the "Keep Jobs in West Virginia
Act."
§21-1D-2. Legislative findings.
The Legislature finds that:
(1) State agencies and subdivisions procure services in part through contracts with private vendors;
(2) Increasingly private vendors carry out these services, or
subcontract or otherwise procure these services, from a location
outside the United States;
(3) Such international outsourcing exacerbates unemployment
and workforce dislocation and deprives West Virginia residents of
job opportunities, including industries and jobs this state has
expended development assistance resources to attract;
(4) International outsourcing erodes state and local revenues
by drawing jobs and income away from the state; and
(5) International outsourcing additionally may provide less
privacy protections for state residents whose personal information
may, in the course of service delivery, be transmitted to locations
outside the United States.
§21-1D-3. Prohibiting contracting with, or providing economic
assistance to, companies that ship work offshore.
The following provisions apply to all state contracts, all
local contracts funded with state dollars, and state-funded
development assistance:
(1)
The state agency or local government may not award a
contract or development assistance to a vendor, bidder, contractor,
subcontractor, or applicant for development assistance that
performs the work at a site outside of the United States. Nothing
in this act may be construed to supercede or replace existing requirements in place for development assistance programs.
For purposes of this article, "Developmental assistance" means
any form of public assistance, including tax expenditures, made for
the purpose of stimulating economic development of a corporation,
industry, geographic jurisdiction or any other sector of the
state?s economy, including, but not limited to, industrial
development bonds, training grants, loans, loan guarantees,
enterprise zones, empowerment zones, tax increment financing, fee
waivers, land price subsidies, infrastructure whose principal
beneficiary is a single business or defined group of businesses at
the time it is built or improved, matching funds, tax abatements,
tax credits and tax discounts of every kind, including corporate
franchise, personal income, sales and compensating use, raw
materials, real property, job creation, individual investment,
excise, utility, inventory, accelerated depreciation, and research
and development tax credits and discounts.
(2) Each vendor submitting a bid or contract to provide
services and all development assistance applicants shall certify
that the services covered by the bid, contract, or development
assistance will be performed in the United States.
(3) If, during the life of the contract, the vendor,
contractor, subcontractor, or development assistance recipient
shifts overseas work that is funded under the contract, the state
agency or local government shall terminate the contract for noncompliance. In addition, the vendor, contractor, subcontractor,
or development assistance recipient shall forfeit penalties to the
state agency or local government in an amount equal to the amount
paid by the state agency or local government for the percentage of
work that was performed with workers outside the United States.
Any contractor, subcontractor, vendor, bidder, or development
assistance recipient that violates the above sections may not
receive any state contracts or development assistance for a period
of five years from the date of determination thereof.
(4) The state agency or local government shall be entitled to
bring a civil action in state or federal court to compel
enforcement under this statute. The court shall award reasonable
attorney?s fees and costs to the state agency or local government.
§21-1D-4. Waivers.
(a) A state agency or local government may waive the
requirements of section three of this article for a particular
contract, for a period not to exceed six months per waiver, if that
state agency or local government submits a written finding to the
State Auditor, and the Auditor does not reject that finding within
thirty days of receipt, that either subdivision (1) or (2) are
true:
(1) The contract is necessary to respond to an emergency, as
determined by the state agency or local government, for all of the
following reasons:
(A) The ability of the state agency or local government to
provide essential services would be adversely affected if the
contract is not performed;
(B) The public health, safety and welfare would be endangered
if the contract is not performed; and
(C) A contractor or subcontractor that has the ability to
perform the contract solely with workers within the United States
is not immediately available to perform the contract.
(2) The contract is necessary to provide a unique service, as
determined by the state agency or local government, for both of the
following reasons:
(A) The state agency or local government deems as mandatory
the particular service to be performed under the contract; and
(B) Domestic workers cannot adequately perform the unique
service to be performed under the contract.
(b) If the State Auditor rejects a written finding while the
contract is being performed or after the contract has been
performed, the contractor or subcontractor shall forfeit penalties
to the state agency or local government in an amount equal to the
amount paid by the state agency or local government for the
percentage of work that was performed with workers outside the
United States.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create the "Keep Jobs in
West Virginia Act." This act provides that
state contracts, local
government contracts funded with state money, or state development assistance may not be awarded to vendors, contractors or applicants
for development assistance that perform the work at a site outside
of the United States.
This article is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.
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