by CIO Staff

Your Guide to Offshore Legislation

News
Jun 15, 20042 mins
Government

Type of legislation What it does Where it’s at How to mitigate the risk
Restricts or prohibits offshoring Prohibits the government from funding projects that have an offshore component. Companies that contract with states to perform services could not send any of the work offshore.
  • The Thomas-Voinovich law was enacted but expires at the end of FY04.
  • The Dodd amendment to expand Thomas-Voinovich to the states has passed the Senate but not the House.
  • wenty-eight states have antioffshoring bills pending. So far none has become law.
These bills affect only companies that contract with state and federal governments. The safest course is to keep your company?s government and nongovernment work separate in all ways.
Ensures consumer and employee right to know Consumer right-to-know laws are designed to discourage offshoring by adversely affecting company image. Some would require call center employees to tell callers where they are located.

A proposed Senate bill would require employers to give workers 90 days? notice if their jobs are going to be offshored.

  • On the state level, it is likely that one or two right-to-know type bills will pass.
  • On the federal level, even if a bill mandating notice gets through the Senate, it will never pass the House, where business-friendly Republicans are in control.
Short of not offshoring, there?s not much a CIO can do. Take the PR hit if you must.
Guarantees the privacy of personal data Prevents companies from sending personal information overseas. That includes medical records and financial data.
  • Arizona has a bill pending that would prohibit the transcription of medical files outside the United States.
  • California has a similar bill pending that includes financial data.
  • It is unlikely that these bills will pass.
Look into technologies that can strip personally identifiable datafrom files.