Sen. Bernie Moreno’s Halting International Relocation of Employment (HIRE) Act is drawing international backlash, particularly from India, where major political and economic figures warn the legislation could severely disrupt the country’s booming tech-services economy. The bill proposes a 25% excise tax on U.S. companies making outsourcing payments to foreign workers, aiming to protect American jobs from being shipped overseas.
Jairam Ramesh, General Secretary of the Indian National Congress, raised alarm over the bill, calling it a direct threat to India’s IT services, business process outsourcing (BPO), consulting firms, and global capability centers (GCCs). Ramesh said the bill “reflects a growing mindset in the U.S.” that white-collar jobs should not be lost to India, much like blue-collar manufacturing jobs were lost to China.
India’s tech sector, heavily reliant on U.S. contracts, is bracing for economic fallout. Ramesh warned the legislation, if enacted, could light a fire under the Indian economy and force a major reassessment of U.S.-India economic relations.
The bill, introduced in early October and referred to the Senate Committee on Finance, establishes a “Domestic Workforce Fund” that would receive the tax revenue and use it for American workforce development. It also removes the ability for companies to deduct outsourcing payments from their tax filings.
Moreno said the HIRE Act is about ending the decades-long practice of “globalist politicians and C-Suite executives” outsourcing American jobs to chase lower labor costs. His bill, he argues, will “hit them where it hurts: their pocketbooks.”
Indian officials and economists see the HIRE Act as an expansion of economic protectionism. Former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan warned that the bill represents a “creeping extension of tariffs from goods to services.”
The proposal follows Moreno’s earlier SAFE HIRE Act, which received backing from labor unions for imposing strict penalties, including prison time, on company executives who knowingly hire illegal aliens. Together, the two bills form a coordinated effort to reshape U.S. labor and immigration policy by punishing companies that prioritize foreign workers over Americans.
India’s tech sector is already under strain from a recently imposed $100,000 H-1B visa fee. The HIRE Act, if passed, would further restrict access to U.S. job markets, cut off billions in service export revenue, and put thousands of Indian tech workers at risk.