In a statement, Schwarzenegger said: There is a right way and a wrong way to expand economic opportunity in California. The wrong approach is to implement measures that restrict trade, invite retaliation, or violate the US Constitution or our foreign trade agreement.
The veto is one of the latest developments in the ongoing wrangle between pro- and anti-offshoring lobby groups regarding the foreign outsourcing of US public sector work. A month ago the state of Michigan joined the 36 other US States pushing legislation to ban offshore outsourcing of public sector contracts, particularly if the work had not been tendered for local companies first.
The California legislation would have barred state and local governments from contracting with companies for work that would have been performed outside the country; prohibited the offshoring of information essential for homeland security at a site outside the US; and prevented health care companies from sending data about a patient’s health to a site outside the country without the patient’s permission.
