Halpin Bill to Stop Outsourcing, Create Expert Task Force Preventing Job Loss Now Law

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State Rep. Mike Halpin, D-Rock Island, is combatting outsourcing in the Quad City area by establishing a panel of experts and businesses leaders to craft new solutions to prevent job loss and keep businesses in Illinois.

“We have made great progress building a stronger economy in Illinois and working to grow a robust jobs market, but there is still more work to be done. It’s time for fresh ideas on how to tackle job outsourcing in Illinois because it is depleting our communities,” Halpin said. “We need new solutions to this problem, so I helped create the Quad Cities Outsourcing Task Force. This group will unite experts, legislators and business leaders under one goal: preventing job outsourcing.”

Halpin passed House Bill 1554, creating the Quad Cities Outsourcing Prevention Task Force, and the legislation was recently signed into law. Halpin’s new task force will be made up of 11 members appointed by state House and state Senate leadership, the director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the county board chair of Rock Island, and a representative of Quad Cities businesses. The goal of the task force is to identify and recommend policy actions Illinois can take to keep jobs in the state.

“This law will help keep jobs where they belong: in our communities, benefitting hard-working Illinoisans,” Halpin said. “Combined with other legislation I have recently helped pass to relieve the property tax burden on the middle class and promote practical, good-paying job opportunities, the task force will stimulate the Illinois economy for years to come.”