Ohio senator introduces 25% tax on companies that outsource jobs overseas

FIRST ON FOX: Ohio Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno is introducing legislation aimed at penalizing companies who outsource jobs and operations overseas while at the same time providing financial support to avenues that create American jobs. 

The bill, introduced on Friday and known as the “Halting International Relocation of Employment Act” or “HIRE Act”, creates a 25% tax on “outsourcing payments” which are defined as any money paid by a U.S. company or taxpayer to a foreign person whose work benefits U.S. consumers.

The bill also includes anti-abuse language to prevent tax avoidance via U.S. territories and requires U.S. firms to fully disclose all outsourcing payments and contracts. Companies will also be prohibited from deducting any outsourcing payments.

Money raised by the penalty on spending on overseas workers will be used to support apprenticeship programs in the United States as well as workforce development programs.

OHIO SENATOR INTRODUCES ‘HOLLY’S ACT’ FOR WOMAN BRUTALLY BEATEN IN VIRAL CINCINNATI ATTACK

Additionally, the legislation, if passed through Republican-controlled Congress and signed by the Republican president, would prohibit companies from treating outsourcing payments as base erosion payments when they calculate their Base Erosion and Anti-Abuse Tax.

“While college grads in America struggle to find work, globalist politicians and C-Suite executives have spent decades shipping good-paying jobs overseas in pursuit of slave wages and immense profits—those days are over,” Moreno told Fox News Digital in a statement.

US WILL BE ‘FLOODED WITH JOBS’ AS FOREIGN NATIONS AVOID TARIFFS, TRUMP SAYS

“It’s time to fight for working class Americans and ensure they can work and retire with dignity. If companies want to hire foreign workers instead of Americans, my bill will hit them where it hurts: their pocketbooks.”

Moreno’s bill comes amid the backdrop of the Trump administration touting its efforts focusing on employment within the United States to jobs for U.S. born citizens, highlighted by news reported by Fox Business last month that American-born job growth surged by close to 2 million in the last 12 months as jobs among foreign-born individuals declined during the same period, according to data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Simultaneously, the number of foreign-born individuals 16 and over holding jobs in the U.S. decreased by nearly half a million, 452,000, from July 2024 to the same month in 2025. The number of foreign-born jobs in the U.S. in July was 32,066,000, down from 32,518,000 in the same month last year, a 1.39 percent decrease. 

Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo contributed to this report