Amid the furore over outsourcing of jobs to countries like India during the election year, one more bill seeking to prevent government contracts from going abroad has been introduced before the US Congress.

Minnesota Republican senator Norm Coleman's bill would prevent federal, state and local governments from outsourcing contracts for both goods and services except in cases where the entity can certify that no domestic vendor was available.

• India and Outsourcing: Complete Coverage

Overseas outsourcing has become a hot election year issue with Democratic presidential candidates railing against the practice and some Republicans joining it.

"This is a Minnesota common-sense legislation," Coleman said in a statement, quoted by US media reports.

"I strongly embrace trade as a way to create wealth and jobs. But for our government at any level to contract with foreign entities for the delivery of federally funded US programmes is tantamount to Detroit buying a fleet of foreign-made police cars. This practice flies in the face of common sense," he said.

Coleman's bill, which came up Monday, is among a dozen anti-outsourcing measures introduced before the Congress.

Legislators in Minnesota, as well as about 50 other states, also have introduced bills banning outsourcing of state business. None have been passed to law.

However, a measure that would bar companies that bid for certain work done by federal workers from moving offshore has been included in the federal government's Omnibus Fiscal 2004 Spending Bill.