Although recent history surrounding offshore outsourcing has proven that laid off high-tech workers don’t necessarily find equivalent pay or position titles after the pink slip, a new proposed bill could help them to make a smoother transition.

High-tech workers who lose their jobs because of offshore outsourcing would be eligible for up to two years of unemployment insurance, job training and a substantial tax break on health insurance under legislation introduced Monday in the U.S. Senate.

The bill proposed by Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance, and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), seeks sweeping changes to the federal government’s Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. As it now stands, the TAA program largely excludes IT staffers, call center employees and other service workers from the extended unemployment help that the government offers to blue-collar workers whose jobs are offshored to lower-wage countries.

The new legislation, officially called the Trade and Globalization Adjustment Assistance Act of 2007, would rewrite the TAA policies and make them far broader. In a statement, Snowe said the U.S. has a responsibility to help service workers because the government’s trade liberalization initiatives are a policy choice. “We therefore have an obligation to ensure that the costs are not borne by the most vulnerable workers alone,” she said.

Marcus Courtney, president of the Seattle-based Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, said the Senate bill would “help expand a safety net for workers that have lost their jobs due to globalization.”

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