In a move designed to make U.S. companies think twice about sending jobs overseas, a group of politicians is proposing a novel way to punish them for it.

A new bill, drafted by Socialist legislator Bernard Sanders and backed by a few dozen Democrats and Republicans, would slap limits on federal grants to companies that fire U.S. workers and hire replacements abroad.

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The proposed Defending American Jobs Act, introduced on Wednesday, requires federal agencies that provide grants or loan guarantees to businesses to obtain reports on the number of employees those companies have inside and outside the United States, and on how much each group is being paid. One year after the bill becomes law, which is unlikely to happen this year, grant or loan recipients would be required to disclose how many domestic employees have been laid off as a proportion of the company's total global work force.

Here's the catch: If more U.S. workers than foreign workers received the ax, the company would be "ineligible for further assistance" until it started hiring American employees again.