By Alabama Public Radio
Montgomery, AL – The Alabama Department of Human Resources says it will no longer route calls from food stamp recipients to a call center in India. The Legislature's Contract Review Committee had held up a contract extension when several lawmakers questioned why DHR was continuing to refer the calls to the center in India. DHR Commissioner Page Walley told the legislative panel that the agency's 2007 contract will require that the call center be in the United States, and preferably in Alabama. But Walley also told lawmakers that the new contract would be more costly than the current one, because of the low salaries workers receive in India. The Contract Review Committee did approve a $10 million two-year contract extension.