MUSCATINE, Iowa — A bill Rep. Nathan Reichert, D-Muscatine, introduced this week could help local workers laid off from HNI Corp.

House File 417 proposes a master purchasing contract for the state’s furniture buying and mandates a preference for Iowa-based manufacturers when bids are comparable.

“I just want to see Iowa get a better bid for its furniture, and hopefully put some Iowans to work while we’re doing it,” Reichert said Thursday.

The state would receive a volume discount by requiring Iowa’s state agencies to buy furniture from a single source, the same as motor vehicles and office supplies, Reichert said.

It is unclear how much money the state spends now on furniture, he said, because buying is done “hodgepodge” through state agencies.

Much of the furniture, however, is purchased through Prison Industries, which Reichert said is “really a dealer, not a producer.” He said furniture once manufactured in Iowa’s prison system is now outsourced to Herman Miller Inc. in Zeeland, Mich.

“A process that once was very fitting for Iowa is now not so fitting,” Reichert said.

A delegation from Muscatine-based HNI, the second-largest office furniture manufacturer in the world, will make a presentation supporting the bill to a House Public Safety subcommittee next week.

HNI is the parent company of the HON Co. and Allsteel, which jointly employ about 4,000 people in Muscatine. In October 2008, the company announced it would lay off up to 200 employees.

Reichert said HNI and other Iowa furniture manufacturers such as Flexsteel Industries Inc., which has laid off workers at its plant in Dubuque, could benefit from competitive bidding created by the master contract.

In the next year, Reichert said, the state will spend billions of dollars it receives from flood relief, federal stimulus funds and bonding on building construction, including reconstruction of the veterinary school at Iowa State University and more than 15 buildings at the University of Iowa damaged by last year’s record floods.

“I want to make sure we’re putting Iowans to work as we spend these dollars,” he said.