Calling for a trade policy that supports workers, consumers, independent farmers, small businesses, and the environment.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H. Res. 1286 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS 2d Session H. RES. 1286

Calling for a trade policy that supports workers, consumers, independent farmers, small businesses, and the environment.

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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 14, 2026

Ms. DeLauro (for herself, Mrs. Dingell, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Deluzio, Mr. Khanna, Ms. Hoyle of Oregon, Ms. Waters, Mr. Riley of New York, Mr. Mrvan, Mr. Norcross, Mr. Boyle of Pennsylvania, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Pocan, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Velazquez, Ms. Budzinski, Mr. Cleaver, Ms. Balint, Mrs. Grijalva, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Ms. Ocasio- Cortez, Ms. Scanlon, Mr. Casar, Mr. Tonko, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Ms. Stevens, Mr. Morelle, and Mr. Garcia of Illinois) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

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RESOLUTION

Calling for a trade policy that supports workers, consumers, independent farmers, small businesses, and the environment.

Whereas, for decades, United States trade policy has put corporate interests first, benefiting wealthy individuals and large corporations at the expense of working families, communities, independent farmers, small businesses, the environment, and the national and economic security of the United States; Whereas, since 1994, the United States has seen--

(1) the closure of over 70,000 factories;

(2) the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs, including millions of good, union jobs;

(3) the decimation of more than 300,000 family farmers;

(4) the hollowing out of communities across the Nation; and

(5) threats to collective safety created by United States reliance on farflung supply chains;

Whereas corporate-centered trade policy has undeniably failed the American people, and under trade agreements like the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, layoffs, plant closures, and offshoring persist; Whereas, in response to the justified anger of so many Americans hurt by this bankrupt trade model, President Trump campaigned on a promise to leverage trade policy to reverse these failures; and Whereas, instead of keeping this promise, President Trump has used the erratic imposition and removal of tariffs to cut backroom deals to enrich his friends and family, not American workers, and eliminated billions of dollars of investments in domestic energy and manufacturing, as companies continue to close factories and lay off workers to pad profits by chasing low wages overseas: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That-- (1) the House of Representatives rejects the choice between President Trump's chaotic, corrupt, corporate-captured trade policies and a return to the devastating trade model of the past; (2) the House of Representatives supports a trade policy that unflaggingly centers workers, supports family farmers and consumers, promotes a healthy environment, and enhances national well-being, resilience, and security; and (3) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that-- (A) to eliminate major incentives for companies to offshore jobs, any trade agreement must include strong, binding labor and environmental standards and rules of origin backed by swift and certain enforcement mechanisms; (B) trade agreements must include effective tools for challenging violations, including at the facility level, and businesses and governments must be held accountable when they fail to uphold workers' rights and environmental protections; (C) trade agreements must also include fair wage guarantees across manufacturing, food processing, call centers, back-office, and other tradeable sectors to disincentivize offshoring; (D) robust development assistance funding, including the grant program administered by the Department of Labor's International Labor Affairs Bureau, should ensure that strong labor provisions level the playing field by improving respect for workers' rights; (E) corporations seeking preferential tariff treatment must be required to meet a wage floor; and (F) trade should raise wages and standards globally, not allow companies to seek out low-wage labor markets with weak workers' rights and environmental protections, pitting workers against each other in a never-ending race to the bottom; (4) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that-- (A) public procurement and infrastructure investment should support United States workers; (B) trade agreements must in no way undermine governments' ability to-- (i) preference the purchase of domestic products at the Federal or State level; or (ii) include labor, environmental, and other standards in their purchasing preferences; (C) domestically, Buy America requirements must be strengthened to ensure goods are truly made in the United States, not minimally assembled or routed through loopholes; (D) rules must be strengthened to ensure that products, such as steel and aluminum, are melted, poured, smelted, cast, and fabricated domestically; and (E) waivers to such requirements and rules should be limited, and domestic content standards should apply across infrastructure, energy, and defense spending; (5) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that-- (A) United States trade and tax policy must stop incentivizing companies to move production overseas and, instead, should penalize them for doing so; (B) United States trade agreements must include mechanisms for targeting individual cases of offshoring and should condition United States market access on the creation of good American jobs; (C) Federal contracts, tax incentives, and financing must prioritize companies that invest and produce in the United States, and should include clawbacks and other remedies against companies and their leaders that offshore jobs or supply chains; (D) trade should rebuild domestic manufacturing capacity, not accelerate its decline, and must be complemented by robust industrial policies to support union jobs, with similar conditions and remedies to support workers; and (E) when trade policies fail to prevent offshoring, the United States must have an active, accessible, and fully funded Trade Adjustment Assistance Program to help workers get back on their feet; (6) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that-- (A) trade policy must not allow companies to undercut United States workers by exploiting weaker standards abroad; (B) United States trade agreements must include robust environmental standards, including those to limit industrial point water, air, climate, and ground pollution, that are enforced with effective mechanisms to challenge violations; (C) industrial espionage, forced technology transfer, and intellectual property theft conducted to create unfair advantages over United States producers must be treated as trade violations and met with strong enforcement; (D) United States trade and investment agreements must exclude the investor-state dispute settlement system that incentivizes offshoring and threatens environmental, labor, and other public policies by granting special rights to transnational corporations; and (E) trade should reward responsible production, not a race to the bottom; (7) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that-- (A) trade agreements should prioritize access to affordable medicine at home and abroad; (B) trade policy must not constrain governments' ability to adopt policies that enable the domestic production of medicine to address public health needs and to negotiate with companies for lower prescription drug prices; and (C) United States trade agreements should not provide monopoly protections that enable pharmaceutical firms to raise drug prices; (8) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that-- (A) trade must prioritize benefits for independent and family farmers and rural communities, including through-- (i) mandatory country-of-origin labeling rules to ensure market transparency; (ii) disciplines on subsidies that exclude large producers and processors but permit targeted support for small-, mid-, and family- scale farmers; and (iii) antimonopoly disciplines to promote fair input prices and farm gate prices; and (B) trade agreements must also recognize countries' sovereignty to set their own food safety standards and related inspection standards; (9) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that-- (A) much of the digital economy, including the training of ``artificial intelligence'', is being built on the backs of exploited workers overseas and without regard to its multiple impacts here at home; (B) trade agreements not only need robust worker's rights protections for the digital economy, but must in no way constrain countries' ability to set and enforce policy with respect to-- (i) data privacy, security, and storage; (ii) right-to-repair policies; (iii) regulation of artificial intelligence; (iv) protection against online discrimination and other civil rights violations; (v) competition in the marketplace; and (vi) related issues; and (C) trade policy must also provide protections for the copyrighted work of the more than 5,000,000 people who work in the motion picture, television, and music industries; (10) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that-- (A) trade policies should not privilege corporations, whether through provisions included in trade agreements, special access to policymakers, or privileged positions in tariff and waiver discussions; (B) the priorities of working families should be front and center in transparent negotiations, including when decisions are being made about food safety, environmental, health, privacy, labor, worker safety, and other standards; and (C) Congress must vote to approve any new or renegotiated trade or investment agreement that includes binding terms that change any existing or constrain any future United States policies; (11) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that-- (A) tariffs are a critical tool to counter unfair trade and corporate greed and to strengthen strategic sectors; (B) the United States must maintain and strengthen tariffs under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. 1862) and section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2411) where they support domestic production and good-paying jobs; (C) when an Administration fails to maintain and strengthen such tariffs to support American industry and workers, Congress will exercise its constitutional trade authority to address specific abuses; (D) such tariffs should not be weakened or removed if doing so exposes workers to import surges or trade cheating; and (E) Congress opposes giving corporations and bad actors overseas a free pass; and (12) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that-- (A) the United States must fully enforce its trade laws to stop other unfair practices, such as dumping and government-subsidized products on the United States market, to undercut United States producers; (B) antidumping and countervailing duty laws must be applied robustly and without delay; (C) existing trade preference programs must be updated to close loopholes that allow companies to evade duties; and (D) enforcement agencies must be fully funded so they can act quickly and effectively to catch and prevent abuses. <all>