H.Res. 1286

[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.

_______________________________________________________________________

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

_______________________________________________________________________

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.
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