No Dollars to Uyghur Forced Labor Act

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 4039, the No Dollars to Uyghur Forced Labor Act, and I urge my colleagues to vote in support of this important measure.

Slavery in any form is repugnant and morally wrong. America--the home of the brave and the land of the free--should not be complicit in the Chinese Communist Party's genocide, oppression, and enslavement of Uyghur Muslims.

Currently, the China Communist Party is using over 100,000 Uyghur Muslims as slave labor. The No Dollars to Uyghur Forced Labor Act will ensure that the U.S. plays no part in this atrocity.

Specifically, H.R. 4039 prohibits the State Department and USAID from developing or designing international contracts with companies that import or source any raw materials or goods that were manufactured, produced, or mined from the Xinjiang region of China.

My legislation would also require a report to Congress identifying all violations in the previous year with a plan to improve enforcement and compliance.

Xinjiang is an important region to China's economy. It represents one-sixth of China's land mass, and is home to most of their cotton, coal, and natural gas reserves. It is considered the core hub for China's Belt and Road Initiative, which is China's primary tool to exert economic influence across the globe.

Many basic goods that we consider to be part of our everyday lives are being produced by forced labor in Xinjiang--raw materials like yarn, bricks, nails, cotton, hair products, gloves, and polysilicon, which is commonly used for solar panel manufacturing--all essential resources for global commerce.

There is no excuse for the United States to continue in any partnership with companies that do business in Xinjiang and perpetuate these gross human rights abuses that the CCP has been committing against ethnic minorities for decades.

In addition to those enslaved, between 1 and 2 million people have been detained arbitrarily by the CCP and placed in what they call reeducation centers where they have little to no freedom and undergo intense indoctrination at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.

Many who have endured these centers note that they were just paid 2 pennies or less to make a pair of gloves. Those who are enslaved are unable to leave, see their families, or communicate with their loved ones.

The CCP's tactics of threats, intimidation, confinement, and physical and emotional abuse is intended to oppress its people, force assimilation, and in the process, grow its economic influence worldwide.

Victims have no hope of life elsewhere. They know they will be monitored by police through oppressive surveillance systems. Survivors recount that the CCP cancel passports and lure minorities to China only then to detain them and use them for forced labor.

The CCP reels in Uyghurs by offering free health services and then invades their lives and privacy by taking their DNA, fingerprints, and blood samples, which are then exported to malign actors. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning of their captivity and their oppression.

If that is the society that the CCP is creating, we in the United States must act aggressively and immediately to make perfectly clear that we will not condone such brutality and such a cruel regime. What is more, the United States will not be a party to these atrocities.

America must continue to act with strength on the foreign stage. We cannot allow totalitarian regimes to grow in strength and influence around the world. If we do, then what is happening to the Uyghurs in China will surely follow wherever China builds its empire. We simply cannot let this happen.

We, in the United States, must stand for morality, we must stand for goodness, and we must stand for freedom.

Madam Speaker, I call on my colleagues to do just that by passing

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4039, No Dollars to Uyghur Forced Labor Act, as amended.

In both this Congress and the last Congress, the House Foreign Affairs Committee has shed light on the People's Republic of China's grave human rights abuses, including holding a hearing on the ongoing genocide in Xinjiang and advanced efforts to hold the PRC accountable for its use of forced labor.

In April 2021, the committee marked up the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, probably the most significant human rights legislation dealing with China in decades. The bill, which passed the committee and the House, both as a standalone measure and as part of our China- focused competition legislation, was eventually signed into law by President Biden.

That bill's purpose was to ensure that goods made with forced labor would not end up on American store shelves and, in turn, in American homes.

Today, we want to make sure that the standards we use at home also apply to American activities abroad. That is why H.R. 4039 calls on the State Department and USAID to verify that they are not funding any programs or projects that unwittingly use goods or materials made using forced labor.

Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Moran for introducing this bill, as

well as Chairman McCaul and Ranking Member Meeks for their leadership in passing it out of committee in a bipartisan manner.

When it comes to genocide and forced labor, Congress must be clear. There is no place in this world for such brutality.

Madam Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting this measure, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume for the purpose of closing.

Madam Speaker, H.R. 4039 builds on the important work Congress has already done to rid our domestic supply chains of forced labor goods by ensuring that our global programs aren't supporting such goods either. By asking our State Department and USAID program partners and contractors to ensure they aren't using forced labor goods, we will help make global supply chains freer.

This is a preventative measure meant to guarantee that U.S. international projects and programs are beyond reproach and fully consistent with our values. In so doing, H.R. 4039 will ensure that we practice our principles when it comes to human rights.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4039) to prohibit the use of funds supporting any activities within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this measure.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support for H.R. 4039, the No Dollars to Uyghur Forced Labor Act.

The Chinese Communist Party is engaged in a terrible genocide against the Uyghur Muslims. Through their Belt and Road Initiative, the CCP fuels these atrocities by trapping nations in debt and by exploiting their weakness to finance the CCP's nefarious activities.

We must not stoop to the level of the Chinese Communist Party. America and our values are better than that.

The No Dollars to Uyghur Forced Labor Act ensures that no American taxpayer dollars may be used to give the CCP profit for goods or raw materials produced using forced labor in the Xinjiang region in China.

Many basic goods such as bricks, cotton, and hair products are being produced in the Xinjiang region. These are all fundamental resources to commerce.

However, the U.S. has strength in our companies and global partners to build robust supply chains free of this forced labor that is being used to bankroll genocide.

I thank my colleague from Texas (Mr. Moran), for introducing this bill, of which I am a proud cosponsor. The bill received unanimous support from the Foreign Affairs Committee at our markup last year.

Madam Speaker, I urge strong support of this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Moran), a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the author of this bill.

Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Moran for his leadership on this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I urge the passage of H.R. 4039, and I yield back the balance of my time.