{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://hinson.house.gov/media/press-releases/hinson-bill-combat-chinas-trade-crimes-protect-american-workers-passes-house", "Hinson Bill to Combat China's Trade Crimes & Protect American Workers Passes House", "2024-12-03", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "House", "IA", "Ashley Hinson", "H001091", "hinson.house.gov", "hinson", "https://hinson.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "\"Thank you, M. Speaker:\n\nI rise today in support of my bill, the Protecting American Industry and Labor from International Trade Crimes Act.\n\nThis bill puts American industry, manufacturing, and workers first.\n\nFor decades, companies operating under the control of the Chinese Communist Party in the People\u2019s Republic of China have systematically violated U.S. trade laws.\n\nThe CCP\u2019s illicit trade practices, including duty evasion, transshipment, market flooding, forced labor, and fraud are deliberately designed to take advantage of American workers and businesses \u2013 lowering wages, forcing manufacturers to close their doors, and gutting rural manufacturing towns.\n\nFor example, the Select Committee on China uncovered trade fraud by Chinese auto manufacturer, Qingdao Sunsong.\n\nSunsong was using transshipment to evade U.S. tariffs, forcing an Illinois company to lay off a quarter of their workforce.\n\nSunsong is far from the only Chinese company taking action to exploit our trade system to bolster China\u2019s non-market economy, crippling American industry and manufacturing, threatening workers\u2019 wages and livelihoods, and enabling slave labor.\n\nBut despite the sheer volume of trade-related crime, the Department of Justice remains inadequately equipped to effectively detect, investigate, and prosecute such offenses.\n\nWhile tariffs are one tool in our toolkit to level the playing field, we also must enforce our trade laws and hold China accountable for repeated violations that have a catastrophic impact on American workers and industry.\n\nBy strengthening the Trump\u2019s DOJ\u2019s ability to detect and prosecute international trade crimes, my bipartisan bill will ensure that Communist China and other perpetrators are criminally liable for illicit activity and that penalties are enforced.\n\nThis will help reshore domestic manufacturing and provide opportunities for American workers.\n\nI am proud to have the support of China Select Committee Chairman Moolenaar and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi on this bill and deeply appreciate their collaboration. I also want to thank Chairman Jim Jordan and Ranking Member Jerry Nadler for their support of this key bill.\n\nI urge my colleagues to support this legislation and support American workers. Thank you, and I yield back.\"\n\nBackground:\n\nCompanies based in the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC) frequently commit crimes violating U.S. trade laws, including trade fraud, duty evasion, and transshipment, which benefit the PRC\u2019s non-market economy and undermine U.S. companies and workers. Countless Americans have lost their jobs due to this criminal activity. Despite the large volume of trade crime-related cases, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has under-resourced its prosecution of these crimes.\n\nHinson's Protecting American Industry and Labor from International Trade Crimes Act has garnered robust support and now awaits action in the Senate. This legislation will:\n\nEstablish a new task force or similar structure within the DOJ\u2019s Criminal Division to investigate and prosecute trade-related crimes.\n\nEnhance nationwide responses to trade-related offenses by providing training and technical assistance to other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, expanding investigations and prosecutions, and allowing for parallel criminal and civil enforcement actions.\n\nRequire the Attorney General to submit an annual report to Congress assessing the DOJ\u2019s efforts, statistics on trade-related crimes, and fund utilization.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T22:13:55Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://hinson.house.gov/media/press-releases/hinson-bill-combat-chinas-trade-crimes-protect-american-workers-passes-house"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9527239017188549, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}