Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB985 Compare Versions

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11 II
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION S. 985
55 To prohibit entities integral to the national interests of the United States
66 from participating in any foreign sustainability due diligence regulation,
77 including the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive of the
88 European Union, and for other purposes.
99 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
1010 MARCH12, 2025
1111 Mr. H
1212 AGERTYintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
1313 to the Committee on Foreign Relations
1414 A BILL
1515 To prohibit entities integral to the national interests of the
1616 United States from participating in any foreign sustain-
1717 ability due diligence regulation, including the Corporate
1818 Sustainability Due Diligence Directive of the European
1919 Union, and for other purposes.
2020 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
2121 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
2222 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
2323 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Prevent Regulatory 4
2424 Overreach from Turning Essential Companies into Tar-5
2525 gets Act of 2025’’ or the ‘‘PROTECT USA Act of 2025’’. 6
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2929 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1
3030 Congress makes the following findings: 2
3131 (1) The ability of citizens of the United States 3
3232 to engage in international commerce is a funda-4
3333 mental concern of the policy of the United States. 5
3434 (2) Entities in the extractive and manufac-6
3535 turing sectors contribute significantly to the pros-7
3636 perity of the United States and the growth of the 8
3737 world economy. 9
3838 (3) Maintaining and, in some cases, increasing 10
3939 access to certain supplies and materials from the ex-11
4040 tractive sector, including agriculture, energy, mining, 12
4141 and timber, and access to materials from the manu-13
4242 facturing sector, are critically important for pro-14
4343 moting economic development and human progress 15
4444 in the United States and around the world. 16
4545 (4) Restrictions, particularly restrictions adopt-17
4646 ed unilaterally by foreign countries that are substan-18
4747 tially different from restrictions applied by the 19
4848 United States, that unreasonably hinder the ability 20
4949 of entities integral to the national interests of the 21
5050 United States to pursue their commercial activities 22
5151 can have serious adverse effects on employment, eco-23
5252 nomic stability, scientific progress, and international 24
5353 trade, with the potential to impede domestic and for-25
5454 eign policy goals. 26
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5858 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 1
5959 In this Act: 2
6060 (1) E
6161 NTITY INTEGRAL TO THE NATIONAL IN -3
6262 TERESTS OF THE UNITED STATES .—The term ‘‘enti-4
6363 ty integral to the national interests of the United 5
6464 States’’ means any partnership, corporation, limited 6
6565 liability company, or other business entity that— 7
6666 (A) does business with any part of the 8
6767 Federal Government, including Federal contract 9
6868 awards or leases; 10
6969 (B) is organized under the laws of any 11
7070 State or territory within the United States, or 12
7171 of the District of Columbia, or under any Act 13
7272 of Congress or a foreign subsidiary of any such 14
7373 entity that— 15
7474 (i) derives not less than 25 percent of 16
7575 its revenue from activities related to the 17
7676 extraction or production of raw materials 18
7777 from the earth, including— 19
7878 (I) cultivating biomass (whether 20
7979 or not for human consumption); 21
8080 (II) exploring or producing fossil 22
8181 fuels; 23
8282 (III) mining; and 24
8383 (IV) processing any material de-25
8484 rived from an activity described in 26
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8888 subclause (I), (II), or (III) for human 1
8989 use or benefit; 2
9090 (ii) has a primary North American In-3
9191 dustry Classification System code or for-4
9292 eign equivalent associated with the manu-5
9393 facturing sector; 6
9494 (iii) derives not less than 25 percent 7
9595 of its revenue from activities related to the 8
9696 mechanical, physical, or chemical trans-9
9797 formation of materials, substances, or com-10
9898 ponents into new products; or 11
9999 (iv) is engaged in— 12
100100 (I) the production of arms or 13
101101 other products integral to the national 14
102102 defense of the United States; or 15
103103 (II) the production, mining, or 16
104104 processing of any critical mineral; or 17
105105 (C) the President otherwise identifies as 18
106106 integral to the national interests of the United 19
107107 States. 20
108108 (2) C
109109 RITICAL MINERAL.—The term ‘‘critical 21
110110 mineral’’ includes— 22
111111 (A) any mineral identified as a critical 23
112112 mineral in section 7002(a) of the Energy Act of 24
113113 2020 (30 U.S.C. 1606(a)); or 25
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117117 (B) any fuel mineral, including fossil fuels 1
118118 and any fraction, distillate, or other by-product 2
119119 of a fuel mineral. 3
120120 (3) F
121121 OREIGN SUSTAINABILITY DUE DILIGENCE 4
122122 REGULATION.— 5
123123 (A) I
124124 N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 6
125125 subparagraph (B), the term ‘‘foreign sustain-7
126126 ability due diligence regulation’’ means any law, 8
127127 regulation, or other legal instrument adopted by 9
128128 a foreign government that requires any person 10
129129 to undertake— 11
130130 (i) an assessment of the environ-12
131131 mental or social impacts of its operations 13
132132 or value chain; 14
133133 (ii) action to address any impacts 15
134134 identified in the assessment described in 16
135135 clause (i); and 17
136136 (iii) reporting of the impacts and ac-18
137137 tions described in clauses (i) and (ii). 19
138138 (B) E
139139 XCEPTION.—The term ‘‘foreign sus-20
140140 tainability due diligence regulation’’ does not 21
141141 apply to any law, regulation, or other legal in-22
142142 strument that is substantively similar to a law, 23
143143 regulation, or other legal instrument that has 24
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147147 been adopted or approved by an Act of Con-1
148148 gress. 2
149149 (C) I
150150 NCLUSION OF CORPORATE SUSTAIN -3
151151 ABILITY DUE DILIGENCE DIRECTIVE .—The 4
152152 term ‘‘foreign sustainability due diligence regu-5
153153 lation’’ includes— 6
154154 (i) the entirety of the Corporate Sus-7
155155 tainability Due Diligence Directive adopted 8
156156 by the European Union; 9
157157 (ii) any successor directive adopted by 10
158158 the European Union or any member coun-11
159159 try of the European Union; and 12
160160 (iii) any precursor directive adopted 13
161161 by any member country of the European 14
162162 Union. 15
163163 SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON COMPLIANCE WITH FOREIGN SUS-16
164164 TAINABILITY DUE DILIGENCE REGULATIONS. 17
165165 (a) I
166166 NGENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 18
167167 (b), no entity integral to the national interests of the 19
168168 United States may comply with any foreign sustainability 20
169169 due diligence regulation. 21
170170 (b) E
171171 XCEPTION FOR ORDINARYBUSINESSACTIVI-22
172172 TIES.—Subsection (a) does not prohibit an entity from un-23
173173 dertaking actions that it may lawfully take— 24
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177177 (1) to comply with a statute of the United 1
178178 States; or 2
179179 (2) in the ordinary course of business. 3
180180 (c) H
181181 ARDSHIPRELIEFPROCESS.— 4
182182 (1) P
183183 ETITION FOR RELIEF .—Any entity inte-5
184184 gral to the national interests of the United States 6
185185 that believes it will experience particular hardship in 7
186186 connection with the prohibition described in sub-8
187187 section (a) may petition the President for an exemp-9
188188 tion from such prohibition. 10
189189 (2) D
190190 ECISION.—Not later than 30 days after 11
191191 the date on which the President receives a petition 12
192192 from an entity submitted under paragraph (1), the 13
193193 President shall provide a written decision to the en-14
194194 tity that— 15
195195 (A) grants or denies the requested exemp-16
196196 tion; 17
197197 (B) contains a statement setting forth the 18
198198 basis for the decision; and 19
199199 (C) in the case of a granted exemption, de-20
200200 scribes any condition that the exemption is sub-21
201201 ject to, as determined by the President. 22
202202 (3) F
203203 ACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED .—In making 23
204204 the decision required by paragraph (2), the Presi-24
205205 dent shall consider— 25
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209209 (A) the extent to which the denial of a pe-1
210210 tition submitted under paragraph (1) by an en-2
211211 tity would result in the inability of the entity to 3
212212 participate in value chains associated with prod-4
213213 ucts essential for domestic use in the United 5
214214 States; 6
215215 (B) possible adverse effects on the econ-7
216216 omy in any locality or region of the United 8
217217 States, including adverse effects on employ-9
218218 ment; 10
219219 (C) the degree to which granting the peti-11
220220 tion would impact, directly or indirectly, the 12
221221 United States; and 13
222222 (D) the extent to which denial of the peti-14
223223 tion would prevent the entity from divesting in 15
224224 a business formed under the laws of a jurisdic-16
225225 tion subject to a foreign sustainability due dili-17
226226 gence regulation. 18
227227 SEC. 5. PROHIBITION AGAINST ADVERSE ACTION FOR COM-19
228228 PLIANCE WITH THIS ACT. 20
229229 (a) I
230230 NGENERAL.—No person may take any adverse 21
231231 action towards an entity integral to the national interests 22
232232 of the United States for action or inaction related to a 23
233233 foreign sustainability due diligence regulation. 24
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237237 (b) JUDGMENTS FORFOREIGNSUSTAINABILITYDUE 1
238238 D
239239 ILIGENCEREGULATIONS.—No judgment by a foreign 2
240240 court brought against an entity integral to the national 3
241241 interests of the United States in relation to any foreign 4
242242 sustainability due diligence regulation shall be recognized 5
243243 in the courts of the United States or of the States, unless 6
244244 otherwise provided by an Act of Congress. 7
245245 (c) E
246246 NFORCEMENT.— 8
247247 (1) A
248248 CTIONS BY THE PRESIDENT .— 9
249249 (A) I
250250 N GENERAL.—The President shall 10
251251 take any action the President determines is in 11
252252 the public interest to protect an entity integral 12
253253 to the national interests of the United States 13
254254 from an adverse action related to a foreign sus-14
255255 tainability due diligence regulation. 15
256256 (B) D
257257 ETERMINATION OF PUBLIC INTER -16
258258 EST.—In determining under subparagraph (A) 17
259259 whether an action by the President is in the 18
260260 public interest, the President shall take into ac-19
261261 count the impact of the adverse action de-20
262262 scribed in that subparagraph on— 21
263263 (i) consumers and businesses in the 22
264264 United States; 23
265265 (ii) the economic, energy, and environ-24
266266 mental security of the United States; and 25
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270270 (iii) foreign relations of the United 1
271271 States, including existing international 2
272272 commitments. 3
273273 (2) P
274274 RIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.— 4
275275 (A) I
276276 N GENERAL.—Any entity integral to 5
277277 the national interests of the United States ag-6
278278 grieved by a violation of subsection (a) may 7
279279 bring a civil action against the person that vio-8
280280 lated subsection (a) in an appropriate district 9
281281 court of the United States. 10
282282 (B) R
283283 ELIEF.—In a civil action brought 11
284284 under subparagraph (A) in which the plaintiff 12
285285 prevails, the court may award— 13
286286 (i) a writ of mandamus or other equi-14
287287 table or declaratory relief; 15
288288 (ii) punitive damages not to exceed 16
289289 the maximum penalty described in para-17
290290 graph (3)(A); 18
291291 (iii) reasonable attorney fees and liti-19
292292 gation costs; 20
293293 (iv) compensatory damages, including 21
294294 any amount paid by the entity pursuant to 22
295295 the applicable foreign sustainability due 23
296296 diligence regulation; and 24
297297 (v) all other appropriate relief. 25
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301301 (3) PENALTIES.—A person that violates sub-1
302302 section (a) or a regulation issued pursuant to this 2
303303 Act— 3
304304 (A) shall be subject to a civil penalty of 4
305305 not more than $1,000,000; and 5
306306 (B) may, at the discretion of the Presi-6
307307 dent, for a period of not longer than 3 years 7
308308 from the date on which the person is found in 8
309309 violation, be deemed ineligible to submit a bid 9
310310 for any Federal award or contract. 10
311311 Æ
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