Senator Close to Leadership Says Uyghur Forced Labor Bill to Be Priority Next Year
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a co-sponsor of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, told International Trade Today that he doesn't expect the Senate to vote on the bill as part of the year-end legislative package.
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While the House passed the bill nearly unanimously (see 2009220038), both chambers would have to reintroduce it, and pass it, next year for it to become law. The most significant aspect of the bill is that all exports from China's Xinjiang province would be assumed to be made with forced labor unless the importer could prove otherwise. “It's a priority,” Cornyn said Dec. 17 in a hallway interview at the Capitol. He said that if the Senate is 50-50 next year, he thinks this could be a bill “to unify people.” However, he said, its chances of passage depend on the Joe Biden administration, “what their attitude is toward China generally,” adding, “but I'm optimistic.”