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[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1968 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1968

    To amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require certain 
 companies to disclose information describing any measures the company 
has taken to identify and address conditions of forced labor, slavery, 
   human trafficking, and the worst forms of child labor within the 
                        company's supply chains.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             August 5, 2015

 Mr. Blumenthal (for himself and Mr. Markey) introduced the following 
 bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, 
                       Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
    To amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require certain 
 companies to disclose information describing any measures the company 
has taken to identify and address conditions of forced labor, slavery, 
   human trafficking, and the worst forms of child labor within the 
                        company's supply chains.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Business Supply Chain Transparency 
on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2015''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) In 2014, the Department of Labor identified 136 goods 
        from 74 countries around the world made by forced labor and 
        child labor.
            (2) The United States is the world's largest importer, and 
        in the 21st century, investors, consumers, and broader civil 
        society increasingly demand information about the human rights 
        impact of products in the United States market.
            (3) Courts have ruled that consumers do not have standing 
        to bring a civil action in United States courts for enforcement 
        of a provision in the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 
        prohibiting importation of goods made with forced labor or 
        convict labor, and furthermore, the provision has a broad 
        exception for goods that cannot be produced in the United 
        States in sufficient quantities to meet the demands of American 
        consumers from tainted goods, consequently, there are fewer 
        than 40 enforcement actions on record in the past 80 years.
            (4) Mechanisms under Federal law to prevent and punish 
        perpetrators of forced labor, slavery, human trafficking, and 
        the worst forms of child labor in the stream of commerce suffer 
        from problems of limited scope, broad expectations, and lack of 
        available information about goods that are produced along 
        supply chains tainted by these crimes and imported by the 
        United States.
            (5) The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act 
        of 2003 (Public Law 108-193) together with the Trafficking 
        Victims Protection Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-164) provide for 
        the termination of Federal contracts where a Federal contractor 
        or subcontractor engages in severe forms of trafficking in 
        persons or has procured a commercial sex act during the period 
        of time that the grant, contract, or cooperative agreement is 
        in effect, or uses forced labor in the performance of the 
        grant, contract, or cooperative agreement. The Trafficking 
        Victims Protection Act of 2005 also provides United States 
        courts with criminal jurisdiction abroad over Federal 
        employees, contractors, or subcontractors who participate in 
        severe forms of trafficking in persons or forced labor.
            (6) Executive Order 13126, Prohibition of Acquisition of 
        Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor, 
        Executive Order 13627, Strengthening Protections Against 
        Trafficking In Persons In Federal Contracts, and title XVII of 
        the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 
        (Public Law 112-239) have prohibited Federal contractors, 
        subcontractors, and their employees from engaging in the 
        following trafficking-related activities: charging labor 
        recruitment fees; confiscating passports and other identity 
        documents of workers; and using fraudulent recruitment 
        practices, including failing to disclose basic information or 
        making material misrepresentations about the terms and 
        conditions of employment. Such Executive order and Acts also 
        require Federal contractors, subcontractors, and their 
        employees to maintain an anti-trafficking compliance plan that 
        includes, among other elements, a complaint mechanism and 
        procedures to prevent subcontractors at any tier in the supply 
        chain from engaging in trafficking in persons.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) forced labor, slavery, human trafficking, and the worst 
        forms of child labor are among the most egregious forms of 
        abuse that humans commit against each other, for the sake of 
        commercial profit;
            (2) the legislative and regulatory framework to prevent 
        goods produced by forced labor, slavery, human trafficking, and 
        the worst forms of child labor from passing into the stream of 
        commerce in the United States is gravely inadequate;
            (3) legislation is necessary to provide consumers 
        information on products that are free of child labor, forced 
        labor, slavery, and human trafficking; and
            (4) through publicly available disclosures, businesses and 
        consumers can avoid inadvertently promoting or sanctioning 
        these crimes through production and purchase of raw materials, 
        goods and finished products that have been tainted in the 
        supply chains.

SEC. 3. DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION RELATING TO EFFORTS TO COMBAT THE USE 
              OF FORCED LABOR, SLAVERY, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS, OR THE 
              WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR.

    Section 13 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78m) 
is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(s) Disclosures Relating to Efforts To Combat the Use of Forced 
Labor, Slavery, Trafficking in Persons, or the Worst Forms of Child 
Labor.--
            ``(1) Regulations.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
        enactment of the Business Supply Chain Transparency on 
        Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2015, the Commission, in 
        consultation with the Secretary of State, shall promulgate 
        regulations to require that any covered issuer required to file 
        reports with the Commission under this section to include 
        annually in such reports, a disclosure whether the covered 
        issuer has taken any measures during the year for which such 
        reporting is required to identify and address conditions of 
        forced labor, slavery, human trafficking, and the worst forms 
        of child labor within the covered issuer's supply chain, and a 
        description of such measures taken. Such disclosure shall 
        include, under the heading `Policies to Address Forced Labor, 
        Slavery, Human Trafficking, and the Worst Forms of Child 
        Labor', information describing to what extent, if any, the 
        covered issuer conducts any of the following activities:
                    ``(A) Whether the covered issuer maintains a policy 
                to identify and eliminate the risks of forced labor, 
                slavery, human trafficking, and the worst forms of 
                child labor within the covered issuer's supply chain 
                (such disclosure to include the text of the policy or 
                substantive description of the elements of the policy), 
                and actions the covered issuer has taken pursuant to or 
                in the absence of such policy.
                    ``(B) Whether the covered issuer maintains a policy 
                prohibiting its employees and employees of entities 
                associated with its supply chain from engaging in 
                commercial sex acts with a minor.
                    ``(C) The efforts of the covered issuer to evaluate 
                and address the risks of forced labor, slavery, human 
                trafficking, and the worst forms of child labor in the 
                product supply chain. If such efforts have been made, 
                such disclosure shall--
                            ``(i) describe any risks identified within 
                        the supply chain, and the measures taken toward 
                        eliminating those risks;
                            ``(ii) specify whether the evaluation was 
                        or was not conducted by a third party;
                            ``(iii) specify whether the process 
                        includes consultation with the independent 
                        labor organizations (as such term is defined in 
                        section 2 of the National Labor Relations Act 
                        (29 U.S.C. 152)), workers' associations, or 
                        workers within workplaces and incorporates the 
                        resulting input or written comments from such 
                        independent labor organizations, workers' 
                        associations, or workers and if so, the 
                        disclosure shall describe the entities 
                        consulted and specify the method of such 
                        consultation; and
                            ``(iv) specify the extent to which the 
                        process covers entities within the supply 
                        chain, including entities upstream in the 
                        product supply chain and entities across lines 
                        of products or services throughout the covered 
                        issuer's product manufacturing.
                    ``(D) The efforts of the covered issuer to ensure 
                that audits of suppliers within the supply chain of the 
                covered issuer are conducted to--
                            ``(i) investigate the working conditions 
                        and labor practices of such suppliers;
                            ``(ii) verify whether such suppliers have 
                        in place appropriate systems to identify risks 
                        of forced labor, slavery, human trafficking, 
                        and the worst forms of child labor within their 
                        own supply chain; and
                            ``(iii) evaluate whether such systems are 
                        in compliance with the policies of the covered 
                        issuer or efforts in absence of such policies.
                    ``(E) The efforts of the covered issuer to--
                            ``(i) require suppliers in the supply chain 
                        to attest that the manufacture of materials 
                        incorporated into any product and the 
                        recruitment of labor are carried out in 
                        compliance with the laws regarding forced 
                        labor, slavery, human trafficking, and the 
                        worst forms of child labor;
                            ``(ii) maintain internal accountability 
                        standards, supply chain management, and 
                        procurement systems, and reporting procedures 
                        for employees, suppliers, contractors, or other 
                        entities within its supply chain failing to 
                        meet the covered issuer's standards regarding 
                        forced labor, slavery, human trafficking, and 
                        the worst forms of child labor, including a 
                        description of such standards, systems, and 
                        procedures;
                            ``(iii) train the employees and management 
                        who have direct responsibility for supply chain 
                        management on issues related to forced labor, 
                        slavery, human trafficking, and the worst forms 
                        of child labor, particularly with respect to 
                        mitigating risks within the supply chains of 
                        products; and
                            ``(iv) ensure that labor recruitment 
                        practices at all suppliers associated with the 
                        supply chain comply with the covered issuer's 
                        policies or efforts in absence of such policies 
                        for eliminating exploitive labor practices that 
                        contribute to forced labor, slavery, human 
                        trafficking, and the worst forms of child 
                        labor, including by complying with audits of 
                        labor recruiters and disclosing the results of 
                        such audits.
                    ``(F) The efforts of the covered issuer in cases 
                where forced labor, slavery, human trafficking, and the 
                worst forms of child labor have been identified within 
                the supply chain, to ensure that remedial action is 
                provided to those who have identified as victims, 
                including support for programs designed to prevent the 
                recurrence of those events within the industry or 
                sector in which they have been identified.
            ``(2) Requirements for availability of information.--
                    ``(A) Disclosure on company website.--The 
                regulations promulgated under paragraph (1) shall 
                require that the required information be disclosed by 
                the covered issuer on the Internet website of the 
                covered issuer through a conspicuous and easily 
                understandable link to the relevant information that 
                shall be labeled `Global Supply Chain Transparency'.
                    ``(B) Disclosure on commission website.--The 
                Commission shall make available to the public in a 
                searchable format on the Commission's website--
                            ``(i) a list of covered issuers required to 
                        disclose any measures taken by the company to 
                        identify and address conditions of forced 
                        labor, slavery, human trafficking, and the 
                        worst forms of child labor within the covered 
                        issuer's supply chain, as required by this 
                        subsection; and
                            ``(ii) a compilation of the information 
                        submitted under the rules issued under 
                        paragraph (1).
            ``(3) Definitions.--As used in this subsection--
                    ``(A) the term `covered issuer' means an issuer 
                that has annual worldwide global receipts in excess of 
                $100,000,000;
                    ``(B) the terms `forced labor', `slavery', and 
                `human trafficking' mean any labor practice or human 
                trafficking activity in violation of national and 
                international standards, including International Labor 
                Organization Convention No. 182, the Trafficking 
                Victims Protection Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-386), 
                and acts that would violate the criminal provisions 
                related to slavery and human trafficking under chapter 
                77 of title 18, United States Code, if they had been 
                committed within the jurisdiction of the United States;
                    ``(C) the term `remedial action' mean the 
                activities or systems that an issuer puts in place to 
                address non-compliance identified through monitoring or 
                verification, and may apply to individuals adversely 
                affected by the non-compliant conduct or address 
                broader systematic processes;
                    ``(D) the term `supply chain', with respect to a 
                covered issuer disclosing the information required 
                under the regulations promulgated under this section, 
                means all labor recruiters, suppliers of products, 
                component parts of products, and raw materials used by 
                such entity in the manufacturing of such entity's 
                products whether or not such entity has a direct 
                relationship with the supplier; and
                    ``(E) the term `the worst forms of child labor' 
                means child labor in violation of national and 
                international standards, including International Labor 
                Organization Convention No. 182.''.
                                 <all>
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