I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4613 
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide access to 
information about sweatshop conditions in the garment industry, and 
for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 16, 2005 
Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ (for herself, Mr. OWENS, Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, Mr. 
KILDEE, Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, and Ms. KAP-
TUR) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide 
access to information about sweatshop conditions in the 
garment industry, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Garment Consumer’s 
Right-to-Know Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The production of garments in sweatshops 
that violate labor rights and standards burdens 
interstate and international commerce and the free 
flow of goods in commerce by spreading and perpet-
uating labor conditions that undermine minimum liv-
ing standards and by providing an unfair means of 
competition to the detriment of employers who com-
ply with the law. 
(2) The existence of domestic and foreign work-
ing conditions detrimental to fair competition and 
the maintenance of minimum standards of living 
necessary for health, efficiency, and general well- 
being of domestic and foreign workers are a con-
tinuing and growing problem in the garment indus-
try. 
(3) Many consumers of garments wish to know 
whether the garments they purchase in interstate 
and international commerce are made under working 
conditions that the consumer deems morally repug-
nant, indecent, violative of workers’ human dignity 
and fundamental rights, or otherwise unacceptable. 
The absence of reliable and available information 
about such sweatshop conditions impairs consumers’ 
capacity to freely and knowingly choose whether to
purchase garments made in sweatshops and sold into 
interstate and international commerce. 
(4) The Congress concurs in the findings of the 
Comptroller General that most sweatshop employers 
violate the recordkeeping requirements of the Fair 
Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et 
seq.). 
(5) The failure of these employers to maintain 
adequate records, as well as the lack of access to 
such records by consumers, employees, consumer 
and employee representatives, and the public at 
large has adversely affected and continues to ad-
versely affect the ability of employees and the De-
partment of Labor to collect wages due to workers 
and to otherwise ensure compliance with the Act’s 
wage and hour, child labor, and industrial homework 
provisions. 
(6) These failures of recordkeeping and lack of 
access to records—combined with the inadequacy in 
the scope of information that manufacturers have 
been required to record and disclose—also obstruct 
consumers from freely and knowingly choosing 
whether to buy garments that are made under 
sweatshop conditions.
(7) It is necessary to amend the Fair Labor 
Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) to 
ensure free consumer choice and to promote fair 
competition and working conditions that are not det-
rimental to the maintenance of health, efficiency, 
and general well-being of workers in the garment in-
dustry. 
SEC. 3. RECORDKEEPING AND DISCLOSURE IN THE GAR-
MENT INDUSTRY. 
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 
201 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 11 the 
following new section: 
‘‘RECORDKEEPING AND DISCLOSURE IN THE GARMENT 
INDUSTRY 
‘‘SEC. 11A. (a) An apparel manufacturer shall main-
tain, for not less than 3 years, the following: 
‘‘(1) The same records and information with re-
spect to the employees and homeworkers of each 
contractor engaged by the apparel manufacturer 
that the apparel manufacturer is required to make, 
keep, and preserve with respect to an employer’s em-
ployees and homeworkers under section 11(c). 
‘‘(2) Records of the following, with respect to 
the apparel manufacturer and each contractor en-
gaged by the apparel manufacturer: