Sponsors (13)
The bill produces a short-term, centralized study that could reveal and enable remedies for regressive tariff impacts (benefiting low- and middle-income consumers and groups like women) but does so at modest administrative cost, with potential budgetary consequences if it spurs tariff cuts and a risk of partisan dispute limiting follow-through.
Low- and middle-income consumers (including low-income individuals and middle-class families) would gain clearer evidence that tariffs disproportionately raise prices for them, which could inform policies to reduce these regressive impacts.
Congress and policymakers (and by extension taxpayers and consumers) would receive a timely (one-year) evidence base to consider tariff reforms or relief that could lower consumer prices or improve equity.
Women would gain visibility into tariff-driven price disparities (for example, higher tariffs on women's clothing), enabling targeted reforms to address gender price biases.
The study will impose administrative costs on Treasury and customs agencies, which are ultimately funded by taxpayers.
If the study prompts calls for tariff reductions, federal tariff revenue could fall, creating pressure on the federal budget that might require spending adjustments or alternative revenue measures.
If the study's methods or findings are perceived as partisan or methodologically weak, it could fuel political disputes that limit consensus and delay policy changes, reducing the study's practical impact for taxpayers and consumers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires Treasury to study and report within one year on how import tariffs and tariff revenues disproportionately burden consumers, including gender and income impacts.
Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to produce and deliver to Congress, within one year of enactment, a study on how U.S. import tariffs and tariff revenues disproportionately burden consumers. The study must analyze tariff regressivity across consumer goods, cases where imports are foregone to avoid tariffs, gender differences in tariff rates (for example, women’s vs. men’s clothing), and disaggregated impacts by consumer gender, household type, and income level, with coordination and consultation among Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. International Trade Commission, and the U.S. Trade Representative.
Introduced March 11, 2025 by Elizabeth Pannill Fletcher · Last progress March 11, 2025