Sponsors (2)
The bill strengthens protections, penalties, transparency, and enforcement tools to keep federal contracting dollars away from firms that use child labor and to improve detection—but doing so raises compliance costs, legal exposure, procurement frictions, and may be hampered by no-new-funding constraints and resource burdens on agencies.
Taxpayers and children: Federal agencies will be barred from awarding contracts to companies with recent, final findings of child-labor violations, reducing taxpayer-funded support for abusive suppliers and shrinking markets for exploitative vendors.
Parents, children, and the public: Agencies must collect and publish contractor names/addresses and GAO will study violations, increasing transparency and giving Congress and the public better information to pressure change and oversee enforcement.
Children and teens: Civil penalties for illegal child labor are increased substantially, creating stronger deterrence and greater protection for youth from unlawful work.
Taxpayers and beneficiaries of enforcement: A prohibition on new federal spending to implement the Act may prevent or delay meaningful enforcement and program roll-out, undermining the law's effectiveness.
Small contractors and subcontractors: New certification, reporting, and multi-year debarment risks will raise compliance costs and could disrupt supply chains or drive firms out of eligibility for federal work.
Taxpayers and agencies: Prohibiting agencies from contracting with listed entities could narrow the pool of eligible vendors, potentially increasing procurement costs and slowing government purchases.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Requires FAR-based contractor certifications about child-labor violations, bars awards to noncompliant firms, raises civil penalties, mandates DOL training, and orders a GAO study.
Official title: Ensure that Federal contractors comply with child labor laws, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 10, 2025 by Joshua David Hawley · Last progress March 10, 2025
Requires federal procurement rules to screen contractors, offerors, and subcontractors for final findings or civil judgments for child-labor violations under section 12 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, bars awarding contracts to entities that admit violations and fail to implement negotiated corrective measures, raises civil penalties for such violations, directs Labor to train relevant agency staff, and orders a GAO study on contractor child-labor violations. The FAR Council must issue an implementing rule within 18 months; penalty increases apply to violations on or after enactment; no new appropriations are provided.