WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Rick Scott slammed President Joe Biden’s move to turn a blind eye to slave labor by vetoing the Senator’s bipartisan legislation, led by Congressman Bill Posey in the House, to support American solar manufacturers and workers and to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for breaking American trade laws and using slave and child labor to produce these products. This legislation passed the Senate earlier this month with bipartisan support.

Senator Rick Scott said, “The question everyone should be asking today is this: what does Communist China have on President Biden that’s so damning he can’t bring himself to stand against slave and child labor? President Biden’s veto of our anti-Chinese solar legislation is just the latest example of his weak, pathetic appeasement of this genocidal regime. Our bill passed with bipartisan votes in the House and Senate. Now, the only logical thing for Congress to do is to immediately override this veto and make sure that the world knows that America will NEVER tolerate slave and child labor. If the United States won’t stand against slave labor and for American jobs, what the hell will we stand for?”

Congressman Bill Posey said, “The President makes it clear with his veto he supports the interests of Chinese businesses over American manufacturers and the future of the American solar energy industry. We believe in our nation’s ability to make superior solar products and we think that China should be held accountable for breaking U.S. trade laws, rather than be given a free pass, which this Administration is apparently willing to do.”

BACKGROUND

In 2022, the Department of Commerce caught Communist China circumventing U.S. trade laws. To avoid American tariffs, Xi's regime started sending Chinese-made solar products, made with slave labor, to Southeast Asian countries and claiming they were made in the corresponding nation. Senator Scott’s measure utilizes the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to rescind a recent Commerce Department rule, which allowed Chinese solar manufacturers to circumvent U.S. tariffs by delivering their products to the U.S. through third-party countries, all to the detriment of American companies and workers.

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