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NAM to House: Pass the PROTECT USA Act

By NAM NewsroomSeptember 9, 2026

The House has advanced an NAM-supported bill that will help safeguard manufacturing in the U.S. from regulatory overreach by foreign governments.

What’s going on: The Prevent Regulatory Overreach from Turning Essential Companies into Targets Act of 2026 (PROTECT USA Act)—part of a package of a dozen measures marked up by the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade last week—now goes to the full Energy and Commerce Committee.

  • The PROTECT USA Act was drafted in response to the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, which “would extend the EU’s environmental and labor standards deep into U.S. manufacturers’ supply chains, including business conducted within the U.S. and around the world,” the NAM recently told Subcommittee Chairman Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), “directly impact[ing] many small and medium-sized firms.”

Why it’s still a problem: The NAM has long urged the Trump administration to press the EU for changes to the directive and in response, EU lawmakers have partially scaled back its scope. However, problems remain, the NAM told lawmakers.

  • Large U.S. companies “would still be responsible for the actions of business partners throughout their supply chains—including for activities outside the EU.”
  • American companies would remain exposed to lawsuits in EU countries, “even when their businesses have no direct nexus to Europe.”

The cost: Under CSDDD, U.S. businesses could face between $637 billion and $1.093 trillion in initial compliance costs, then billions of dollars more in recurring expenses, according to a recent Hudson Institute study, the NAM said.

What it would do: The PROTECT USA Act seeks to shield American companies from adverse legal judgments over CSDDD in the event the EU does not roll back the directive or exempt American companies from it.

What should happen next: The full House committee should pass the PROTECT USA Act, “which hopefully will help persuade the EU to exempt U.S. companies from this costly mandate,” said NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Jake Kuhns.