The EU wants to control American businesses. This new bill might be the only thing that can stop it

In the sanction of "sustainability" and "corporate responsibility," policymakers successful the European Union person launched 1 of the astir unsafe attacks connected American sovereignty and economical state successful modern history. If near unchecked, their latest strategy — called the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) — could decimate U.S. businesses, crush innovation and enforce extremist biology and societal mandates connected millions of American workers and consumers.   

Fortunately, determination is simply a solution making its mode done Congress that could assistance enactment an extremity to this madness: the "PROTECT USA Act," precocious introduced by Tennessee Republican Senator Bill Hagerty. If lawmakers are superior astir defending our Constitution, our free-market strategy and the American radical from overseas tyranny disguised arsenic clime activism, they indispensable enactment present to enactment this important legislation. 

A overseas ESG takeover 

The CSDDD is, astatine its core, a powerfulness grab. Approved by the European Union successful 2024, this extremist instrumentality imposes sweeping environmental, social, and governance (ESG) mandates connected immoderate institution — careless of wherever it is headquartered — that does important concern successful the European Union. This includes galore of America’s largest employers, from Apple and Amazon to Ford and McDonald’s. 

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Under the law, companies with revenues greater than €450 cardinal from EU operations indispensable conscionable rigid sustainability criteria. These requirements see curtailing onshore development, embracing vague societal justness requirements, limiting h2o usage, reducing biodiversity loss, and transitioning to "green" vigor — careless of whether specified a displacement is economically viable.  

European Union regulations endanger US companies' independence. FILE: European Union flags flutter extracurricular the EU Commission office successful Brussels, Belgium, September 28, 2022. (REUTERS/Yves Herman//File Photo)

Failure to comply could effect successful fines arsenic precocious arsenic 5% of a company’s full planetary revenue. Even worse, the instrumentality allows activists and 3rd parties to motorboat lawsuits against companies for alleged non-compliance, opening the doorway to endless "lawfare" designed to destruct nonconforming businesses. 

But the information doesn’t halt with ample multinational corporations. The CSDDD requires covered companies to enforce ESG rules connected important portions of their proviso chains, careless of wherever those smaller companies are located. This means countless tiny and mid-sized U.S. manufacturers, truckers, farmers and work providers volition besides beryllium caught up successful the CSDDD scheme. While not each azygous supplier volition autumn nether the directive’s reach, thousands of businesses volition beryllium pressured into compliance done contractual obligations tied to ESG benchmarks. 

This is regularisation without representation. And it’s unacceptable. 

The PROTECT USA Act: a shield for American sovereignty 

Senator Hagerty’s PROTECT USA Act — abbreviated for Prevent Regulatory Overreach from Turning Essential Companies into Targets Act — strikes astatine the bosom of the European Union’s overreach. The measure would prohibit entities "integral to the nationalist interests of the United States" from complying with "any overseas sustainability owed diligence regulation," including the CSDDD. 

The authorities defines the term, "entities integral to the nationalist interests of the United States’’ broadly. These entities see "any partnership, corporation, constricted 7 liability company, oregon different concern entity" that does concern with the national authorities oregon works successful a agelong database of cardinal industries, specified arsenic fossil fuels and mining. 

The measure besides allows the president to designate companies oregon industries arsenic "integral" to America’s nationalist interests. 

Crucially, the authorities besides includes provisions that empower the president to "take immoderate enactment the President determines is successful the nationalist involvement to support an entity integral to the nationalist interests of the United States from an adverse enactment related to a overseas sustainability owed diligence regulation." 

This means that if the European Union insists connected attempting to penalize American companies for failing to follow EU ESG policies that Congress ne'er approved, the president would person the quality to combat backmost — economically and diplomatically. 

But the information doesn’t halt with ample multinational corporations. The CSDDD requires covered companies to enforce ESG rules connected important portions of their proviso chains, careless of wherever those smaller companies are located.

Further, the PROTECT USA Act would let U.S. businesses and individuals to instrumentality ineligible enactment present astatine location if they are harmed by overseas ESG laws similar the CSDDD. This means American companies would not person to endure silently nether planetary regulations they had nary accidental successful crafting.  

Instead, they’d person the powerfulness to situation this overreach successful tribunal by bringing a civilian enactment against parties that enforce owed diligence rules against them. They could adjacent triumph damages for the harms imposed connected them. 

Why this measure matters — present much than ever 

The CSDDD is acceptable to beryllium phased successful by 2028, pursuing a caller one-year hold approved by EU officials. That whitethorn look acold off, but the ineligible and economical machinery needed to enforce it is already successful motion. Companies are present reviewing contracts, overhauling compliance strategies, and — astir disturbingly — processing strategies to unit suppliers to preemptively follow EU-aligned ESG policies. 

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If Congress waits excessively long, the harm volition beryllium irreversible. Smaller U.S. businesses volition fold oregon beryllium forced into ESG submission. Consumers volition look higher prices and less choices. And the American system volition go progressively subservient to the whims of unaccountable Brussels bureaucrats and extremist clime ideologues. 

Support for the PROTECT USA Act should beryllium a bipartisan no-brainer. This is not a statement astir clime subject oregon firm ethics. It’s a question of who governs America — our elected representatives, oregon overseas institutions bent connected advancing a globalist agenda? 

Time to gully the line 

We cannot let the EU’s ESG authorities to infect our ineligible system, cripple our industries and override our law protections. The CSDDD is simply a Trojan equine — an effort to usage multinational commerce arsenic a backdoor to instrumentality extremist argumentation changes that would ne'er past the American legislative process. 

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Senator Hagerty deserves recognition for stepping up and drafting a wide enactment successful the sand. His PROTECT USA Act offers Congress a uncommon accidental to reclaim power implicit our system and cull planetary governance. 

The stakes couldn’t beryllium higher. If Congress fails to enactment now, we volition each wage the terms — not conscionable successful mislaid jobs and profits, but successful mislaid liberty. 

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