S. 1685 — No Funds for Forced Labor Act

This section states the following congressional findings regarding forced labor and abuses against Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region: (1) the International Labour Organization has expressed deep concern about the extensive use of forced labor there; (2) the Congressional-Executive Commission on China's 2022 annual report found that authorities maintained a system of forced labor involving former mass internment camp detainees and other Turkic and Muslim individuals; and (3) a 2022 Atlantic Council report detailed that the World Bank's International Finance Corporation determined several clients were active participants in China's campaign against Uyghur people and culture.

This section expresses the sense of Congress that (1) international financial institutions should not fund, finance, or provide loan guarantees to any entity credibly accused of using forced labor; and (2) the United States should work with allies, partners, and countries worldwide to eliminate forced labor and ensure such institutions do not fund projects that use forced labor.

This section directs the Secretary of the Treasury to instruct the U.S. Executive Director at each international financial institution (as defined in section 1701(c)(2) of the International Financial Institutions Act) to oppose, to the maximum extent practicable, any loan for a project that (1) poses a significant risk of using forced labor (as defined in 19 U.S.C. 1307, including convict labor and indentured labor under penal sanctions) or (2) will be carried out by a state-owned or heavily state-influenced entity in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. It further requires each such institution to provide, for every supported project, a project-specific explanation of how it vetted the project for forced labor risks and the actions taken to mitigate, track, and reverse those risks. Finally, it requires the Secretary to submit to specified congressional committees (House Financial Services and Foreign Affairs Committees; Senate Foreign Relations and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committees), not later than one year after enactment and annually thereafter for five years, a report on implementation—including details on any approved projects where forced labor could possibly be used and U.S. Executive Directors' efforts to oppose them—with public availability of the report or an unclassified version.