Senate Republicans advanced the One Big Beautiful Bill act Tuesday afternoon, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote in favor of the bill.
The megabill will now return to the House of Representatives for a vote. Senate members made some changes to the bill—including striking the controversial 10-year moratorium on state AI regulation—which means it now requires a new vote from House leaders.
The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) lauded Senate leaders Tuesday for choosing to keep a provision focused on ending de minimis in the bill. The section in question would see the U.S. permanently collapsing the de minimis provision by the middle of 2027. Kim Glas, president and CEO of the NCTO, called on House politicians to keep up the Senate’s momentum, noting that doing so “would help rebalance the playing field for the domestic textile industry.”
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“We are urging congressional leaders to ensure inclusion of this critical provision in the final version of the reconciliation bill this week, which would bring us one step closer to marking a significant milestone for the U.S. textile industry and a broad coalition of organizations dedicated to advocating for ending this destructive loophole,” she said in a statement.
De minimis has long been used to ship low-value goods into the U.S. without duties, enabling easy access to the U.S. consumer for newer e-commerce players like Shein and Temu. Over time—and, in particular because of the rise of China-founded e-tailers’ influence over U.S. consumers’ shopping habits in recent years—de minimis has amassed a group of critics that include politicians hailing from both sides of the aisle.
Some critics have argued that maintaining de minimis has allowed products made with forced labor to enter the U.S., while others have maintained that it creates an easier pathway for fentanyl to come into the country.
Other proponents of de minimis reform, like the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) have previously contended that the provision creates an unfair playing field for U.S. companies and manufacturers. Scott Paul, president of AAM, said in 2024 upon the group’s decision to join the Coalition to Close the De Minimis Loophole that legislative reform on de minimis would benefit domestic manufacturers. He kept that sentiment up Tuesday, noting that reform on the provision is overdue.
“The de minimis loophole has long been exploited by trade cheats worldwide to circumvent tariffs and import counterfeit and dangerous goods into the United States. Bafflingly, it is our own law that has granted bad actors like Shein and Temu this outrageous advantage over American manufacturers and workers,” Paul said in a statement. “However, this action, coupled with the White House’s de minimis reform efforts, is a critical step toward a permanent policy. America must end de minimis treatment for imports from all countries now.”
The New York Times estimated based on an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office that repealing de minimis could yield $39 billion in savings for the U.S. over the course of 10 years.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump collapsed what many have called a trade “loophole” for goods entering the U.S. from China, forcing importers to pay applicable taxes on the shipments.
That action came as part of Trump‘s “Liberation Day” tariff scourge, and while de minimis remains in place for goods inbound from countries other than China, the administration has made its intentions clear: it plans to scrap de minimis for goods inbound from any country once U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has the means to handle the influx of imports such a move would cause.
Republicans have stated they want the “big, beautiful bill” passed and on Trump’s desk for final signature by the time Independence Day comes this week. Glas said the NCTO would also like to see House lawmakers adopt the bill expeditiously, with the de minimis-ending provision intact.
“We are…grateful that the Trump administration has already used executive authorities to end de minimis access for Chinese goods—which represent approximately two-thirds of all de minimis shipments—while also laying the groundwork to close de minimis to commercial shipments from all countries,” Glas said. “We request that the administration utilize its executive authorities to immediately close this damaging loophole for commercial shipments from all countries in the interim until this legislation ultimately takes effect.”
