Protecting Children Act

The Protecting Children Act is a comprehensive reform package aimed at strengthening every major lever against oppressive child labor and unsafe workplaces. The bill tightens enforcement by raising civil and criminal penalties for violations, expands remedies (including private lawsuits for affected children), and broadens tools like hot goods injunctions to curb exploitation more quickly. It also creates new capacity and coordination mechanisms, including a National Advisory Committee on Child Labor and a dedicated funding stream to support enforcement, research, training, and public education. In addition, the bill overhauls how standards are updated for child labor and hazardous work, moves toward a more coordinated, evidence-based approach to rulemaking, and expands research and data efforts to track and prevent harm to workers under 18. The Act would take effect 60 days after enactment.