United States HR 10251: Back-to-School Supplies Affordability Act

Bill Text

I
119TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION H. R. 10251
To limit the duties that may be imposed with respect to school supplies
and educational materials, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER 3, 2026
Mr. BOYLE of Pennsylvania (for himself, Ms. BYNUM, Ms. CRAIG, Ms. NOR-
TON, Ms. MCBRIDE, Mr. VARGAS, and Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and
Means, and in addition to the Committee on Rules, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned
A BILL
To limit the duties that may be imposed with respect to
school supplies and educational materials, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Back-to-School Sup-4
plies Affordability Act’’. 5
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:06 Sep 03, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H10251.IH H10251kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB

2
•HR 10251 IH
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 1
It is the sense of Congress that arbitrary and chaotic 2
tariffs increase the cost of school supplies for students, 3
families, teachers, schools, and local governments. 4
SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON IMPOSITION OF DUTIES ON 5
SCHOOL SUPPLIES AND EDUCATIONAL MATE-6
RIAL. 7
(a) IN GENERAL.—Beginning on the date of the en-8
actment of this Act, no duty described in subsection (b) 9
applies with respect to any item described in subsection 10
(c). 11
(b) DUTY DESCRIBED.—A duty is described in this 12
subsection if the duty imposed on an article exceeds the 13
duty in effect for the article on January 19, 2025, except 14
if the duty was— 15
(1) imposed pursuant to title VII of the Tariff 16
Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1671 et seq.); or 17
(2) proclaimed pursuant to section 201 of the 18
Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2251). 19
(c) ITEMS DESCRIBED.—An item is described in this 20
subsection if— 21
(1) the item is an item used in an elementary 22
or secondary school classroom, as designated 23
through regulations issued by the Secretary of Com-24
merce, in coordination with the Secretary of Edu-25
cation, unless there is enacted into law a joint reso-26
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:06 Sep 03, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H10251.IH H10251kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB

3
•HR 10251 IH
lution of disapproval under subsection (e) with re-1
spect to the item; or 2
(2) the item is classified under any of the fol-3
lowing headings, subheadings, and statistical report-4
ing numbers of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of 5
the United States: 6
(A) 3926.10 (Office or school supplies). 7
(B) 4202.92 (Backpack and lunchboxes). 8
(C) 4820.10.20 (Diaries, notebooks and 9
address books, bound, memorandum pads, let-10
ter pads, and similar articles). 11
(D) 4903 (Children’s picture, drawing, or 12
coloring books). 13
(E) 4910 (Calendars). 14
(F) 8471.60.20 (Keyboards). 15
(G) 9603.29.8010 (Hairbrushes). 16
(H) 9606 (Pencils, crayons, pencil leads, 17
pastels, drawing charcoals, writing or drawing 18
chalks and tailors’ chalks). 19
(I) 9608 (Ball point pens, felt tipped and 20
other porous tipped pens and markers, fountain 21
pens, pencil-holders and similar holders, parts 22
of the foregoing articles). 23
(d) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 180 days 24
after the date of the enactment of this Act, and every 180 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:06 Sep 03, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H10251.IH H10251kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB

4
•HR 10251 IH
days thereafter, the Secretary of Commerce shall submit 1
to the Committee on Finance of the Senate and the Com-2
mittee on Ways and Means of the House of Representa-3
tives a report that includes— 4
(1) a list of the items exempt from the applica-5
tion of duties pursuant to this Act; and 6
(2) a list of the items designated, during the 7
period covered by the report, by the Secretary pursu-8
ant to subsection (c)(1). 9
(e) JOINT RESOLUTION OF DISAPPROVAL.— 10
(1) JOINT RESOLUTION OF DISAPPROVAL DE-11
FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘joint resolution 12
of disapproval’’ means a joint resolution the sole 13
matter after the resolving clause of which is as fol-14
lows: ‘‘That Congress disapproves the designation of 15
lllll as a school supply eligible for exemption 16
from duties under section 3 of the Back-to-School 17
Supplies Affordability Act, notice of which was sub-18
mitted to Congress on llllll.’’, with the 19
first blank space being filled with the name of the 20
item and the second blank space being filled with the 21
date the report that contained the designation of the 22
item was submitted to Congress. 23
(2) EXPEDITED PROCEDURES.—The provisions 24
of subsections (b) through (f) of section 152 of the 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:06 Sep 03, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO