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The so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – a $749 billion climate and tax deal – provides billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies to the solar industry. The solar industry is dominated by Chinese manufacturers who rely heavily on the forced labor of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups to produce critical inputs for solar panels.
 
U.S Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) sent  a letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Troy Miller and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas expressing concern that the IRA solar subsidies may contradict the enforcement of Rubio’s Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The landmark law bans goods made with the slave labor of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and elsewhere in the People’s Republic of China from entering the United States.   
 

• “The People’s Republic of China (PRC) now accounts for over 80% of every stage of the solar panel manufacturing process, such as polysilicon production, and accounts for 97% for wafers. Given the PRC’s dominance of the solar industry, IRA solar subsidies, grants, and tax credits could be used extensively on Chinese solar panels and solar panel components. We are deeply concerned that the American taxpayer will be subsidizing the CCP’s solar industry and therefore subsidizing forced labor and human rights abuses.”

 
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) also signed the letter.
 
Want more information? Read the full text of the letter here.