Congress extends Haiti trade deal, refunds duties on imports from gap period
H.R. 6504 — Haiti Economic Lift Program Extension Act · Filed by Gregory Murphy (R-NC) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Dec 9, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill extends duty-free (tariff-free) import treatment for apparel and certain goods from Haiti under a trade program through December 31, 2028, and restores eligibility for articles that lost preferential status due to tariff-schedule changes. It also allows importers to request refunds of duties paid on Haitian goods imported between September 30, 2025, and the bill's enactment, if those goods would have qualified for duty-free treatment under the program.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is extending and restoring duty-free treatment for Haitian imports under an existing trade program, with a retroactive refund mechanism for duties paid during a lapsed period.
What the text implies
- The retroactive duty refund (Section 4) creates a 180-day window for importers to file claims for refunds on entries made between September 30, 2025, and enactment. This may incentivize importers to file claims for marginal or disputed entries, potentially creating administrative burden on U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
- The bill restores eligibility for articles that lost preferential status due to tariff-schedule revisions, but does not specify which articles or categories are affected, delegating the determination to a presidential proclamation. This creates uncertainty about the scope of restored benefits until the proclamation is issued.
- The 1.25 percent quantitative limitation on apparel imports may constrain Haiti's export growth if demand exceeds the cap, potentially limiting the economic-development benefit the bill intends to provide.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill lowers import costs on Haitian goods, which reduces consumer prices for apparel and other products and supports Haiti's economic development through preferential trade access. The retroactive duty refund provision benefits importers and ultimately consumers who paid higher prices during the gap period, though the primary beneficiary is Haiti's export sector.
Who stands to gain
- Haitian apparel manufacturers and exporters
- U.S. importers of Haitian goods
- U.S. retailers and consumers of apparel
Named in the bill
Haiti, Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Committee on Finance (Senate), Committee on Ways and Means (House), Harmonized Tariff Schedule
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Dec 9, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Dec 9, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means and Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means”
- Dec 10, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Dec 10, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 41 - 0”
- Jan 12, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required)…”
- Jan 12, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Smith (MO) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
9 lobbying clients named this bill on 15 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $63,822,373 in lobbying spend. A filing names 15 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 89% of bills with at least one filing.
Gregory Murphy, the sponsor, reported $1,068,698 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle. $3,000 of that came from 2 PACs tied to these lobbying clients.
- Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. — $54,660,000 on 3 filings
- National Retail Federation — $3,881,000 on 2 filings
- Fedex Corporation — $2,930,000 on 1 filing
- AFL-CIO — $760,000 on 1 filing
- Coalition for a Prosperous America — $600,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,746 characters) on Jul 2, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress extends Haiti trade deal, refunds duties on imports from gap period” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr6504 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.