Amid New York Fashion Week, Gillibrand, Nadler Reintroduce FABRIC Act To Bring Accountability And Transparency To The Fashion Industry

Amid New York Fashion Week, Gillibrand, Nadler Reintroduce FABRIC Act To Bring Accountability And Transparency To The Fashion Industry

Sep 14, 2026

Today, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY-12) announced the reintroduction of their Fashioning Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change (FABRIC) Act. In New York State, there are approximately 130,000 people employed by the fashion industry, including thousands working in apparel manufacturing. Garment workers are a cornerstone of the American economy, and for far too long, they have faced unsafe working conditions, wage theft, and piecework pay, which often prioritizes fast fashion over the safety of workers. Gillibrand and Nadler's FABRIC Act would protect over 75,000 American garment workers and help revitalize the garment manufacturing industry in the United States by improving working conditions and reforming the piece-rate pay scale.

"Garment workers are the backbone of a multibillion-dollar industry, yet for far too long, their labor has been undervalued and exploited," said Senator Gillibrand. "We cannot champion American innovation while turning a blind eye to abusive labor practices in our own backyard. It's time to take bold action at the federal level to change the fabric of the American garment industry. The United States was once home to a booming apparel manufacturing industry, and it's time to reexamine how this industry has evolved over the past 50 years and change how we treat our workers. With the FABRIC Act, we can curb wage theft, protect our workers, and revitalize domestic manufacturing so that 'Made in America' also means ethically made."

"America's garment workers have been undervalued and subjected to unfair labor practices for far too long, due to weak regulations across the fashion industry and the rise of fast fashion. With more than 100,000 New Yorkers contributing their labor to a billion-dollar garment industry, it is time to protect these workers and others across our nation and make historic investments in domestic manufacturing by passing the FABRIC Act," said Congressman Jerrold Nadler. "I'm proud to work with Senator Gillibrand to protect workers' rights, bring jobs back from overseas, and revitalize the American fashion industry."

The FABRIC Act proposes to address these issues by:

1. Restructuring pay rates for garment workers and providing minimum wage as a floor with productivity incentives on top.
2. Establishing new liability measures that compel major retailers to become allies in combating workplace violations.
3. Introducing recordkeeping and transparency measures, including requiring garment manufacturers and contractors operating in the U.S. to register with the Department of Labor.
4. Incentivizing reshoring by creating a domestic garment manufacturing grant program aimed at revitalizing the industry.

In addition to Gillibrand and Nadler, the bill is cosponsored by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), as well as Reps. Deborah Ross (D-NC), Don Beyer (D-VA), Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Robert Garcia (D-CA), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Stephen Lynch (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). The bill is also endorsed by AFL-CIO, UNITE HERE, Workers United, and RWDSU.

The full text of the FABRIC Act can be found here.

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