A House subcommittee has voted to advance the Packaging and Claims Knowledge (PACK) Act, clearing a key procedural hurdle for legislation that would create a national framework governing “recyclable,” “compostable” and “reusable” claims on consumer packaging.
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade completed the markup of HR 6832 on Sept. 1, moving the bill forward as part of a session covering a dozen measures aimed at consumer protection and competitiveness. The action follows a July 22 hearing on the bill before the same subcommittee.
AMERIPEN, the packaging industry trade group that has led advocacy for the legislation, welcomed the subcommittee’s action Sept. 1. Lynn Dyer, the organization’s president, said the group was encouraged by the bill’s continued progress and credited the subcommittee for moving it forward.
“Consumers should be able to trust that recyclable, compostable, and reusable claims are accurate and dependable wherever a product is sold,” Dyer said in a statement. She added that the bill offers a federal framework built on consumer protection, independent third-party certification and consistency across state lines.
Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) introduced the PACK Act in December 2025, citing the outsized influence California’s market has on packaging and labeling standards nationwide even for companies that operate primarily outside the state.
More than 40 industry stakeholders, including Amcor, Dow, General Mills, Keurig Dr Pepper and Mondelez, signed onto a letter supporting the bill shortly after its introduction.
Dyer had raised similar concerns about California’s labeling requirements at an Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) member meeting in October 2025, telling attendees that SB 343 had unsettled a number of brands as more states moved toward mandating specific packaging labels.
The PACK Act also follows an earlier, unsuccessful push. In 2024, AMERIPEN and other stakeholders had asked that any federal labeling standard preempt state mandates in response to a draft “truth in labeling” bill from then-Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore).
The legislation would amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to bar inaccurate packaging claims and to require that companies making voluntary recyclable, compostable or reusable claims obtain certification from an accredited third-party body – for example, APR Design for Recyclability Recognition – under ISO/IEC 17065:2012 standards.
The bill would not mandate that companies make such claims, but any claims would need to hold up under the federal standard. The legislation would also preempt state and local laws that impose different requirements for the same claims, and it directs the FTC to issue implementing guidance within 18 months of enactment.
Supporters frame the bill as a response to a widening patchwork of state labeling laws, including SB 343, that they say forces companies to redesign packaging, repeat legal reviews and manage multiple versions of the same product for different states.
The bill has drawn backing from a broad swath of the packaging value chain, including the Consumer Brands Association, Flexible Packaging Association, Plastics Industry Association, American Beverage Association, Can Manufacturers Institute, Foodservice Packaging Institute, Biodegradable Products Institute and others, alongside AMERIPEN.
In a July letter to the subcommittee’s leadership, the Consumer Brands Association urged support for the PACK Act alongside a companion bill, the Recycled Materials Attribution Act.
John Hewitt, the association’s senior vice president of packaging and sustainability, wrote that the two measures show consumer protection and recycling goals can go “hand-in-hand” with affordability and manufacturing investment, and said the PACK Act would replace today’s patchwork of conflicting state rules with a single federal framework under the FTC.
The FTC’s existing Green Guides, which govern environmental marketing claims, were last updated in 2012 and lack the force of law; the agency’s 2026 regulatory agenda did not list an update as a priority. Supporters of the PACK Act argue that gap, combined with the FTC’s inability to preempt state rules, has left companies navigating inconsistent requirements state by state.
The bill has not drawn the kind of organized environmental-group opposition seen around other packaging measures, though critics of parallel state-preemption efforts have argued that federal courts and regulators have long-established authority to police commercial environmental claims.
With subcommittee markup complete, the PACK Act next moves to consideration by the full House Energy and Commerce Committee.
AMERIPEN said it would continue outreach to lawmakers, PACK Act coalition partners and other industry stakeholders in the coming weeks to build bipartisan cosponsor support as the bill advances.
