Object

Child-Labor Amendment (Becky Reeseman)

A single-page, typed legislative amendment sponsored by Congresswoman Becky Reeseman intended to be attached to the administration's trade bill. Physically represented as a printed amendment or filing form bearing legislative headings and sponsor line. In the episode, it is handled as a discrete, movable document used as a political lever (gym confrontation, Mural Room negotiation), precipitating a White House crisis and forcing negotiation over child-labor policy.

1 appearances

Purpose

To be attached to the expedited trade bill as an amendment advocating child-labor related restrictions or provisions; functionally it serves to alter legislative text or to create a leverage point that could derail or reshape the trade legislation.

Significance

It operates as the episode's antagonistic plot object — a 'poison pill' that converts routine negotiation into a political emergency, threatens seven years of policy work, catalyzes confrontations between Abbey and Reeseman, and escalates domestic and policy tensions within the administration.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

1 moments

S1E17 · The White House Pro-Am

Reeseman Drops a Child‑Labor Amendment in the Gym

Though not physically produced, the child‑labor amendment operates as a concrete threat announced aloud: Becky declares she will introduce it that night. The amendment functions narratively as the detonator that transforms Abbey’s moral rhetoric into immediate legislative action.

Before: Conceptual — likely drafted or intended but not yet filed or attached to the trade bill.

After: Effectively activated: Becky commits publicly to introducing it that night, making it a real procedural possibility the White House must now address.

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