Editor’s Note: a guest post by Harvey Hilderbran, who represented the Texas Hill Country in the Texas House from 1989-2015 and served as Texas House Ways and Means chairman.

When Texans hear that the federal government has launched a new trade investigation, most would assume it’s about defending American companies from unfair foreign competition. But the recent case involving Caterpillar, one of America’s most recognizable manufacturers, tells a different story.

Caterpillar is now facing an investigation by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) after a patent complaint from Bobcat, a company owned by South Korea’s Doosan Group. That’s a troubling development given Caterpillar’s deep economic footprint in the United States, especially in Texas. The company employs roughly 51,000 people nationwide, including about 4,000 workers across more than 20 facilities in Texas, where it has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in manufacturing plants in places like Seguin, Victoria, and Schertz. Yet instead of focusing on genuine trade abuses, the ITC is once again being used as a venue for patent warfare, even when the target is a U.S. company that plays a critical role in America’s industrial base.

This is not an isolated incident, and for Texas, the consequences are real.

Last year, smart-ring company Ultrahuman expanded its manufacturing capacity just outside Dallas, bringing hundreds of jobs to North Texas and investing directly in American production. Despite that footprint, the ITC recently banned Ultrahuman from selling its products in the U.S. after a patent dispute with Oura Ring. The irony? Neither Ultrahuman nor Oura is a U.S.-founded company. Yet the result of the ITC’s action was clear: Texas jobs and American manufacturing were sidelined in favor of enforcing a patent claim that had little to do with strengthening U.S. industry.

These cases expose a growing flaw in how the ITC operates. The Commission was designed to protect domestic industry, but today it is increasingly exploited by patent holders that may not manufacture anything here, employ American workers, or contribute to U.S. supply chains. In some cases, companies – or entities that exist mainly to profit from patents – use the threat of import bans as a tactic, even when blocking a product does nothing to help American workers or the U.S. economy.

That’s why Congress needs to act, and why the Advancing America’s Interests Act (AAIA) is so important.

The AAIA would reform the ITC so it better aligns with its original purpose: protecting U.S. industry, jobs, and national security. It strengthens the rules so that companies bringing cases to the ITC must show they have made real investments in the United States, not just owning patents or collecting licensing fees. It also brings common sense back into the process by requiring the ITC to seriously consider how import bans would affect American jobs, businesses, and the broader economy before issuing them. And it curbs abuse by non-practicing entities that use the ITC’s powers without contributing anything tangible to American innovation or production.

For Texas, these reforms matter deeply. Our state has become a magnet for advanced manufacturing, technology, and global investment precisely because companies know they can build, hire, and innovate here. But that progress is undermined when federal trade policy penalizes companies that are creating jobs on Texas soil while rewarding legal maneuvering that adds nothing to our economy.

U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz have long positioned themselves as leaders of innovation and American competitiveness. This is a moment for that leadership to translate into action. Supporting the Advancing America’s Interests Act would send a clear message that Texas stands for real manufacturing, real jobs, and fair competition – not legal tricks that exploit loopholes in trade law.

If the ITC is serious about helping American companies, it must stop being a place where patent disputes override common sense and economic reality. Texas workers, manufacturers, and innovators deserve a trade system that protects those who build here, hire here, and invest here. Reforming the ITC through the AAIA is a necessary step toward that goal.