Sponsors (5)
Introduced June 5, 2025 by Daniel Crenshaw · Last progress June 5, 2025
The bill substantially strengthens U.S. tools to detect and block IUU fishing and forced‑labor seafood—improving traceability, conservation, and enforcement capacity—but does so at measurable taxpayer cost and with risks of higher compliance burdens, diplomatic friction, and due‑process/privacy concerns, some of which lack full funding or safeguards.
Consumers and workers: the bill makes it more likely that seafood caught with forced labor or from illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing will be identified and kept out of U.S. markets, improving traceability and reducing demand for products tied to abuse.
Coastal and fishing communities: expanded monitoring, sanctions, and international cooperation aim to reduce IUU fishing and protect fish stocks and marine ecosystems, supporting long‑term sustainability of commercial fisheries.
Federal and enforcement personnel: the bill builds U.S. enforcement capacity—authorizing funds for NOAA, increasing Coast Guard monitoring/boardings, and improving interagency data‑sharing and automated targeting—to better detect and block illicit seafood and related labor abuses.
U.S. taxpayers: the bill will increase federal costs—authorized program funds, additional Coast Guard operations, studies, and ongoing administration—which will require sustained appropriations and could raise fiscal burdens.
Importers, small businesses, and consumers: enhanced screening, listing, sanctions, and automated targeting will raise compliance and inspection costs and can slow imports, with potential price increases for retailers and consumers.
Foreign relations and trade: expanded boarding, blacklisting, sanctioning, and multilateral commitments increase the risk of diplomatic frictions, trade retaliation, or reduced U.S. flexibility in fisheries and trade decisions.
Based on analysis of 12 sections of legislative text.
Creates a broad U.S. strategy to detect, block, and deter seafood harvested using illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and seafood produced with forced labor. It directs new interagency studies and reporting, establishes an IUU vessel blacklist with import and port restrictions, authorizes targeted funding for implementation, expands sanctions authority (including visa and asset-blocking tools), and requires stepped-up Coast Guard, NOAA, CBP, and diplomatic actions to strengthen enforcement and international cooperation. A mix of research, capacity-building, enforcement, and sanctions measures aims to protect U.S. markets and consumers, support foreign and domestic fisheries governance, and reduce links between IUU fishing and labor abuses. The bill creates new agency duties and reporting deadlines, funds a National Academies study, and authorizes recurring funds to implement an IUU vessel list and related activities.