Sponsors (45)
Official title: To strengthen the Department of Justice's enforcement against trade-related crimes.
Introduced March 5, 2025 by Ashley Hinson · Last progress March 5, 2025
The bill strengthens DOJ capacity, interagency coordination, and transparency to better detect and prosecute trade crimes—reducing illicit trade risks—but does so at measurable taxpayer cost and with increased compliance burdens and legal risks for businesses and individual traders.
Law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors gain substantially increased capacity (dedicated teams, hires, training, and $20M funding) to investigate and prosecute complex trade‑related crimes.
Federal agencies, industry, and foreign partners will see improved coordination and cross‑agency cooperation on import/export investigations through clarified statutes and required consultations, which should reduce duplication and speed multijurisdictional cases.
Banks and businesses gain clearer legal definitions and guidance to detect and report trade‑based money laundering and sanctions violations, helping them more reliably comply and avoid inadvertent violations.
Importers, exporters, small businesses, and banks face higher compliance and reporting costs (and potential transaction delays) as a broader criminal definition and increased scrutiny raise administrative burdens.
Traders, companies, and individuals face a higher risk of investigations, prosecutions, or civil actions because of an expanded criminal scope and more aggressive enforcement priorities.
Taxpayers will fund increased DOJ enforcement through new positions, a task force, and an explicit $20 million appropriation (and possible future funding requests), raising federal spending.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a DOJ Criminal Division task force to investigate/prosecute trade-related crimes, requires annual reports, and authorizes $20M for FY2026.
Creates a Department of Justice Criminal Division task force and related positions to prevent, investigate, and prosecute "trade-related crimes" (including tariff evasion, smuggling, trade-based money laundering, and sanctions violations), requires interagency coordination and annual reporting to Congress, and provides $20 million for FY2026 to support these activities. The new unit must be stood up within 120 days after appropriations are available, most funds must be used for Criminal Division prosecution work, and DOJ must report annual statistics, spending summaries, and funding needs to Congress.