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Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025

Floor Speech

By: Ted Cruz
By: Ted Cruz
Date: March 5, 2025
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, the U.S. Coast Guard is essential to protecting our Nation's maritime borders from threats like illegal drugs, illegal immigration, and transnational crime. The Coast Guard saves American lives and ensures that commerce flows smoothly at our ports.

The Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025 is bipartisan legislation that Senator Cantwell and I negotiated and agreed to with House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Sam Graves and Ranking Member Rick Larsen.

It authorizes funding to bolster the Coast Guard's critical missions for border security, facilitating maritime commerce, and enforcing the rule of law in domestic and international waters.

I want to draw attention to several key provisions in this bill. Last year, the Coast Guard seized over 106 metric tons of cocaine. Unfortunately, cartels are now using technology like miniature remote control drone ships to smuggle drugs across our maritime border.

Without this legislation, the Coast Guard would remain unable to prosecute criminals who are using these remote control autonomous vessels.

The Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025 also expands the Coast Guard's and Customs and Border Protection's use of cutting-edge tools, like tactical maritime surveillance systems, which are blimp-based radar systems to find and interdict drug runners, poachers, and human traffickers at the Texas-Mexico border in the Gulf of America, in San Diego, in Key West, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

I ask my colleagues to stand with me and support President Trump's vision of protecting our borders from drugs and illegal immigrants and of building ships to revitalize the Coast Guard's fleet. And I urge my colleagues to support the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025.

With that, I yield to my colleague Senator Cantwell.

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Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I thank Senator Cantwell and her staff for their hard work on this bill. I also want to thank my staff on the committee as well who have put in many hours. This bill is important to the men and women of the Coast Guard and is important to our national security.

524 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.
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Mr. CRUZ.

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