Defending American Property Abroad Act of 2026
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, today I rise in opposition to H.R. 7084, the Defending American Property Abroad Act of 2026.
As we have seen with recent vessel boardings and border operations, the Coast Guard has broad authority to enforce American laws on the water.
The Coast Guard routinely interdicts drugs and migrants, enforces fisheries laws, and ensures the safety of property and life at sea.
In fiscal year 2025, the Coast Guard set record breaking numbers. The service seized over 510,000 pounds of cocaine in the maritime domain, over triple its yearly average.
Even more impressively, the Coast Guard saved over 2,200 lives and over $40 million of property by running over 6,700 search and rescue cases. They do all this while protecting global fish stocks and by enforcing domestic and international fisheries laws.
H.R. 7084 does not help the Coast Guard address violations of the law at sea. Instead, the bill inserts the Coast Guard into what is a property dispute between a U.S. company and the Mexican Government that, if anything, will only add to the Coast Guard's burden.
The Coast Guard is already strained in its ability to effectively conduct its missions.
Just last week, the Vice Commandant testified before the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure that the Coast Guard is a $20 billion organization operating on a $13 billion budget.
H.R. 7084 prohibits vessels, commercial shipping or cruise vessels, from entering or operating in U.S. waters if that vessel made a port of call at a port that was nationalized or expropriated by another company from a U.S. citizen or company.
Now, requiring the service to identify and prohibit vessels from entering U.S. waters due to an international property dispute further strains the service's resources.
This legislation is meant to only apply to one port in Mexico, but it is written so broadly it could encompass disputes in other countries and with other companies both today and in the future.
Now, Congress has many pressing issues that we should be considering today. The President himself has promised less war and lower prices. Instead, the American public is getting more war and higher prices.
I wish we were taking time today to discuss those lower costs for my constituents.
I wish we were taking time today to discuss those lower costs for my constituents. Instead, we are interjecting Congress into an international land dispute.
Now, I want to be really clear. I am sympathetic to the plight of this particular U.S. company involved in this dispute. This legislation doesn't solve their problem. That solution can be found, and opportunities are available through diplomacy and even trade agreements but not really legislation.
For those reasons I will be voting ``no'' on this legislation.
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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Sewell).
Again, I just reiterate, the bill before us today does not resolve this dispute between the Mexican Government and an American company. There are tools available and that continue to be available to resolve that. It gives the Coast Guard more work on top of all the work our U.S. Coast Guard is already doing.
I had an amendment in the Rules Committee. They rejected an amendment that would have required the President to consider potential costs before exercising the authorities granted in this bill. That Rules Committee amendment was rejected.
Arbitration, treaties, trade agreements, these mechanisms exist to solve international disputes. These are appropriate venues for this dispute and not legislation. For those reasons, I will be voting ``no.''
In conclusion, I do want to note something. These 13 to 14 bills that came before this body earlier this week from the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee--those were on suspension. This one was not. But it needs to be said that the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee works extremely well. We see ourselves as an island of partnership in a sea of partisanship in the U.S. Congress.
Even though this bill may not fit that bill, the Committee works that way because of one person, and that one person is Representative Sam Graves.
This morning, it was announced that Sam will not be running for reelection.
I wanted to take this brief moment as part of my time in closing to just note that we are going to be losing a fierce advocate for infrastructure investment and for transportation safety with his announcement that he will not run again.
Sam and I have served together nearly 26 years. We came in together. In recent years, we have developed a partnership that overrode the partisanship in Congress. This body has dealt with the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization, a Coast Guard reauthorization, a Water Resources Development Act reauthorization, and a lot of other things. We have passed a FEMA act that reforms FEMA. We have yet to get that to the floor. We certainly want to see that get to the floor.
Importantly, we are working right now on a bill to reauthorize the surface transportation authorization to fix roads, bridges, highways, transit, rail, and some other things. We are working on that right now. That work continues to progress, all because of the work of Representative Sam Graves.
Although the House is losing Sam, his home is regaining him back in Tarkio, Missouri, at some point at the end of this year. His family is getting him back. I have always said that Sam likes three things in life: his grandkids, vintage aircraft, and Congress, and in that order.
I thank Sam Graves for his friendship and his partnership and helping us to continue to do the work of this Committee to bring bills to the floor that we can debate in a manner that is respectful of the body that we all get to serve in.
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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 247, nays 164, not voting 20, as follows: [Roll No. 105] YEAS--247 Aderholt Alford Allen Amodei (NV) Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Barr Barrett Baumgartner Bean (FL) Begich Bentz Bergman Bice Biggs (AZ) Biggs (SC) Bilirakis Bishop Boebert Bost Brecheen Bresnahan Brownley Budzinski Burchett Burlison Bynum Calvert Carbajal Carey Carter (GA) Carter (LA) Carter (TX) Ciscomani Cline Cloud Clyburn Clyde Cole Collins Comer Correa Costa Crane Crank Crawford Cuellar Davidson Davis (NC) De La Cruz DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Downing Dunn (FL) Edwards Ellzey Emmer Estes Evans (CO) Ezell Fallon Fedorchak Feenstra Figures Fine Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Flood Fong Foster Foxx Franklin, Scott Fry Fulcher Garbarino Gill (TX) Gillen Gimenez Golden (ME) Goldman (TX) Gonzalez, V. Gooden Gosar Gottheimer Gray Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hageman Hamadeh (AZ) Haridopolos Harrigan Harris (MD) Harris (NC) Harshbarger Higgins (LA) Hill (AR) Hinson Horsford Houchin Houlahan Hudson Huizenga Hunt Hurd (CO) Issa Jack Jackson (TX) James Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Kaptur Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kennedy (UT) Kiggans (VA) Kiley (CA) Kim Knott Kustoff LaHood LaLota Langworthy Latta Lawler Lee (FL) Lee (NV) Letlow Lofgren Loudermilk Lucas Luttrell Lynch Mace Mackenzie Malliotakis Maloy Mann Massie Mast McBride McClain McClintock McCormick McDowell McGuire Messmer Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Mills Moolenaar Moore (AL) Moore (NC) Moore (UT) Moore (WV) Moran Murphy Newhouse Norman Nunn (IA) Obernolte Ogles Onder Owens Palmer Panetta Patronis Perez Perry Pfluger Reschenthaler Riley (NY) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rouzer Roy Ruiz Rulli Rutherford Salazar Scalise Schmidt Schneider Schweikert Scott, Austin Self Sessions Sewell Shreve Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Soto Spartz Stanton Stauber Stefanik Steil Steube Strong Stutzman Suozzi Taylor Tenney Thompson (CA) Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Turner (OH) Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Van Epps Van Orden Vasquez Veasey Vindman Wagner Walberg Walkinshaw Wasserman Schultz Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Westerman Whitesides Wied Williams (TX) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Yakym Zinke NAYS--164 Adams Aguilar Amo Ansari Auchincloss Balint Barragan Beatty Bell Bera Beyer Bonamici Boyle (PA) Brown Carson Casar Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chu Cisneros Clark (MA) Cleaver Cohen Conaway Courtney Craig Crockett Crow Davids (KS) Davis (IL) Dean (PA) DeGette DeLauro DelBene Deluzio DeSaulnier Dexter Dingell Doggett Elfreth Escobar Espaillat Evans (PA) Fields Fletcher Foushee Frankel, Lois Friedman Frost Garcia (CA) Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Gomez Goodlander Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Harder (CA) Hayes Himes Hoyer Hoyle (OR) Huffman Ivey Jackson (IL) Jacobs Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Kamlager-Dove Keating Kelly (IL) Kennedy (NY) Khanna Krishnamoorthi Landsman Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latimer Lee (PA) Leger Fernandez Levin Liccardo Magaziner Mannion Matsui McBath McClain Delaney McClellan McCollum McDonald Rivet McGarvey McGovern McIver Meeks Menefee Menendez Meng Min Moore (WI) Morelle Morrison Mrvan Mullin Nadler Neal Neguse Norcross Ocasio-Cortez Olszewski Omar Pallone Pappas Pelosi Peters Pettersen Pingree Pocan Pou Pressley Quigley Ramirez Randall Raskin Rivas Ross Ryan Salinas Sanchez Scanlon Schakowsky Scholten Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Sherman Simon Smith (WA) Sorensen Stansbury Stevens Subramanyam Swalwell Sykes Takano Thanedar Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tokuda Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Tran Underwood Vargas Velazquez Waters Watson Coleman Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) NOT VOTING--20 Buchanan Cammack Cherfilus-McCormick Clarke (NY) Crenshaw Garamendi Goldman (NY) Gonzales, Tony Graves Hern (OK) Kean Lieu Luna McCaul Mfume Miller (OH) Moskowitz Moulton Nehls Strickland
Mr. SUBRAMANYAM changed his vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
Messrs. HORSFORD and SOTO changed their vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Stated for:
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