Us Congress 2023-2024 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB71 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	II
2	2	118THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION S. 71
5	5	To extend the customs waters of the United States from 12 nautical miles
6	6	to 24 nautical miles from the baselines of the United States, consistent
7	7	with Presidential Proclamation 7219.
8	8	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
9	9	JANUARY25, 2023
10	10	Mr. S
11	11	COTTof Florida (for himself, Ms. SINEMA, and Mr. LANKFORD) intro-
12	12	duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
13	13	mittee on Finance
14	14	A BILL
15	15	To extend the customs waters of the United States from
16	16	12 nautical miles to 24 nautical miles from the baselines
17	17	of the United States, consistent with Presidential Procla-
18	18	mation 7219.
19	19	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
20	20	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
21	21	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
22	22	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Extending Limits of 4
23	23	United States Customs Waters Act of 2023’’. 5
24	24	SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 6
25	25	(a) F
26	26	INDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-7
27	27	ings: 8
28	28	VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:07 Jan 31, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S71.IS S71
29	29	kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2
30	30	•S 71 IS
31	31	(1) On December 27, 1988, Presidential Procla-1
32	32	mation 5928 extended the territorial sea of the 2
33	33	United States from 3 nautical miles to 12 nautical 3
34	34	miles from the baselines of the United States, deter-4
35	35	mined in accordance with international law. 5
36	36	(2) On August 2, 1999, Presidential Proclama-6
37	37	tion 7219 extended the contiguous zone of the 7
38	38	United States from 12 nautical miles to 24 nautical 8
39	39	miles from the baselines of the United States, deter-9
40	40	mined in accordance with international law, but in 10
41	41	no case within the territorial sea of another country. 11
42	42	(3) Customary international law, in its current 12
43	43	form, as provided for in the United Nations Conven-13
44	44	tion on the Law of the Sea and consistent with Pres-14
45	45	idential Proclamations 5928 and 7219, reflects 15
46	46	that— 16
47	47	(A) every coastal State has the right to es-17
48	48	tablish the breadth of its territorial sea to a 18
49	49	limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles, measured 19
50	50	from its baselines; 20
51	51	(B) a coastal State’s contiguous zone may 21
52	52	not extend beyond 24 nautical miles from the 22
53	53	baselines from which the breadth of the terri-23
54	54	torial sea is measured; 24
55	55	VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:07 Jan 31, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S71.IS S71
56	56	kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3
57	57	•S 71 IS
58	58	(C) a coastal State has exclusive jurisdic-1
59	59	tion over its flagged vessels within its territorial 2
60	60	seas and upon the high seas; and 3
61	61	(D) in the contiguous zone of a coastal 4
62	62	State, the State may— 5
63	63	(i) exercise the control necessary to 6
64	64	prevent the infringement of its customs, 7
65	65	fiscal, immigration, or sanitary laws and 8
66	66	regulations within its territory or the terri-9
67	67	torial sea; and 10
68	68	(ii) punish the infringement of those 11
69	69	laws and regulations committed within its 12
70	70	territory or the territorial sea. 13
71	71	(4) Customary international law, in its current 14
72	72	form, as provided for in the United Nations Conven-15
73	73	tion on the Law of the Sea, recognizes that outside 16
74	74	the territorial waters of a coastal State, the vessels 17
75	75	and aircraft of all countries enjoy the high seas free-18
76	76	doms of navigation and overflight. Pursuant to those 19
77	77	freedoms and the requirements of international 20
78	78	law— 21
79	79	(A) before boarding a vessel outside of the 22
80	80	territorial waters of a coastal State, but within 23
81	81	the contiguous zone of that State, authorities of 24
82	82	the State are generally required to have reason-25
83	83	VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:07 Jan 31, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S71.IS S71
84	84	kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4
85	85	•S 71 IS
86	86	able grounds to believe that the vessel is des-1
87	87	tined for the State or has violated or is at-2
88	88	tempting to violate the customs, fiscal, immi-3
89	89	gration, or sanitary laws and regulations of that 4
90	90	State; and 5
91	91	(B) the hot pursuit of a foreign vessel— 6
92	92	(i) may be undertaken when com-7
93	93	petent authorities of the State have good 8
94	94	reason to believe that the vessel or one of 9
95	95	its boats has violated the laws and regula-10
96	96	tions of that State; 11
97	97	(ii) is required to be commenced when 12
98	98	the foreign vessels or one of its boats is 13
99	99	within the internal waters, the territorial 14
100	100	sea, or the contiguous zone of the State, 15
101	101	and may be continued outside the terri-16
102	102	torial sea or the contiguous zone only if 17
103	103	the pursuit has not been interrupted; and 18
104	104	(iii) in a case in which the foreign ves-19
105	105	sels is within the contiguous zone of the 20
106	106	State, may be undertaken only if there has 21
107	107	been a violation of the rights for the pro-22
108	108	tection of which the contiguous zone was 23
109	109	established. 24
110	110	VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:07 Jan 31, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S71.IS S71
111	111	kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5
112	112	•S 71 IS
113	113	(b) SENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-1
114	114	gress that— 2
115	115	(1) it is necessary to extend the authority of 3
116	116	U.S. Customs and Border Protection to conduct law 4
117	117	enforcement activities in the customs waters of the 5
118	118	United States from 12 nautical miles to 24 nautical 6
119	119	miles because as modern technology continues to 7
120	120	change and expand rapidly, the performance and 8
121	121	speed of maritime vessels, including those used to 9
122	122	violate the laws of the United States or evade 10
123	123	United States law enforcement agents, improve, and 11
124	124	the limit of 12 nautical miles no longer provides law 12
125	125	enforcement agents with sufficient time to interdict 13
126	126	such vessels; and 14
127	127	(2) the extension of the customs waters of the 15
128	128	United States to the limits permitted by inter-16
129	129	national law will advance the law enforcement and 17
130	130	public health interests of the United States. 18
131	131	SEC. 3. EXTENSION OF CUSTOMS WATERS OF THE UNITED 19
132	132	STATES. 20
133	133	(a) T
134	134	ARIFFACT OF1930.—Section 401(j) of the 21
135	135	Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1401(j)) is amended— 22
136	136	(1) by striking ‘‘means, in the case’’ and insert-23
137	137	ing the following: ‘‘means— 24
138	138	‘‘(1) in the case’’; 25
139	139	VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:07 Jan 31, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S71.IS S71
140	140	kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6
141	141	•S 71 IS
142	142	(2) by striking ‘‘of the coast of the United 1
143	143	States’’ and inserting ‘‘from the baselines of the 2
144	144	United States (determined in accordance with inter-3
145	145	national law)’’; 4
146	146	(3) by striking ‘‘and, in the case’’ and inserting 5
147	147	the following: ‘‘; and 6
148	148	‘‘(2) in the case’’; and 7
149	149	(4) by striking ‘‘the waters within four leagues 8
150	150	of the coast of the United States.’’ and inserting the 9
151	151	following: ‘‘the waters within— 10
152	152	‘‘(A) the territorial sea of the United 11
153	153	States, to the limits permitted by international 12
154	154	law in accordance with Presidential Proclama-13
155	155	tion 5928 of December 27, 1988; and 14
156	156	‘‘(B) the contiguous zone of the United 15
157	157	States, to the limits permitted by international 16
158	158	law in accordance with Presidential Proclama-17
159	159	tion 7219 of September 2, 1999.’’. 18
160	160	(b) A
161	161	NTI-SMUGGLINGACT.—Section 401(c) of the 19
162	162	Anti-Smuggling Act (19 U.S.C. 1709(c)) is amended— 20
163	163	(1) by striking ‘‘means, in the case’’ and insert-21
164	164	ing the following: ‘‘means— 22
165	165	‘‘(1) in the case’’; 23
166	166	(2) by striking ‘‘of the coast of the United 24
167	167	States’’ and inserting ‘‘from the baselines of the 25
168	168	VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:07 Jan 31, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S71.IS S71
169	169	kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7
170	170	•S 71 IS
171	171	United States (determined in accordance with inter-1
172	172	national law)’’; 2
173	173	(3) by striking ‘‘and, in the case’’ and inserting 3
174	174	the following: ‘‘; and 4
175	175	‘‘(2) in the case’’; and 5
176	176	(4) by striking ‘‘the waters within four leagues 6
177	177	of the coast of the United States.’’ and inserting the 7
178	178	following: ‘‘the waters within— 8
179	179	‘‘(A) the territorial sea of the United 9
180	180	States, to the limits permitted by international 10
181	181	law in accordance with Presidential Proclama-11
182	182	tion 5928 of December 27, 1988; and 12
183	183	‘‘(B) the contiguous zone of the United 13
184	184	States, to the limits permitted by international 14
185	185	law in accordance with Presidential Proclama-15
186	186	tion 7219 of September 2, 1999.’’. 16
187	187	(c) E
188	188	FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 17
189	189	this section shall take effect on the day after the date of 18
190	190	the enactment of this Act. 19
191	191	Æ
192	192	VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:07 Jan 31, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S71.IS S71
193	193	kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS