I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2052
To impose sanctions on the Houthis for attacks on international shipping,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH11, 2025
Mr. G
REENof Tennessee (for himself, Mr. MCCAUL, Mr. PERRY, and Mrs.
K
IM) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary,
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned
A BILL
To impose sanctions on the Houthis for attacks on
international shipping, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Combating Houthi 4
Threats and Aggression Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 6
It is the policy of the United States to work with 7
United States allies and partners to safeguard maritime 8
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security in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, including 1
by supporting interdiction efforts and by opposing attacks 2
on international shipping that threaten the free flow of 3
commerce, endanger innocent mariners, and violate inter-4
national law, as such attacks harm the global economy, 5
destabilize the Middle East and Africa region, and under-6
mine United States national security interests. 7
SEC. 3. REPORT ON CAPABILITY OF THE HOUTHIS TO 8
THREATEN UNITED STATES NATIONAL SECU-9
RITY AND FOREIGN POLICY GOALS. 10
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 11
date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, 12
the President shall submit to the appropriate congres-13
sional committees a report on the capability of the Houthis 14
(also known as ‘‘Ansar Allah’’) to threaten United States 15
national security and foreign policy goals. 16
(b) M
ATTERSTOBEINCLUDED.—The report re-17
quired by subsection (a) shall include the following: 18
(1) An assessment of senior Houthi leadership’ 19
intentions and capacity to conduct and sustain mili-20
tary operations from Yemen that target the United 21
States, Israel, or global shipping. 22
(2) A description of the funding, materiel, 23
training, and other forms of support the Houthis re-24
ceive from Iran, Hezbollah, or any other entity act-25
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ing for or on behalf of Iran, including contributions 1
to advance the Houthis’ indigenous weapons produc-2
tion capability and existing weapons arsenal. 3
(3) A description of the Houthis’ ballistic mis-4
sile and unmanned delivery systems, including those 5
that are covered under Category 1 or Category 2 of 6
the Missile Control Technology Regime and the pre-7
cision and reach of such weapons. 8
(4) A description of the Houthis’ maritime ca-9
pabilities, including sea missiles and drones. 10
(5) An analysis of the Houthis’ current indige-11
nous weapons production capabilities and how their 12
control over the Al-Hudaydah port and Sana’a inter-13
national airport enables them to sustain weapons 14
production. 15
(6) An assessment of the Houthis’ stockpiles 16
and employment of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) 17
dual-use drone technology, and the countries of ori-18
gin for these products. 19
(c) A
PPROPRIATECONGRESSIONALCOMMITTEESDE-20
FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate congres-21
sional committees’’ means— 22
(1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the 23
Committee on Armed Services of the House of Rep-24
resentatives; and 25
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(2) the Committee on Foreign Relations and 1
the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate. 2
SEC. 4. REPORT ON HOUTHI ATTACKS THAT THREATEN 3
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION IN THE RED SEA 4
AND GULF OF ADEN. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 6
day of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the 7
President shall submit to the appropriate congressional 8
committees a report on the following: 9
(1) A summary of Houthi (also known as 10
‘‘Ansar Allah’’) attacks that threaten freedom of 11
navigation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. 12
(2) An assessment of the impact that Houthi 13
threats to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and 14
Gulf of Aden have on United States security inter-15
ests. 16
(3) An assessment of the impact that Houthi 17
threats to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and 18
Gulf of Aden have on the global economy, including 19
the United States economy. 20
(4) An assessment of Iran’s role in the Houthis’ 21
attacks that threaten freedom of navigation in the 22
Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, including Iran’s provi-23
sion of targeting assistance to the Houthis. 24
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(5) A description of China’s presence in the 1
Red Sea and Gulf of Aden during the reporting pe-2
riod. 3
(6) An assessment of how the Houthis’ attacks 4
in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden impact Russia, 5
China, and Iran’s freedom of navigation in those wa-6
terways relative to the United States and our part-7
ners’ freedom of navigation. 8
(b) S
COPE.—The initial report required by subsection 9
(a) shall address the period beginning on October 7, 2023, 10
and ending on the date that is 90 days after date of the 11
enactment of this Act, and each subsequent report shall 12
address the one-year period following the conclusion of the 13
prior report. 14
(c) A
PPROPRIATECONGRESSIONALCOMMITTEESDE-15
FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate congres-16
sional committees’’ means— 17
(1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the 18
Committee on Armed Services of the House of Rep-19
resentatives; and 20
(2) the Committee on Foreign Relations and 21
the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate. 22
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SEC. 5. REPORT ON VIOLATIONS OF THE UNITED NATIONS 1
ARMS EMBARGO AGAINST YEMEN AUTHOR-2
IZED UNDER UNITED NATIONS SECURITY 3
COUNCIL RESOLUTION 2216. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 5
date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, 6
the President shall submit to the appropriate congres-7
sional committees a report on the following: 8
(1) A description of violations or attempted vio-9
lations of the United Nations arms embargo against 10
Yemen authorized under United Nations Security 11
Council Resolution 2216 (2015) and successor reso-12
lutions. 13
(2) A list of incidents in which the United 14
States or other countries interdicted weapons and 15
related components believed to be intended for the 16
Houthis, including— 17
(A) for each interdiction incident, what 18
specific entity conducted the interdiction, the 19
circumstances and location of such interdiction, 20
what weapons or components were seized and 21
the believed origins of such components, and 22
under what authority each such seizure took 23
place; 24
(B) a description of what United States 25
Government resources are currently devoted to 26
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identifying, disrupting, interdicting, or other-1
wise dismantling the flow of illicit weapons in-2
tended for the Houthis, and identifying under 3
what authorities these activities take place; and 4
(C) United States coordination with inter-5
national partners on efforts to identify, disrupt, 6
dismantle or interdict illicit weapons flows to 7
the Houthis, including identifying United States 8
security assistance and cooperation programs 9
that contribute to the interdiction efforts of 10
such partners. 11
(b) S
COPE.—The initial report required by subsection 12
(a) shall address the period beginning on January 1, 2022, 13
and ending on the date that is 90 days after date of the 14
enactment of this Act, and each subsequent report shall 15
address the one-year period following the conclusion of the 16
prior report. 17
(c) A
PPROPRIATECONGRESSIONALCOMMITTEESDE-18
FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate congres-19
sional committees’’ means— 20
(1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the 21
Committee on Armed Services of the House of Rep-22
resentatives; and 23
(2) the Committee on Foreign Relations and 24
the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate. 25
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SEC. 6. SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO ANY ATTACKS BY 1
THE HOUTHIS ON INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING 2
IN THE RED SEA AND GULF OF ADEN AND 3
OTHER MILITARY SUPPORT TO THE 4
HOUTHIS. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The President shall impose the 6
sanctions described in subsection (b) with respect to any 7
foreign person the President determines, on or after the 8
date of enactment of this Act— 9
(1) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to 10
have directly or indirectly engaged in, any attacks by 11
the Houthis (also known as ‘‘Ansar Allah’’) that 12
threaten international shipping in the Red Sea or 13
Gulf of Aden; 14
(2) knowingly engages in, or attempts to engage 15
in, activities or transactions that have materially 16
contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materi-17
ally contributing to the conduct described in para-18
graph (1); or 19
(3) knowingly engages in any activity that ma-20
terially contributes to the supply, sale, or transfer 21
directly or indirectly of arms and related materiel of 22
all types, including weapons and ammunition, mili-23
tary vehicles and equipment, paramilitary equip-24
ment, and spare parts for the aforementioned, and 25
technical assistance, training, financial or other as-26
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sistance, to any foreign person engaging in the con-1
duct described in paragraph (1). 2
(b) S
ANCTIONSDESCRIBED.—The sanctions de-3
scribed in this subsection are the following: 4
(1) B
LOCKING OF PROPERTY .—The President 5
shall exercise all authorities granted under the Inter-6
national Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 7
U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to the extent necessary to block 8
and prohibit all transactions in property and inter-9
ests in property of the foreign person if such prop-10
erty and interests in property are in the United 11
States, come within the United States, or come with-12
in the possession or control of a United States per-13
son. 14
(2) I
NELIGIBILITY FOR VISAS, ADMISSION, OR 15
PAROLE.— 16
(A) V
ISAS, ADMISSION, OR PAROLE.—An 17
alien described in subsection (a) shall be— 18
(i) inadmissible to the United States; 19
(ii) ineligible to receive a visa or other 20
documentation to enter the United States; 21
and 22
(iii) otherwise ineligible to be admitted 23
or paroled into the United States or to re-24
ceive any other benefit under the Immigra-25
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tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et 1
seq.). 2
(B) C
URRENT VISAS REVOKED .— 3
(i) I
N GENERAL.—The visa or other 4
entry documentation of any alien described 5
in subsection (a) is subject to revocation 6
regardless of the issue date of the visa or 7
other entry documentation. 8
(ii) I
MMEDIATE EFFECT .—A revoca-9
tion under clause (i) shall, in accordance 10
with section 221(i) of the Immigration and 11
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1201(i))— 12
(I) take effect immediately; and 13
(II) cancel any other valid visa or 14
entry documentation that is in the 15
possession of the alien. 16
(c) P
ENALTIES.—Any person that violates, or at-17
tempts to violate, subsection (b) or any regulation, license, 18
or order issued pursuant to that subsection, shall be sub-19
ject to the penalties set forth in subsections (b) and (c) 20
of section 206 of the International Emergency Economic 21
Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to the same extent as a per-22
son that commits an unlawful act described in subsection 23
(a) of that section. 24
(d) W
AIVER.— 25
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(1) IN GENERAL.—The President may waive, 1
on a case-by-case basis, the application of sanctions 2
under this section for periods not to exceed 180 days 3
with respect to a foreign person only if, not later 4
than 15 days prior to the date on which the waiver 5
is to take effect, the President submits to the appro-6
priate congressional committees a written determina-7
tion and justification that the waiver is in the na-8
tional security interests of the United States. 9
(2) B
RIEFING.—Not later than 60 days after 10
the issuance of a waiver under paragraph (1), and 11
every 180 days thereafter while the waiver remains 12
in effect, the President shall brief the appropriate 13
congressional committees on the reasons for the 14
waiver. 15
(e) I
MPLEMENTATION.—The President may exercise 16
all authorities provided under sections 203 and 205 of the 17
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 18
U.S.C. 1702 and 1704) to carry out this section. 19
(f) R
EGULATIONS.— 20
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The President shall, not 21
later than 120 days after the date of the enactment 22
of this Act, promulgate regulations as necessary for 23
the implementation of this section. 24
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(2) NOTIFICATION TO CONGRESS .—Not later 1
than 10 days before the promulgation of regulations 2
under this subsection, the President shall notify the 3
appropriate congressional committees of the pro-4
posed regulations and the provisions of this section 5
that the regulations are implementing. 6
(g) E
XCEPTIONS.— 7
(1) E
XCEPTION FOR INTELLIGENCE ACTIVI -8
TIES.—Sanctions under this section shall not apply 9
to any activity subject to the reporting requirements 10
under title V of the National Security Act of 1947 11
(50 U.S.C. 3091 et seq.) or any authorized intel-12
ligence activities of the United States. 13
(2) E
XCEPTION TO COMPLY WITH INTER -14
NATIONAL OBLIGATIONS AND FOR LAW ENFORCE -15
MENT ACTIVITIES.—Sanctions under this section 16
shall not apply with respect to an alien if admitting 17
or paroling the alien into the United States is nec-18
essary— 19
(A) to permit the United States to comply 20
with the Agreement regarding the Head-21
quarters of the United Nations, signed at Lake 22
Success June 26, 1947, and entered into force 23
November 21, 1947, between the United Na-24
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tions and the United States, or other applicable 1
international obligations; or 2
(B) to carry out or assist authorized law 3
enforcement activity in the United States. 4
SEC. 7. SUNSET. 5
This Act shall terminate on the date that is 5 years 6
after the date of the enactment of this Act. 7
Æ
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