I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2776
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to ensure the safety
of imported seafood.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL9, 2025
Mr. H
IGGINSof Louisiana introduced the following bill; which was referred
to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to
ensure the safety of imported seafood.
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 ‘‘Imported Seafood 4
Quality Enforcement Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. ENSURING THE SAFETY OF IMPORTED SEAFOOD. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter VIII of the Federal 7
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 381 et seq.) 8
is amended by adding at the end the following: 9
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‘‘SEC. 810. SAFETY OF IMPORTED SEAFOOD. 1
‘‘(a) R
EQUIREMENT OFEQUIVALENCE.— 2
‘‘(1) S
TANDARDS FOR EXPORTING COUNTRY .— 3
No seafood may be imported into the United States 4
from a foreign country unless the Secretary certifies 5
that the seafood imported from such country is 6
maintained through a program using reliable analyt-7
ical methods to ensure compliance with the United 8
States standards for seafood manufacturing, proc-9
essing, and holding. 10
‘‘(2) I
NSPECTION OF EXPORTING FACILITIES .— 11
In accordance with the procedures described under 12
section 704, officers and employees duly designated 13
by the Secretary shall conduct not less than 1 in-14
spection on an annual basis of each foreign facility 15
that exports seafood to the United States to ensure 16
that each such foreign facility maintains a program 17
using reliable analytical methods to ensure compli-18
ance with the United States standards for seafood 19
manufacturing, processing, and holding. In addition 20
to such annual inspection, such officers and employ-21
ees shall conduct periodic follow-up inspections of 22
such foreign facilities as determined necessary by 23
the Secretary. 24
‘‘(b) M
ANDATORYTESTING.— 25
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‘‘(1) MINIMUM TESTING.—The Secretary shall 1
inspect and test not less than 20 percent of all sea-2
food imported or offered for import into the United 3
States each year. 4
‘‘(2) N
EW EXPORTERS.—Notwithstanding any 5
other provision of this Act, the first 15 shipments of 6
seafood imported or offered for import into the 7
United States from an exporter shall be inspected 8
and tested by the Secretary. 9
‘‘(3) F
AILURE TO PASS INSPECTION .— 10
‘‘(A) O
NE FAILURE.—If a shipment of sea-11
food imported or offered for import into the 12
United States by an exporter fails to meet an 13
inspection or test requirement under this Act, 14
each subsequent shipment of seafood from such 15
exporter shall be inspected and tested by the 16
Secretary, until 15 consecutive shipments by 17
such exporter pass that inspection and testing. 18
‘‘(B) M
ULTIPLE FAILURES.— 19
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—If more than 3 20
shipments of seafood imported or offered 21
for import into the United States by an ex-22
porter fail to meet inspection or test re-23
quirements under this Act during any 1- 24
year period, no shipments from such ex-25
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porter may be imported or offered for im-1
port into the United States for the fol-2
lowing 1-year period. Following such 1- 3
year period when no shipments may be so 4
imported or offered, such exporter shall 5
not be permitted to offer imports to the 6
United States unless the Secretary certifies 7
that such exporter is maintaining a pro-8
gram using reliable analytical methods to 9
ensure compliance with the United States 10
standards for seafood manufacturing, proc-11
essing, and holding. 12
‘‘(ii) D
ETERMINATION BY SEC -13
RETARY.—Shipments of seafood imported 14
or offered for import into the United 15
States by an exporter that has been sub-16
ject to a 1-year suspension period and a 17
certification under clause (i) shall be in-18
spected at a rate determined appropriate 19
by the Secretary for a period of time as de-20
termined appropriate by the Secretary. 21
‘‘(C) P
ATTERN OF FAILURES .—If the Sec-22
retary determines that shipments of seafood im-23
ported or offered for import into the United 24
States from a particular country repeatedly fail 25
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to meet inspection or testing requirements 1
under this Act, all shipments of seafood from 2
such country shall be refused entry into the 3
United States until the Secretary makes a cer-4
tification described under subsection (a). 5
‘‘(D) P
ROCEDURES.—The testing and in-6
spections procedures used under this paragraph 7
shall be carried out in accordance with section 8
801. 9
‘‘(4) F
EES.—The Secretary shall by regulation 10
impose such fees on exporters in such amounts as 11
may be necessary to provide, equip, and maintain an 12
adequate and efficient inspection service to carry out 13
this subsection. Receipts from such fees shall be cov-14
ered into the Treasury and shall be available to the 15
Secretary for expenditures incurred in carrying out 16
the purposes of this subsection, including expendi-17
tures for salaries of additional inspectors when nec-18
essary to supplement the number of inspectors for 19
whose salaries Congress has appropriated. 20
‘‘(c) E
FFECT OFSHIPMENTSTHATFAILTOMEET 21
R
EQUIREMENTS.— 22
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding section 23
801, if a shipment of seafood imported or offered for 24
import into the United States fails to meet safety 25
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standards established by the Secretary, such ship-1
ment shall be detained or destroyed unless the im-2
ported shipment meets criteria for re-export, as de-3
termined by the Secretary. 4
‘‘(2) L
ABELING.—If a shipment of seafood has 5
been refused admission under paragraph (1), other 6
than such a shipment that is required to be de-7
stroyed, the Secretary shall require the owner or 8
consignee of the shipment to affix to the container 9
of the seafood a label that clearly and conspicuously 10
bears the statement: ‘UNITED STATES: RE-11
FUSED ENTRY’. 12
‘‘(3) E
XPORTING TO FOREIGN COUNTRY .—If 13
the appropriate authority of a foreign country noti-14
fies the Secretary, not later than 45 days after the 15
shipment is rejected under paragraph (1), that the 16
shipment will be accepted in that country, such ship-17
ment may be released to the importer for expor-18
tation to such foreign country. 19
‘‘(4) D
ESTRUCTION OF SHIPMENT .—If the Sec-20
retary deems that a shipment rejected under para-21
graph (1), if it had been allowed entry, could have 22
caused significant health risks if consumed by hu-23
mans, the shipment shall be destroyed notwith-24
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standing the receipt of a notification under para-1
graph (3). 2
‘‘(5) N
OTIFICATION TO PORTS OF ENTRY .—The 3
Secretary shall notify ports of entry not later than 4
5 days after a shipment described in paragraph 5
(1)— 6
‘‘(A) was determined to fail to meet safety 7
standards established by the Secretary under 8
such paragraph; or 9
‘‘(B) was detained or destroyed. 10
‘‘(d) P
ORTS OFENTRY.— 11
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 12
provision of this chapter, seafood may be imported 13
or offered for import only at those ports of entry 14
into the United States that have the personnel 15
trained to conduct the applicable testing and inspec-16
tion of seafood, as certified by the Secretary under 17
paragraph (2). 18
‘‘(2) C
ERTIFICATION.—The Secretary shall cer-19
tify which ports of entry into the United States have 20
the personnel trained to conduct the applicable test-21
ing and inspection of seafood. 22
‘‘(3) E
FFECT OF CERTIFICATION REQUIRE -23
MENT.—If a port of entry— 24
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‘‘(A) was, on the day before the date of en-1
actment of this section, a port of entry that ac-2
cepted seafood imported or offered for import 3
into the United States; and 4
‘‘(B) does not meet the requirements for 5
certification under paragraph (2), 6
the Secretary shall, as soon as practicable after the 7
date of enactment of this section, provide proper 8
personnel levels and training to enable such port to 9
be certified under paragraph (2). 10
‘‘(e) A
NNUALREPORT.—On an annual basis, the 11
Secretary shall submit to Congress a report that describes 12
the implementation of this section, including— 13
‘‘(1) summary data relating to inspections and 14
testing under this section, and any noncompliance 15
with the applicable provisions of this Act; and 16
‘‘(2) recommendations of any improvements or 17
other modifications to this section determined nec-18
essary by the Secretary.’’. 19
(b) P
ROHIBITEDACT; PENALTIES.—Chapter III of 20
the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 331 21
et seq.) is amended— 22
(1) in section 301, by adding at the end the fol-23
lowing: 24
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‘‘(jjj) Knowingly making a false statement with re-1
spect to a test or inspection carried out under section 810, 2
or knowingly misbranding any seafood imported under 3
such section.’’; and 4
(2) in section 303, by adding at the end the fol-5
lowing: 6
‘‘(h)(1) Any person who violates section 301(jjj) shall 7
be subject to a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed 8
$250,000 for each such violation, and not to exceed 9
$1,100,000 for all such violations after the second convic-10
tion in any 3-year period. 11
‘‘(2) Paragraphs (5), (6), and (7) of subsection (f) 12
shall apply to a civil penalty assessment under this sub-13
section in the same manner as such paragraphs apply to 14
a civil penalty assessment under subsection (f)(1).’’. 15
SEC. 3. COOPERATION WITH STATES TO CONDUCT INSPEC-16
TIONS. 17
Chapter VIII of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cos-18
metic Act (21 U.S.C. 381 et seq.), as amended by section 19
2, is further amended by adding at the end the following: 20
‘‘SEC. 810A. COOPERATION WITH STATES TO CONDUCT SEA-21
FOOD INSPECTIONS. 22
‘‘(a) E
STABLISHMENT OF COOPERATIVEINSPECTION 23
P
ROGRAM.—The Secretary may establish a program 24
under which a State may conduct inspection, testing, and 25
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certification of seafood imported or offered for import into 1
the United States. 2
‘‘(b) C
OMPONENTS OF PROGRAM.—Under the pro-3
gram established under subsection (a)— 4
‘‘(1) the Secretary shall— 5
‘‘(A) provide training to State officials to 6
enable such officials to carry out inspection, 7
testing, and certification, in accordance with 8
Federal requirements and safety standards, of 9
seafood imported or offered for import into the 10
United States; and 11
‘‘(B) certify such State officials as author-12
ized agents of the Federal Government to carry 13
out such inspections, testing, and certification; 14
and 15
‘‘(2) a State that receives a grant under sub-16
section (c) shall— 17
‘‘(A) comply with all requirements of the 18
Secretary with respect to the training and cer-19
tification of State officials described under 20
paragraph (1); 21
‘‘(B) inspect, test, and certify, in accord-22
ance with Federal requirements and safety 23
standards, seafood imported or offered for im-24
port into the United States; and 25
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‘‘(C) carry out any other activities as de-1
termined necessary by the Secretary to ensure 2
the safety of seafood imported or offered for 3
import into the United States. 4
‘‘(c) G
RANTS.— 5
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall award 6
grants to States to carry out the cooperative seafood 7
inspection program established under subsection (a). 8
‘‘(2) A
PPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a 9
grant under paragraph (1), a State shall submit an 10
application to the Secretary at such time, in such 11
manner, and containing such information as the Sec-12
retary may require.’’. 13
Æ
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