II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 221
To extend the customs waters of the United States from 12 nautical miles
to 24 nautical miles from the baselines of the United States, consistent
with Presidential Proclamation 7219.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY23, 2025
Mr. S
COTTof Florida (for himself, Ms. HASSAN, Mr. LANKFORD, and Mr.
G
ALLEGO) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and re-
ferred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To extend the customs waters of the United States from
12 nautical miles to 24 nautical miles from the baselines
of the United States, consistent with Presidential Procla-
mation 7219.
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 ‘‘Extending Limits of 4
United States Customs Waters Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 6
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-7
ings: 8
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(1) On December 27, 1988, Presidential Procla-1
mation 5928 extended the territorial sea of the 2
United States from 3 nautical miles to 12 nautical 3
miles from the baselines of the United States, deter-4
mined in accordance with international law. 5
(2) On August 2, 1999, Presidential Proclama-6
tion 7219 extended the contiguous zone of the 7
United States from 12 nautical miles to 24 nautical 8
miles from the baselines of the United States, deter-9
mined in accordance with international law, but in 10
no case within the territorial sea of another country. 11
(3) Customary international law, in its current 12
form, as provided for in the United Nations Conven-13
tion on the Law of the Sea and consistent with Pres-14
idential Proclamations 5928 and 7219, reflects 15
that— 16
(A) every coastal State has the right to es-17
tablish the breadth of its territorial sea to a 18
limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles, measured 19
from its baselines; 20
(B) a coastal State’s contiguous zone may 21
not extend beyond 24 nautical miles from the 22
baselines from which the breadth of the terri-23
torial sea is measured; 24
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(C) a coastal State has exclusive jurisdic-1
tion over its flagged vessels within its territorial 2
seas and upon the high seas; and 3
(D) in the contiguous zone of a coastal 4
State, the State may— 5
(i) exercise the control necessary to 6
prevent the infringement of its customs, 7
fiscal, immigration, or sanitary laws and 8
regulations within its territory or the terri-9
torial sea; and 10
(ii) punish the infringement of those 11
laws and regulations committed within its 12
territory or the territorial sea. 13
(4) Customary international law, in its current 14
form, as provided for in the United Nations Conven-15
tion on the Law of the Sea, recognizes that outside 16
the territorial waters of a coastal State, the vessels 17
and aircraft of all countries enjoy the high seas free-18
doms of navigation and overflight. Pursuant to those 19
freedoms and the requirements of international 20
law— 21
(A) before boarding a vessel outside of the 22
territorial waters of a coastal State, but within 23
the contiguous zone of that State, authorities of 24
the State are generally required to have reason-25
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able grounds to believe that the vessel is des-1
tined for the State or has violated or is at-2
tempting to violate the customs, fiscal, immi-3
gration, or sanitary laws and regulations of that 4
State; and 5
(B) the hot pursuit of a foreign vessel— 6
(i) may be undertaken when com-7
petent authorities of the State have good 8
reason to believe that the vessel or one of 9
its boats has violated the laws and regula-10
tions of that State; 11
(ii) is required to be commenced when 12
the foreign vessels or one of its boats is 13
within the internal waters, the territorial 14
sea, or the contiguous zone of the State, 15
and may be continued outside the terri-16
torial sea or the contiguous zone only if 17
the pursuit has not been interrupted; and 18
(iii) in a case in which the foreign ves-19
sels is within the contiguous zone of the 20
State, may be undertaken only if there has 21
been a violation of the rights for the pro-22
tection of which the contiguous zone was 23
established. 24
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(b) SENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-1
gress that— 2
(1) it is necessary to extend the authority of 3
U.S. Customs and Border Protection to conduct law 4
enforcement activities in the customs waters of the 5
United States from 12 nautical miles to 24 nautical 6
miles because as modern technology continues to 7
change and expand rapidly, the performance and 8
speed of maritime vessels, including those used to 9
violate the laws of the United States or evade 10
United States law enforcement agents, improve, and 11
the limit of 12 nautical miles no longer provides law 12
enforcement agents with sufficient time to interdict 13
such vessels; and 14
(2) the extension of the customs waters of the 15
United States to the limits permitted by inter-16
national law will advance the law enforcement and 17
public health interests of the United States. 18
SEC. 3. EXTENSION OF CUSTOMS WATERS OF THE UNITED 19
STATES. 20
(a) T
ARIFFACT OF1930.—Section 401(j) of the 21
Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1401(j)) is amended— 22
(1) by striking ‘‘means, in the case’’ and insert-23
ing the following: ‘‘means— 24
‘‘(1) in the case’’; 25
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(2) by striking ‘‘of the coast of the United 1
States’’ and inserting ‘‘from the baselines of the 2
United States (determined in accordance with inter-3
national law)’’; 4
(3) by striking ‘‘and, in the case’’ and inserting 5
the following: ‘‘; and 6
‘‘(2) in the case’’; and 7
(4) by striking ‘‘the waters within four leagues 8
of the coast of the United States.’’ and inserting the 9
following: ‘‘the waters within— 10
‘‘(A) the territorial sea of the United 11
States, to the limits permitted by international 12
law in accordance with Presidential Proclama-13
tion 5928 of December 27, 1988; and 14
‘‘(B) the contiguous zone of the United 15
States, to the limits permitted by international 16
law in accordance with Presidential Proclama-17
tion 7219 of September 2, 1999.’’. 18
(b) A
NTI-SMUGGLINGACT.—Section 401(c) of the 19
Anti-Smuggling Act (19 U.S.C. 1709(c)) is amended— 20
(1) by striking ‘‘means, in the case’’ and insert-21
ing the following: ‘‘means— 22
‘‘(1) in the case’’; 23
(2) by striking ‘‘of the coast of the United 24
States’’ and inserting ‘‘from the baselines of the 25
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United States (determined in accordance with inter-1
national law)’’; 2
(3) by striking ‘‘and, in the case’’ and inserting 3
the following: ‘‘; and 4
‘‘(2) in the case’’; and 5
(4) by striking ‘‘the waters within four leagues 6
of the coast of the United States.’’ and inserting the 7
following: ‘‘the waters within— 8
‘‘(A) the territorial sea of the United 9
States, to the limits permitted by international 10
law in accordance with Presidential Proclama-11
tion 5928 of December 27, 1988; and 12
‘‘(B) the contiguous zone of the United 13
States, to the limits permitted by international 14
law in accordance with Presidential Proclama-15
tion 7219 of September 2, 1999.’’. 16
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 17
this section shall take effect on the day after the date of 18
the enactment of this Act. 19
Æ
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