II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 820
To authorize the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, to enhance the United
States-Caribbean security partnership, to prioritize natural disaster resil-
ience, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH3, 2025
Mr. K
AINE(for himself and Mr. CORNYN) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
A BILL
To authorize the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, to en-
hance the United States-Caribbean security partnership,
to prioritize natural disaster resilience, 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 ‘‘Caribbean Basin Secu-4
rity Initiative Authorization Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
In this Act: 7
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(1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -1
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-2
mittees’’ means— 3
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations 4
and the Committee on Appropriations of the 5
Senate; and 6
(B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 7
the Committee on Appropriations of the House 8
of Representatives. 9
(2) B
ENEFICIARY COUNTRIES.—The term ‘‘ben-10
eficiary countries’’ means— 11
(A) Antigua and Barbuda; 12
(B) the Bahamas; 13
(C) Barbados; 14
(D) Dominica; 15
(E) the Dominican Republic; 16
(F) Grenada; 17
(G) Guyana; 18
(H) Jamaica; 19
(I) Saint Lucia; 20
(J) Saint Kitts and Nevis; 21
(K) Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; 22
(L) Suriname; and 23
(M) Trinidad and Tobago. 24
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SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION FOR THE CARIBBEAN BASIN SECU-1
RITY INITIATIVE. 2
(a) A
UTHORIZATION FOR THE CARIBBEANBASINSE-3
CURITYINITIATIVE.—The Secretary of State and the Ad-4
ministrator of the United States Agency for International 5
Development may carry out an initiative, to be known as 6
the ‘‘Caribbean Basin Security Initiative’’, in beneficiary 7
countries to achieve the purposes described in subsection 8
(b). 9
(b) P
URPOSES.—The purposes described in this sub-10
section are the following: 11
(1) To promote citizen safety, security, and the 12
rule of law in the Caribbean through increased stra-13
tegic engagement with— 14
(A) the governments of beneficiary coun-15
tries; and 16
(B) elements of local civil society, including 17
the private sector, in such countries. 18
(2) To counter transnational criminal organiza-19
tions and local gangs in beneficiary countries, in-20
cluding through— 21
(A) maritime and aerial security coopera-22
tion, including— 23
(i) assistance to strengthen capabili-24
ties of maritime and aerial interdiction op-25
erations in the Caribbean; and 26
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(ii) the provision of support systems 1
and equipment, training, and maintenance; 2
(B) cooperation on border and port secu-3
rity, including support to strengthen capacity 4
for screening and intercepting narcotics, weap-5
ons, bulk cash, and other contraband at air-6
ports and seaports; and 7
(C) capacity building and the provision of 8
equipment and support for operations tar-9
geting— 10
(i) the finances and illegal activities of 11
such organizations and gangs; and 12
(ii) the recruitment by such organiza-13
tions and gangs of at-risk youth. 14
(3) To advance law enforcement and justice sec-15
tor capacity building and rule of law initiatives in 16
beneficiary countries, including by— 17
(A) strengthening special prosecutorial of-18
fices and providing technical assistance— 19
(i) to combat— 20
(I) corruption; 21
(II) money laundering; 22
(III) human, firearms, and wild-23
life trafficking; 24
(IV) human smuggling; 25
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(V) financial crimes; and 1
(VI) extortion; and 2
(ii) to conduct asset forfeitures and 3
criminal analysis; 4
(B) supporting training for civilian police 5
and appropriate security services in criminal in-6
vestigations, best practices for citizen security, 7
and the protection of human rights; 8
(C) supporting capacity building for law 9
enforcement and military units, including 10
professionalization, anti-corruption and human 11
rights training, vetting, and community-based 12
policing; 13
(D) supporting justice sector reform and 14
strengthening of the rule of law, including— 15
(i) capacity building for prosecutors, 16
judges, and other justice officials; and 17
(ii) support to increase the efficacy of 18
criminal courts; and 19
(E) strengthening cybersecurity and 20
cybercrime cooperation, including capacity 21
building and support for cybersecurity systems. 22
(4) To promote crime prevention efforts in ben-23
eficiary countries, particularly among at-risk-youth 24
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and other vulnerable populations, including 1
through— 2
(A) improving community and law enforce-3
ment cooperation to improve the effectiveness 4
and professionalism of police and increase mu-5
tual trust; 6
(B) increasing economic opportunities for 7
at-risk youth and vulnerable populations, in-8
cluding through workforce development training 9
and remedial education programs for at-risk 10
youth; 11
(C) improving juvenile justice sectors 12
through regulatory reforms, separating youth 13
from traditional prison systems, and improving 14
support and services in juvenile detention cen-15
ters; and 16
(D) the provision of assistance to popu-17
lations vulnerable to being victims of extortion 18
and crime by criminal networks. 19
(5) To strengthen the ability of the security 20
sector in beneficiary countries to respond to and be-21
come more resilient in the face of natural disasters, 22
including by— 23
(A) carrying out training exercises to en-24
sure critical infrastructure and ports are able to 25
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come back online rapidly following natural dis-1
asters; and 2
(B) providing preparedness training to po-3
lice and first responders. 4
(6) To prioritize efforts to combat corruption 5
and include anti-corruption components in programs 6
in beneficiary countries, including by— 7
(A) building the capacity of national jus-8
tice systems and attorneys general to prosecute 9
and try acts of corruption; 10
(B) increasing the capacity of national law 11
enforcement services to carry out anti-corrup-12
tion investigations; and 13
(C) encouraging cooperative agreements 14
among the Department of State, other relevant 15
Federal departments and agencies, and the at-16
torneys general of relevant countries. 17
(7) To promote the rule of law in beneficiary 18
countries and counter malign influence from authori-19
tarian regimes, including China, Russia, Iran, Ven-20
ezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, by— 21
(A) monitoring security assistance from 22
such authoritarian regimes and taking steps 23
necessary to ensure that such assistance does 24
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not undermine or jeopardize United States se-1
curity assistance; 2
(B) evaluating and, as appropriate, re-3
stricting the involvement of the United States 4
in investment and infrastructure projects fi-5
nanced by authoritarian regimes that might ob-6
struct or otherwise impact United States secu-7
rity assistance to beneficiary countries; 8
(C) monitoring and restricting equipment 9
and support from high-risk vendors of tele-10
communications infrastructure in beneficiary 11
countries; 12
(D) countering disinformation by pro-13
moting transparency and accountability from 14
beneficiary countries; and 15
(E) eliminating corruption linked to invest-16
ment and infrastructure facilitated by authori-17
tarian regimes through support for investment 18
screening, competitive tendering and bidding 19
processes, the implementation of investment 20
law, and contractual transparency. 21
(8) To support the effective branding and mes-22
saging of United States security assistance and co-23
operation in beneficiary countries, including by de-24
veloping and implementing a public diplomacy strat-25
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egy for informing citizens of beneficiary countries 1
about the benefits to their respective countries of 2
United States security assistance and cooperation 3
programs. 4
(c) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 5
authorized to be appropriated to the Department of State 6
and the United States Agency for International Develop-7
ment $88,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 8
2029 to carry out the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative 9
to achieve the purposes described in subsection (b). 10
SEC. 4. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 12
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State, 13
in coordination with the Administrator of the United 14
States Agency for International Development, shall submit 15
to the appropriate congressional committees an implemen-16
tation plan that includes a timeline and stated objectives 17
for actions to be taken in beneficiary countries with re-18
spect to the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative. 19
(b) E
LEMENTS.—The implementation plan required 20
by subsection (a) shall include the following elements: 21
(1) A multi-year strategy with a timeline, over-22
view of objectives, and anticipated outcomes for the 23
region and for each beneficiary country, with respect 24
to each purpose described in section 3. 25
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(2) Specific, measurable benchmarks to track 1
the progress of the Caribbean Basin Security Initia-2
tive toward accomplishing the outcomes included 3
under paragraph (1). 4
(3) A plan for the delineation of the roles to be 5
carried out by the Department of State, the United 6
States Agency for International Development, the 7
Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, 8
and any other Federal department or agency in car-9
rying out the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, to 10
prevent overlap and unintended competition between 11
activities and resources. 12
(4) A plan to coordinate and track all activities 13
carried out under the Caribbean Basin Security Ini-14
tiative among all relevant Federal departments and 15
agencies, in accordance with the publication require-16
ments described in section 4 of the Foreign Aid 17
Transparency and Accountability Act of 2016 (22 18
U.S.C. 2394c). 19
(5) A description of the process for co-locating 20
projects of the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative 21
funded by the United States Agency for Inter-22
national Development and the Bureau of Inter-23
national Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of 24
the Department of State to ensure that crime pre-25
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vention funding and enforcement funding are used 1
in the same localities as necessary. 2
(6) An assessment of steps taken, as of the 3
date on which the plan is submitted, to increase re-4
gional coordination and collaboration between the 5
law enforcement agencies of beneficiary countries 6
and the Haitian National Police, and a framework 7
with benchmarks for increasing such coordination 8
and collaboration, in order to address the urgent se-9
curity crisis in Haiti. 10
(c) A
NNUALPROGRESSUPDATE.—Not later than 1 11
year after the date on which the implementation plan re-12
quired by subsection (a) is submitted, and annually there-13
after, the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Ad-14
ministrator of the United States Agency for International 15
Development, shall submit to the appropriate congres-16
sional committees a written description of results achieved 17
through the Caribbean Basin Security Imitative, including 18
with respect to— 19
(1) the implementation of the strategy and 20
plans described in paragraphs (1), (3), and (4) of 21
subsection (b); 22
(2) compliance with, and progress related to, 23
meeting the benchmarks described in paragraph (2) 24
of subsection (b); and 25
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(3) funding statistics for the Caribbean Basin 1
Security Initiative for the preceding year, 2
disaggregated by country. 3
SEC. 5. PROGRAMS AND STRATEGY TO INCREASE NATURAL 4
DISASTER RESPONSE AND RESILIENCE. 5
(a) P
ROGRAMS.—During the 5-year period beginning 6
on the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 7
of State, in consultation with the Administrator of the 8
United States Agency for International Development and 9
the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Inter- 10
American Foundation, shall promote natural disaster re-11
sponse and resilience in beneficiary countries by carrying 12
out programs for the following purposes: 13
(1) Encouraging coordination between bene-14
ficiary countries and relevant Federal departments 15
and agencies to provide expertise and information 16
sharing. 17
(2) Supporting the sharing of best practices on 18
natural disaster resilience, including on constructing 19
resilient infrastructure and rebuilding after natural 20
disasters. 21
(3) Improving rapid-response mechanisms and 22
cross-government organizational preparedness for 23
natural disasters. 24
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(b) STRATEGY.—Not later than 180 days after the 1
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State, 2
in coordination with the Administrator of the United 3
States Agency for International Development and in con-4
sultation with the President and Chief Executive Officer 5
of the Inter-American Foundation and nongovernmental 6
organizations in beneficiary countries and in the United 7
States, shall submit to the appropriate congressional com-8
mittees a strategy that incorporates specific, measurable 9
benchmarks— 10
(1) to achieve the purposes described in sub-11
section (a); and 12
(2) to inform citizens of beneficiary countries 13
about the extent and benefits of United States as-14
sistance to such countries. 15
(c) A
NNUALPROGRESSUPDATE.—Not later than 1 16
year after the date on which the strategy required by sub-17
section (b) is submitted, and annually thereafter, the Sec-18
retary of State, in coordination with the Administrator of 19
the United States Agency for International Development, 20
shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees 21
a written description of the progress made as of the date 22
of such submission in meeting the benchmarks included 23
in the strategy. 24
Æ
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