YourVoice.Now Summary
Civil LibertiesExtends U.S. customs waters from 12 to 24 nautical miles — the Senate twin of H.R. 1268.
Civil Liberties
- Customs search zone — Applies 24 nautical miles offshore, up from 12
The details
The zone where U.S. customs law applies would double in width. Today that zone reaches about 12 nautical miles from shore. The bill extends it to 24 nautical miles, matching the contiguous zone claimed in 1999. The bill also adds findings and a sense of Congress. Senators argue that faster boats can outrun interdiction inside 12 miles. Those sections explain the reasoning but carry no legal force. The operative change rewrites the Tariff Act of 1930 and the Anti-Smuggling Act. A House companion, H.R. 1268, makes the same legal change without the findings.
Congressional Summary
Extending Limits of United States Customs Waters Act of 2025This bill extends the customs waters territory of the United States to 24 nautical miles from the baselines of the United States.Under current law, customs waters means waters within four leagues (equivalent to 12 nautical miles) of the coast of the United States.This bill provides statutory authority for two presidential proclamations to extend the customs waters to 24 nautical miles from the baselines of the United States.Specifically, the bill revises the statutory definition of customs waters to include the waters within (1) the territorial sea of the United States to the limits permitted by international law in accordance with Presidential Proclamation 5928, dated December 27, 1988, that extended such limits to 12 nautical miles from the baselines of the United States; and (2) the contiguous zone of the United States to the limits permitted by international law in accordance with Presidential Proclamation 7219, dated September 2, 1999, that extended such limits to 24 nautical miles from the baselines of the United States.
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in Senate
- Action Date
- 2025-01-23
- Date Added
- 2026-07-30
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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