August 1, 2025
Mr. Young introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
To amend title 10, United States Code, to authorize the Secretary of Defense to conduct or support capacity-building programs for foreign security forces to counter illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and for other purposes.
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Helping Allies Respond to Piracy, Overfishing, and Oceanic Negligence Act
or the HARPOON Act
.
Sec. 2. Definitions
In this Act:
(1) Commandant
The term Commandant means the Commandant of the Coast Guard.
(2) Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing; IUU fishing
The terms illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and IUU fishing means activities described as illegal fishing, unreported fishing, or unregulated fishing in paragraph 3 of the International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, adopted at the 24th Session of the Committee on Fisheries in Rome on March 2, 2001.
(3) Secretary
The term Secretary means the Secretary of the Navy.
Sec. 3. Modification of authority to build capacity of foreign security forces
Section 333(a) of title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
(10)
Counter-illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing operations.
Sec. 4. Counter-IUU fishing program enhancement
(a) In general
The Secretary and the Commandant shall seek to engage with foreign partners to establish joint patrols to enhance counter-IUU fishing efforts, combat transnational crime, and enhance regional security.
(b) Report
(1) In general
Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary and the Commandant shall jointly submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report on engagements with foreign partners under subsection (a), including—
(A)
an identification of specific regions and countries interested in increased cooperation;
(B)
a description of any limitations on enhanced partnerships due to insufficient resources;
(C)
recommendations for increased program effectiveness;
(D)
an assessment of the effectiveness of ongoing partner operations; and
(E)
any other information the Secretary and the Commandant consider appropriate.
(2) Appropriate committees of Congress defined
In this subsection, the term appropriate committees of Congress means—
(A)
the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate; and
(B)
the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives.