President can block foreign ships from U.S. ports over property disputes.
H.R. 7084 — Defending American Property Abroad Act of 2026 · Filed by August Pfluger (R-TX) · 7 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 15, 2026 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill lets the President stop ships from entering U.S. ports. Ships are blocked if they came from countries that took American property. The President picks which ports to block. The President can remove the block once the country pays money or returns the property.
Who it affects
Shipping companies and ports are affected. Countries with U.S. trade deals in the Western Hemisphere are affected. People who buy imported goods may pay more.
One thing to notice
The President decides alone what counts as taking property and what counts as fair payment. No court can review the President's choice.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
7 cosponsors: 5 Republicans, 2 Democrats.
- Jan 15, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 15, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure”
- Jan 21, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Jan 21, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 36 - 22”
- Mar 27, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 247 - 164 (Roll no. 105).”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
3 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 3 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $17,270,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 3 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 61% of bills with any report.
August Pfluger, who sponsored the bill, received $1,050,825 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. — $16,950,000 in 1 report
- Vulcan Materials Company — $270,000 in 1 report
- Vulcan Materials Company — $50,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,873 characters) on Jul 2, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-23.
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