Pentagon gets new authority to train foreign coast guards on fishing enforcement.
S. 2674 — HARPOON Act · Filed by Todd Young (R-IN) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Aug 1, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill authorizes the U.S. Secretary of Defense and Coast Guard Commandant to fund and conduct training programs for foreign military and coast guard forces to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing) in international waters. The bill requires annual reports to Congress on which countries are participating, what resources are needed, and how effective the programs are.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is authorization for the Secretary of Defense and Coast Guard to conduct or support training and joint patrols with foreign security forces. The stated purpose—countering illegal fishing—is the actual mechanism, not a wrapper around a hidden provision.
What the text implies
- Expands DoD authority to conduct military-to-military engagement in maritime domains beyond traditional counterterrorism or great-power competition, potentially increasing U.S. naval presence in regions where fishing disputes are economically or geopolitically sensitive.
- Annual reporting requirement creates a public record of which countries receive U.S. security assistance for maritime enforcement, potentially affecting diplomatic relationships or revealing intelligence priorities.
- The bill ties maritime law enforcement (traditionally a Coast Guard/civilian function) to DoD capacity-building authority, which may blur civil-military boundaries in foreign assistance.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill expands U.S. capacity to address a genuine transnational crime problem (illegal fishing) that depletes shared ocean resources and destabilizes coastal economies. It does so through transparent, congressionally-monitored partnerships with foreign partners, with mandatory annual reporting. No domestic restrictions on citizens' rights or remedies are imposed.
Named in the bill
Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Navy, Commandant of the Coast Guard, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Defense, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Senate Committee on Armed Services, House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, House Committee on Armed Services, International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fis
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Aug 1, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Aug 1, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Foreign Relations · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Sep 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $200,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 10 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Todd Young, the sponsor, reported $704,220 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Opportunity Finance Network-formerly National Community Cap — $200,000 on 4 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through May 13, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,256 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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 Sep 2025 to Dec 2025. 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 May 13, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Pentagon gets new authority to train foreign coast guards on fishing enforcement.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s2674 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.