HR1998-119

What This Bill Does

The Sanction Sea Pirates Act of 2025 creates a sanctions tool for maritime piracy. Congress cites 2011 piracy off Somalia, when 212 attempted attacks occurred, more than 1,000 crew were held hostage, and 35 seafarers were killed; notes that Western Indian Ocean piracy subsided for much of the following decade; and states that Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after October 7, 2023 have affected global shipping markets and coincided with a renewed surge in Somali piracy. The bill states that the United States should stop piracy worldwide, including off the Somali coast and in the Gulf of Aden, and work with allies and partners. It then requires the President to impose sanctions on any foreign person determined to knowingly engage in piracy. Sanctions include blocking property and interests in property under IEEPA when they are in the United States or controlled by U.S. persons, plus immigration sanctions making covered aliens inadmissible, visa-ineligible, parole-ineligible, and ineligible for other immigration benefits, with visa revocation taking effect immediately. The bill preserves admission needed for U.N. headquarters or other international obligations, exempts food, medicine, medical devices, humanitarian assistance, humanitarian financial transactions, and transport needed for humanitarian operations, excludes authorized U.S. intelligence, law-enforcement, and national-security activities, allows ex parte and in camera classified evidence in judicial review without creating a right to review, applies IEEPA penalties, allows a national-security waiver with prior congressional certification, and says it does not authorize import sanctions on goods.

Who Benefits and How

Commercial shipping companies, seafarers, maritime insurers, port operators, global supply-chain managers, U.S. naval and maritime-security planners, State Department sanctions officials, Treasury sanctions staff, humanitarian organizations, and congressional foreign-affairs committees benefit from a specific sanctions lever against piracy networks, visa access for covered pirates, and property interests tied to piracy while preserving humanitarian and U.N. obligations.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Foreign persons engaged in piracy, piracy financiers, piracy support networks, alien visa holders tied to piracy, banks holding blocked property, State Department consular officers, Department of Homeland Security immigration officers, Treasury sanctions staff, compliance officers at U.S. financial institutions, and waiver-review officials must face or administer asset blocking, visa revocation, inadmissibility, sanctions compliance, classified-evidence handling, IEEPA penalties, humanitarian exceptions, and national-security waivers.

Key Provisions

• Requires the President to impose sanctions on foreign persons determined to knowingly engage in piracy.
• Blocks covered property and transactions under International Emergency Economic Powers Act authorities.
• Bars covered aliens from admission, visas, parole, and other immigration benefits and requires immediate visa revocation.
• Exempts humanitarian goods, humanitarian assistance, U.N. headquarters obligations, and authorized U.S. intelligence, law-enforcement, or national-security activities.
• Applies IEEPA penalties, permits classified information to be handled ex parte and in camera, and allows a national-security waiver with congressional certification.
• Provides that the bill does not authorize sanctions on importation of goods.