To amend title 46, United States Code, to prohibit certain contracts for port operations and management, and for other purposes.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Secure Our Ports Act of 2025 adds a new section 70015 to title 46. Owners or operators of facilities that must maintain facility security plans under section 70103(c) may not enter contracts for ownership, leasing, or operation of those facilities with a Chinese state-owned enterprise, Russian state-owned enterprise, North Korean state-owned enterprise, Iranian state-owned enterprise, or any foreign entity in which China, Russia, North Korea, or Iran owns any percentage. The bill uses title 46's existing definitions of facility and owner or operator. In practice, the measure targets security-sensitive U.S. port facilities and prevents adversary-state-owned or adversary-state-backed entities from gaining ownership, leasing, or operational control through port contracts.
Who Benefits and How
U.S. port-security officials, Coast Guard facility-security reviewers, trusted domestic port operators, allied port-management companies, port customers worried about foreign control, maritime supply-chain security planners, and national-security policymakers benefit because the bill removes adversary-state-owned enterprises and partly state-owned foreign entities from control roles at facilities with federally required security plans.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Owners of covered U.S. port facilities, operators of covered U.S. port facilities, Chinese state-owned port enterprises, Russian state-owned port enterprises, North Korean state-owned port enterprises, Iranian state-owned port enterprises, partly state-owned foreign port companies, port contract lawyers, and port procurement teams bear burdens because the bill narrows contracting options, requires ownership screening, bars some ownership or leasing arrangements, and may force facilities to find alternative operators or counterparties.
Key Provisions
- Creates a new title 46 prohibition on port ownership, leasing, or operation contracts with specified adversary state-owned enterprises.
- Applies to facilities required to maintain facility security plans under section 70103(c).
- Bars contracts with Chinese, Russian, North Korean, and Iranian state-owned enterprises.
- Bars contracts with any foreign entity partly owned by China, Russia, North Korea, or Iran.
- Uses existing title 46 definitions for facility and owner or operator.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Prohibits owners or operators of port facilities that must maintain federal facility security plans from contracting for ownership, leasing, or operation with Chinese, Russian, North Korean, or Iranian state-owned enterprises or any foreign entity partly owned by those countries.
Key Policy Areas
Transportation, Port Security, National Security
Primary Purpose
Prohibits owners or operators of port facilities that must maintain federal facility security plans from contracting for ownership, leasing, or operation with Chinese, Russian, North Korean, or Iranian state-owned enterprises or any foreign entity partly owned by those countries.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- U.S. port-security officials
- Coast Guard facility-security reviewers
- Trusted domestic port operators
- Allied port-management companies
- Port customers worried about foreign control
- Maritime supply-chain security planners
- National-security policymakers
Identified Costs
- Owners of covered U.S. port facilities
- Operators of covered U.S. port facilities
- Chinese state-owned port enterprises
- Russian state-owned port enterprises
- North Korean state-owned port enterprises
- Iranian state-owned port enterprises
- Partly state-owned foreign port companies
- Port contract lawyers
- Port procurement teams
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
Passed HouseReceived; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, …
Passed House (inferred from eh version)
Additional sponsors: Mr. Gimenez and Mr. Garamendi
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the …
Mr. Calvert introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Chinese state-owned port enterprises, Iranian state-owned port enterprises, North Korean state-owned port enterprises
Allied port-management companies, Operators of covered U.S. port facilities, Owners of covered U.S. port facilities
Positive-direction: Allied port-management companies, Trusted domestic port operators
Negative-direction: Operators of covered U.S. port facilities, Owners of covered U.S. port facilities
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "owner_operator"
- → owner or operator as defined by 46 U.S.C. 70101
- "covered_facility"
- → facility required to maintain a security plan under 46 U.S.C. 70103(c)
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology