Bill Details
HR.1238 - 119th Congress
Status
Latest action
2025-02-12 - Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Introduced Date
2025-02-12
Policy Area
International Affairs
Committees
View committees (1)
Sponsors
Cosponsors
View cosponsors (2)
8
0
0
AI Summary This summary was generated by AI from the bill text. AI can get information wrong.
This bill would give the President power to use “letters of marque and reprisal,” an old legal tool, to let private armed persons or groups act against members of cartels or cartel-linked groups who the President says have committed aggression against the United States. In simple terms, it would allow the government to authorize private actors to help capture the people and property of certain cartel figures outside U.S. borders. The bill says cartels are a serious threat to national security and foreign policy, and it requires a security bond before any such authorization is issued.
- It lets the President commission privately armed and equipped people or entities, if the President believes their service is needed.
- Those private actors could be used to seize, outside the United States and its territories, the person or property of a cartel member, cartel-linked member, or conspirator tied to a cartel or cartel-linked organization.
- The President must decide that the person was responsible for an act of aggression against the United States before action can be taken.
- The bill defines “cartel” by referring to a January 20, 2025 executive order and to the term “transnational criminal organization” in existing law.
Official Summaries
No summaries available
Current Full Text
[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1238 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1238
To authorize the President of the United States to issue letters of
marque and reprisal with respect to acts of aggression against the
United States by a member of a cartel, or a member of a cartel-linked
organization, or any conspirator associated with a cartel, and for
other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 12, 2025
Mr. Burchett (for himself and Mr. Messmer) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To authorize the President of the United States to issue letters of
marque and reprisal with respect to acts of aggression against the
United States by a member of a cartel, or a member of a cartel-linked
organization, or any conspirator associated with a cartel, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Cartel Marque and Reprisal
Authorization Act of 2025''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants the
Congress the power to grant letters of marque and reprisal to
punish, deter, and prevent the acts of aggression and
depredations and other acts of war committed by cartel
conspirators.
(2) Cartels present an unusual and extraordinary threat to
national security and foreign policy of the United States.
SEC. 3. ISSUANCE OF LETTERS OF MARQUE AND REPRISAL.
(a) Authority of President.--The President of the United States is
authorized and requested to commission, under officially issued letters
of marque and reprisal, so many of privately armed and equipped persons
and entities as, in the judgment of the President, the service may
require, with suitable instructions to the leaders thereof, to employ
all means reasonably necessary to seize outside the geographic
boundaries of the United States and its territories the person and
property of any individual who the President determines is a member of
a cartel, a member of a cartel-linked organization, or a conspirator
associated with a cartel or a cartel-linked organization, who is
responsible for an act of aggression against the United States.
(b) Security Bonds.--No letter of marque and reprisal shall be
issued by the President without requiring the posting of a security
bond in such amount as the President shall determine is sufficient to
ensure that the letter be executed according to the terms and
conditions thereof.
(c) Definition of Cartel.--In this section, the term ``cartel''
means an organization that--
(1) is described in section 1 of the executive order titled
``Designating Cartels And Other Organizations As Foreign
Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global
Terrorists'' and dated January 20, 2025; or
(2) is a ``transnational criminal organization'' under the
meaning given that term in section 3003(5) of the Public Law
118-50 (21 U.S.C. 2341(5)).
<all>