Press Releases

Washington, D.C. – The House of Representatives today passed the Defending American Property Abroad Act of 2026 (H.R. 7084), legislation to seeks to protect United States owned infrastructure assets in foreign countries by authorizing a President to deny port entry to vessels that call at ports or terminals expropriated or nationalized from United States persons by governments in Western Hemisphere countries with United States free trade agreement.  

The bipartisan legislation was approved by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on January 21, 2026. H.R. 7084 was introduced by Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) with T&I Committee Member Rep. Tracy Mann (R-KS) as an original cosponsor.

“The Defending American Property Abroad Act of 2026 is a bipartisan, commonsense bill that protects American assets abroad by allowing a President to impose consequences on countries in the Western Hemisphere who take property from American companies and claim it as their own without paying for it,” said Committee Chairman Sam Graves.  “This legislation holds Western Hemisphere Countries responsible for their actions, and I commend Congressman Pfluger for leading this effort to protect American investment and ownership rights abroad.”

In 1986, a United States company opened a quarry near Playa del Carmen, Mexico, to supply crushed limestone for infrastructure and other construction projects to United States markets. To distribute those materials, the company built a deep-water port on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and, over decades, also invested in a United States distribution network. On September 23, 2024, the Government of Mexico decreed the property a Naturally Protected Area (NPA), limiting productive use of the property.  Subsequently, the Mexican Government has opened additional quarries in the area operated by Mexican companies.

H.R. 7084 dissuades similar actions by limiting the entry into the United States of vessels that have called on ports, harbors, or marine terminals that were controlled by a United States person or entity and have been subsequently nationalized or expropriated by an agency or official of the government of a Western Hemisphere trading partner. Such vessels may resume calling on United States ports once the land in question is paid for or returned to its rightful owner.

The authorities established by H.R. 7084 are similar to other authorities that Congress has given the President to impose economic sanctions, an accepted tool in economic statecraft and diplomacy. The legislation gives a President one more option for remedying the illegal taking of American property abroad, while preserving all other existing options, such as formal dispute resolution and traditional diplomatic efforts.