I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 6150 
To amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act 
to add an economic cause as an allowable cause to declare a fishery 
resource disaster. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 19, 2025 
Ms. MACE (for herself, Mr. DONALDS, Mr. CARTER of Louisiana, Mr. MOORE 
of Alabama, Mr. GOLDEN of Maine, Mr. WEBER of Texas, Mr. VICENTE 
GONZALEZ of Texas, Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana, and Mr. MURPHY) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural 
Resources 
A BILL 
To amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and 
Management Act to add an economic cause as an allow-
able cause to declare a fishery resource disaster. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protect American 
Fisheries Act of 2025’’. 
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SEC. 2. ECONOMIC FISHERY RESOURCE DISASTERS. 
Section 312(a) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 
Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1861a(a)) 
is amended— 
(1) in paragraph (1)— 
(A) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 
‘‘economic cause,’’ after ‘‘discrete anthropogenic 
cause,’’; 
(B) by redesignating subparagraphs (D) 
through (G) as subparagraphs (F) through (I), 
respectively; 
(C) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as 
subparagraph (D); 
(D) by inserting after subparagraph (B) 
the following: 
‘‘(C) ECONOMIC CAUSE.—The term ‘eco-
nomic cause’ means any activity carried out by 
a foreign person that the Secretary deter-
mines— 
‘‘(i) distorts the market for a fishery 
resource; 
‘‘(ii) disrupts the sustainable harvest 
of a fishery resource; or 
‘‘(iii) hinders the operational or eco-
nomic viability of a fishery resource.’’; 
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(E) in subparagraph (D)(i), as so redesig-
nated, by inserting ‘‘or significant disruption to 
the fishery resource or economy of a fishing 
community’’ after ‘‘fishery resource’’; and 
(F) by inserting after subparagraph (D), 
as so redesignated, the following: 
‘‘(E) FOREIGN
PERSON.—The term ‘for-
eign person’ means— 
‘‘(i) an individual who is not a citizen 
or national of the United States; 
‘‘(ii) a government of a foreign coun-
try and any unit of such government; 
‘‘(iii) an international financial insti-
tution (as the term ‘international financial 
institutions’ is defined in section 1701(c) 
of the International Financial Institutions 
Act (22 U.S.C. 262r(c))); 
‘‘(iv) a partnership, association, cor-
poration, organization, or other combina-
tion of persons organized under the laws of 
or having its principal place of business in 
a foreign country; and 
‘‘(v) a partnership, association, cor-
poration, organization, or other combina-
tion of persons organized under the laws of 
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the United States that is owned by, di-
rectly or indirectly controlled by, or subject 
to the direction of a person or an entity 
described in clauses (i) through (iv).’’; 
(2) in paragraph (3)(B)(v)— 
(A) in subclause (III), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 
the end; 
(B) in subclause (IV), by striking the pe-
riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 
(C) by inserting after subclause (IV) the 
following: 
‘‘(V) if applicable with respect to 
the cause of the fishery resource dis-
aster, information documenting the 
adverse effects of activities carried out 
by a foreign person on the operational 
or economic viability of the applicable 
fishery, including— 
‘‘(aa) illegal, unreported, or 
unregulated fishing, including the 
use of forced or child labor; 
‘‘(bb) predatory pricing; and 
‘‘(cc) the provision of sub-
sidies that— 
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‘‘(AA) have an adverse 
effect on the price in the 
United 
States 
or 
export 
markets of seafood produced 
by the applicable fishery; or 
‘‘(BB) otherwise cause 
a distortion of such mar-
kets.’’; 
(3) in paragraph (4)(B)(i)(II)— 
(A) in item (ii), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 
end; 
(B) in item (jj), by striking the period at 
the end and inserting a semicolon; and 
(C) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(kk) prices in the United 
States or export markets of sea-
food produced in the fishery; and 
‘‘(ll) if the requester submits 
information described in para-
graph (3)(B)(v)(V), any activities 
carried out by a foreign person 
that contribute to an economic 
cause of the fishery resource dis-
aster and the specific economic 
effects thereof.’’; and 
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(4) in paragraph (5)(A)— 
(A) in clause (iii)— 
(i) by striking ‘‘a combination’’ and 
inserting ‘‘any combination’’; and 
(ii) by striking ‘‘and an anthropogenic 
cause’’ and inserting ‘‘, anthropogenic 
cause, or economic cause’’; 
(B) by redesignating clauses (iii) and (iv) 
as clauses (iv) and (v), respectively; and 
(C) by inserting after clause (ii) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(iii) an economic cause;’’. 
Æ 
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