I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 6736 
To require the transfer of regulatory control of certain munitions exports 
from the Department of Commerce to the Department of State, and 
for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 16, 2025 
Mr. CASTRO of Texas (for himself, Mrs. TORRES of California, Mr. GOLDMAN 
of New York, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. MAG-
AZINER, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. FROST, Ms. DEAN of Pennsylvania, Mrs. 
RAMIREZ, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mrs. GRIJALVA, Ms. OMAR, Mr. MCGOVERN, 
Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. MENENDEZ, and 
Ms. TITUS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To require the transfer of regulatory control of certain muni-
tions exports from the Department of Commerce to the 
Department of State, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Americas Regional Monitoring of Arms Sales Act of 
2025’’ or the ‘‘ARMAS Act of 2025’’. 
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(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings. 
Sec. 3. Transfer of regulatory control of certain munitions exports from De-
partment of Commerce to Department of State. 
Sec. 4. Reports and strategy on disruption of illegal export and trafficking of 
firearms to Mexico and certain Central American and Carib-
bean countries. 
Sec. 5. Increasing participation in the eTrace program. 
Sec. 6. Modifications to the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative. 
Sec. 7. Designation of covered countries. 
Sec. 8. Certification requirements relating to certain munitions exports. 
Sec. 9. Limitation on licenses and other authorizations for export of certain 
items removed from the Commerce Control List and included 
on the United States Munitions List. 
Sec. 10. Prohibition on promotion of covered munitions. 
Sec. 11. Definitions. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Violence in Mexico, Central America, and 
the Caribbean is exacerbated by firearms originating 
in the United States. 
(2) While firearms are trafficked to Mexico 
from a variety of countries, firearms originating in 
the United States account for 70 percent of the fire-
arms recovered and traced from crimes in Mexico, 
according to the 2021 Government Accountability 
Office (GAO) report published by the Comptroller 
General of the United States titled ‘‘Firearms Traf-
ficking: U.S. Efforts to Disrupt Gun Smuggling into 
Mexico Would Benefit from Additional Data and 
Analysis’’. 
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(3) United States-origin firearm flows con-
tribute to human rights violations, organized crime 
and gang violence, extrajudicial killings, high homi-
cide rates, domestic violence, and femicides in Mex-
ico, Central America, and the Caribbean. 
(4) Firearms trafficking from the United States 
and firearm violence are key drivers of immigration 
and asylum claims from Central America. 
(5) According to the United Nations Regional 
Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in 
Latin America and the Caribbean, firearms are used 
in 70 percent of homicides in the Caribbean com-
pared to 30 percent globally, and while the Carib-
bean constitutes less than one percent of the global 
population, it is responsible for 23 percent of all re-
corded homicides. 
(6) In an August 2022 press conference, United 
States officials of Homeland Security Investigations 
reported a ‘‘marked uptick in the number of weap-
ons’’, and an increase in the caliber and type of 
weapons, being illegally trafficked to Haiti and the 
rest of the Caribbean. 
(7) The Caribbean Basin Security Initiative of 
the Department of State that commenced in 2009 is 
the regional foreign assistance program of the 
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