Defending American Property Abroad Act of 2026

This bill lets the President bar foreign vessels from U.S. ports based on where they have already been. It amends Section 70022 of title 46 to create a new class of restricted vessel: one that transited a port, harbor, or marine terminal that at the time was inside a Western Hemisphere country with a U.S. free trade agreement, was reachable only through land owned or controlled by a U.S. person, and had been designated by the President. The President may designate such a facility if the trade partner's government nationalized or expropriated it, or the land providing its exclusive access, while it was owned or controlled by a U.S. person, or took any action with that effect. A facility already the subject of a pending free-trade-agreement arbitration may not be designated on that basis. The President must remove a designation once the country restores the U.S. person's ownership, pays adequate and effective compensation, or the dispute is otherwise resolved. The bill also adds exceptions letting a covered vessel enter during an emergency or when the facility's owner has authorized its transit. The House passed the bill on March 27, 2026.

At least 2 organizations named this measure in a lobbying filing. A floor, not a total: they were counted by the client name on 11 quarterly reports filed by 3 lobbying firms and by 2 organizations lobbying for themselves in 2026 Q1, 2026 Q2 and 2026 Q3. An organization that lobbied this measure without naming it is not counted here.

The filings record that lobbying was reported on the measure. The form has no per-bill dollar figure and no field for a position, so nothing here says how much was spent or which side an organization took.

The organizations named: Vulcan Materials Company; Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. Listed as filed. They are every client name on the filings counted here.

From the LD-2 quarterly lobbying filings published at lda.gov by the Senate Office of Public Records. Read for 2025 Q1, 2025 Q2, 2025 Q3, 2025 Q4, 2026 Q1, 2026 Q2 and 2026 Q3. Our copy holds 24 fewer filings for 2025 Q1, 39 fewer filings for 2025 Q2, 42 fewer filings for 2025 Q3, 33 fewer filings for 2025 Q4, 28 fewer filings for 2026 Q1, 48 fewer filings for 2026 Q2 and 218 fewer filings for 2026 Q3 than the Senate's register counts, so those quarters are the filings we could read rather than every one filed. 2026 Q4 is still inside its filing window, so that quarter is only the filings posted so far.