Vessel Tracking for Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2025
The Vessel Tracking for Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2025 would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), to run a four-year pilot program at the National Targeting Center. The purpose is to evaluate whether big data analytics can identify and predict vessels that disable or manipulate their Automatic Identification System (AIS) in ways that suggest they are transporting goods to evade U.S. sanctions or export controls. The pilot would produce actionable intelligence for DHS components (including ICE and the Coast Guard), other federal agencies, and appropriate foreign partners. A detailed report to Congress, due after four years, would assess the pilot’s usefulness, document outcomes for interdicted vessels, analyze cases where vessels were not interdicted, and offer recommendations on future use of big data analytics for this purpose. The act does not authorize new appropriations or new data collection beyond what existing law already allows.
Key Points
- 1Purpose and scope: Establish a pilot program at the National Targeting Center to test big data analytics for identifying vessels that disable or manipulate AIS as an indicator of sanctions or export-control evasion.
- 2Data elements and modeling: The program would consider data such as goods type, destination, vessel/shipper/importer ownership and nationality, nearby vessels’ ownership/nationality, AIS disablement duration, and AIS-related issues; multiple data models may be used to reflect different behavior patterns.
- 3Interagency and international coordination: The pilot is designed to provide intelligence to DHS components (e.g., Coast Guard, ICE), other federal agencies, and suitable foreign partners; coordination with the Secretaries of Commerce and DNI is required.
- 4Duration and evaluation: The pilot runs for four years from enactment; a final report to Congress evaluates usefulness, outputs for interdicted vs. non-interdicted vessels, and future recommendations.
- 5Funding and legal constraints: No new appropriations are authorized for the pilot; the legislation includes a construction note that it does not authorize additional data collection beyond existing law.