Advancing Enforcement

The company legally responsible for paying an import’s duties can be a foreign business with no real presence in the U.S. — so if those duties go unpaid, there is no one here to hold to account.

S.4003 / H.R.7812 · 119th Congress · Cassidy & Arrington

Import duties are charged on a good’s value — but a loophole lets the importer declare an earlier, lower price than was actually paid, and quietly owe less than it should.

S.3841 · 119th Congress · Cassidy & Whitehouse

Trade fraud persists because injured companies often detect unlawful conduct faster than government can investigate it — yet have no direct legal path to act before the damage becomes permanent.

H.R.1284 / S.3808 · 119th Congress · Bost & Britt

When the U.S. penalizes unfairly cheap imports, foreign producers dodge the penalty — rerouting through another country or altering the product just enough to escape it.

S.691 / H.R.1548 · 119th Congress · Young & Van Duyne

Trade fraud is usually met with a fine, not a prosecution — the predictable result of an enforcement system without a dedicated DOJ force built and resourced to pursue it.

H.R.1869 · 119th Congress · Rep. Hinson

Dangerous goods turned away at the border are sent back, not destroyed — free to be shipped to another port and tried again until they get through.

H.R.2715 / S.3213 · 119th Congress · Higgins & Hyde-Smith

The public can see what arrives by ship — but not by truck, train, or plane, leaving the routes that bad actors favor in the dark.

S.1259 / H.R.2653 · 119th Congress · Cassidy, Whitehouse & Cortez Masto