S. 4720 119th Congress Senate

Protecting U.S. Fishers from Illegal Foreign Flags Act of 2026

Official title: A bill to amend the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act to authorize the Secretary of Commerce to consider nations with open registries in the… Show full official titleShow less

Official title: A bill to amend the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act to authorize the Secretary of Commerce to consider nations with open registries in the Secretary's identification of nations engaging in or endorsing illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing.

Introduced: June 9, 2026 Introduced by: Jeff Merkley Democratic · Oregon See on congress.gov

Public Lands and Natural Resources

Everywhere this bill has been 2 steps

Introduced

In committee

Reported out

Passed House

Passed Senate

To President

Became law

Jun 9, 2026

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Jun 9, 2026

Introduced in Senate

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What's happening now June 9, 2026

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Plain-language summary AI · grounded in the bill record

Allow Commerce Secretary to identify open-registry nations for illegal fishing.

This bill would change how the Secretary of Commerce identifies countries that engage in or support illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing. Specifically, it would let the Secretary consider nations with open ship registries when making those identifications. Open registries allow ships from other countries to register under a nation's flag. The bill amends the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act. It is currently in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Generated from the official bill record, accurate to the metadata, but confirm important details against the full text.

Bill text 1 version

Introduced in Senate Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

Committees of jurisdiction 1

Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
Senate

Lobbying activity 1

Registered lobbyists who named this bill in their disclosure filings. Source: federal Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.

PICARD KENTZ & ROWE LLP
for SOUTHERN SHRIMP ALLIANCE · Florida · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)

Bodies those filers lobbied

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
1 filing
SENATE
1 filing

A filing lists the bills it worked on and the parts of government it contacted in separate sections, so these are the bodies those filers named anywhere in the filing, not a per-bill breakdown.

Cosponsors 3

Hyde-Smith, Cindy

Mississippi · Aug 6, 2026

Sullivan, Dan

Alaska · Jun 18, 2026

Wicker, Roger F.

Mississippi · Jun 9, 2026

Cite this page click to expand

APA

U.S. Congress. (2026). S. 4720: Protecting U.S. Fishers from Illegal Foreign Flags Act of 2026. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-4720/

MLA

"S. 4720: Protecting U.S. Fishers from Illegal Foreign Flags Act of 2026." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-4720/.

Bluebook (legal)

S. 4720, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-4720/.

Markdown link

[S. 4720: Protecting U.S. Fishers from Illegal Foreign Flags Act of 2026](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-4720/)