PROTECT Act of 2025
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs.
Protection for Reservation Occupants against Trafficking and Evasive Communications Today Act of 2025 or the PROTECT Act of 2025
This bill expands special tribal criminal jurisdiction (STCJ) to include certain controlled substance-related offenses and firearms offenses. It also allows tribal courts to execute warrants for electronic material.
STCJ allows participating tribes to investigate, prosecute, convict, and sentence both Indian and non-Indian offenders who commit covered crimes in Indian country against Indian victims. Covered crimes currently include assault of tribal justice personnel, child violence, dating violence, domestic violence, obstruction of justice, sexual violence, sex trafficking, stalking, and a violation of a protection order.
The bill expands STCJ to allow participating tribes to prosecute individuals for controlled substance-related offenses (i.e., drug trafficking, unlawful drug possession, or unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia) and firearms offenses (i.e., use or possession of a firearm in furtherance of a covered crime or by a person who has been convicted of domestic violence).
Additionally, the bill allows participating tribes to exercise STCJ over a controlled substance-related offense or a firearms offense if neither the defendant nor the alleged victim is an Indian. (Currently, this exception only applies in cases of obstruction of justice or assault of tribal justice personnel.)
The bill allows offenders convicted pursuant to STCJ to be incarcerated through the Bureau of Prisons Tribal Prisoner Program.
The bill gives tribal courts the same authority as state courts to compel service providers to disclose stored electronic communication information through court-issued warrants, court orders, or administrative subpoenas.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on June 5, 2025. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on June 5, 2025: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 118th Congress (2023-24), 274 of the 16,565 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 1.7 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced it on June 5, 2025, and 1 member has since signed on as a cosponsor.
They are 1 Democrat.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on June 5, 2025, 462 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 462 days ago, on June 5, 2025.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 119th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2027 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers