Notice2025-04116

Determination: Foreign Affairs Functions of the United States

Primary source

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Published
March 14, 2025

Issuing agencies

State Department

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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 49 (Friday, March 14, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 49 (Friday, March 14, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Page 12200]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-04116]


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DEPARTMENT OF STATE

[Public Notice: 12682]


Determination: Foreign Affairs Functions of the United States

    1. Serving as America's 72nd Secretary of State is the highest 
honor of my professional life. In Executive Order 14150, President 
Trump has given me a clear direction to place our core national 
interests as the guiding mission of American foreign policy, and always 
put America and American citizens first.
    2. Securing America's borders and protecting its citizens from 
external threats is the first priority foreign affairs function of the 
United States. This effort requires the United States to marshal all 
available resources and authorities. These resources and authorities 
also include, but are not limited to, those of the Department of State, 
the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the 
Department of Justice, and many other federal agencies. See, e.g., 
Executive Orders 14150, 14157, 14160, 14161, 14165.
    3. The threats to U.S. citizens from an unsecured border can 
include foreign spies, contraband, and harmful materials that flow 
across the border, as well as unchecked mass migration, narcotics 
trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other destabilizing 
or unlawful activities, including the flow of dangerous drugs, weapons, 
and technology. Eliminating or mitigating these threats involves visa 
policies, export control enforcement policies and practices, and other 
foreign affairs functions entrusted to me, as Secretary of State, under 
the Constitution, at the direction of the President, and by statute.
    4. The Department of State enjoys primacy among federal agencies in 
the conduct of our foreign policy. When he appointed me as Secretary of 
State, the President entrusted me with all matters respecting the 
conduct of foreign affairs, including my primary foreign affairs duty: 
the duty to protect the people of the United States from any threats 
originating from foreign actors or from foreign soil. For the 
Department of State, that includes all policy related to the protection 
and travel of U.S. citizens overseas, visa operations and visa 
issuance, implementation of the Arms Export Control Act, and 
implementation of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 
1961, as amended, among other authorities. But the scope of a foreign 
affairs function of the United States is much broader.
    5. For these reasons, I hereby determine that all efforts, 
conducted by any agency of the federal government, to control the 
status, entry, and exit of people, and the transfer of goods, services, 
data, technology, and other items across the borders of the United 
States, constitute a foreign affairs function of the United States 
under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 553, 554.

    Dated: February 21, 2025.
Marco Rubio,
Secretary of State.
[FR Doc. 2025-04116 Filed 3-13-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4710-10-P


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Indexed from Federal Register on March 14, 2025.

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