A resolution expressing the vital importance of the Panama Canal to the United States.

Protecting the Panama Canal's neutrality and U.S. strategic and economic access. This resolution would declare the canal vital to U.S. regional security and economic interests, notes the U.S. built the canal at a cost of about $375 million and roughly 10,000 lives, records the canal handled more than 14,000 vessels in 2023 with about 72 percent bound to or from U.S. ports, assesses that Chinese-backed deals in Panama — including the 2016 cession of Margarita Island to the Landbridge Group for about $900 million, a 2018 $1.4 billion bridge contract, and two ports run by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison — risk intelligence gathering and military leverage, and urges the administration to ensure the canal remains neutral and to enforce the 1977 Neutrality Treaty.