The Coast Guard Act of 1915 was passed by Congress on January 20, 1915, and signed into law by then-American president Woodrow Wilson on the twenty-eighth day of the same month.

The act created the United States Coast Guard[1] as a new service outwardly modeled on the structure of the U.S. Navy and under the command of the Department of Treasury.

The U.S. Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces[2] authorized to stop, search and arrest suspected smugglers and other unlawful intruders into American waters.

In 1939, the Coast Guard also integrated and incorporated the United States Lighthouse Service and, in 1942, the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation.

Since 2003, the U.S. Coast Guard has fallen under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security and as before in times of war and emergency when declared by the president it reverts to the navy's control.