I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 6669
To provide resources for United States nationals unlawfully or wrongfully
detained abroad.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
DECEMBER7, 2023
Mr. H
ILL(for himself and Ms. STEVENS) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
A BILL
To provide resources for United States nationals unlawfully
or wrongfully detained abroad.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Supporting Americans 4
Wrongfully or Unlawfully Detained Abroad Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. RESOURCES FOR UNITED STATES NATIONALS UN-1
LAWFULLY OR WRONGFULLY DETAINED 2
ABROAD. 3
Section 302(d) of the Robert Levinson Hostage Re-4
covery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 5
1741(d)) is amended— 6
(1) in the subsection heading, by striking ‘‘R
E-7
SOURCEGUIDANCE’’ and inserting ‘‘RESOURCES 8
FORUNITEDSTATESNATIONALSUNLAWFULLY OR 9
W
RONGFULLYDETAINEDABROAD’’; 10
(2) in paragraph (1), by striking the paragraph 11
heading and all that follows through ‘‘Not later 12
than’’ and inserting the following: 13
‘‘(1) R
ESOURCE GUIDANCE.— 14
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than’’; 15
(3) in paragraph (2), by redesignating subpara-16
graphs (A), (B), (C), (D), and (E) and clauses (i), 17
(ii), (iii), (iv), and (v), respectively, and moving such 18
clauses (as so redesignated) 2 ems to the right; 19
(4) by redesignating paragraph (2) as subpara-20
graph (B) and moving such subparagraph (as so re-21
designated) 2 ems to the right; 22
(5) in subparagraph (B), as redesignated by 23
paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘paragraph (1)’’ and in-24
serting ‘‘subparagraph (A)’’; and 25
(6) by adding at the end the following: 26
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•HR 6669 IH
‘‘(2) TRAVEL ASSISTANCE.— 1
‘‘(A) F
AMILY ADVOCACY.—For the purpose 2
of facilitating meetings between the United 3
States Government and the family members of 4
United States nationals unlawfully or wrong-5
fully detained abroad, the Secretary shall pro-6
vide financial assistance to cover the costs of 7
travel to and from Washington, DC, including 8
travel by air, train, bus, or other transit as ap-9
propriate, to any individual who— 10
‘‘(i) is— 11
‘‘(I) a family member of a United 12
States national unlawfully or wrong-13
fully detained abroad as determined 14
by the Secretary under subsection (a); 15
or 16
‘‘(II) an appropriate individual 17
who— 18
‘‘(aa) is approved by the 19
Special Presidential Envoy for 20
Hostage Affairs; and 21
‘‘(bb) does not represent in 22
any legal capacity a United 23
States national unlawfully or 24
wrongfully detained abroad or 25
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the family of such United States 1
national; 2
‘‘(ii) has a permanent address that is 3
more than 50 miles from Washington, DC; 4
and 5
‘‘(iii) requests such assistance. 6
‘‘(B) T
RAVEL AND LODGING.— 7
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—For each such 8
United States national unlawfully or 9
wrongfully detained abroad, the financial 10
assistance described in subparagraph (A) 11
shall be provided for not more than 2 trips 12
per fiscal year, unless the Special Presi-13
dential Envoy for Hostage Affairs deter-14
mines that a third trip is warranted. 15
‘‘(ii) L
IMITATIONS.—Any trip de-16
scribed in clause (i) shall— 17
‘‘(I) consist of not more than 2 18
family members or other individuals 19
approved in accordance with subpara-20
graph (A)(i)(II), unless the Special 21
Presidential Envoy for Hostage Af-22
fairs determines that circumstances 23
warrant an additional family member 24
or other individual approved in ac-25
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cordance with subparagraph (A)(i)(II) 1
and approves assistance to such third 2
family member or other individual; 3
and 4
‘‘(II) not exceed more than 2 5
nights lodging, which shall not exceed 6
the applicable government rate. 7
‘‘(C) R
ETURN TRAVEL.—If other United 8
States Government assistance is unavailable, 9
the Secretary may provide to a United States 10
national unlawfully or wrongfully detained 11
abroad as determined by the Secretary under 12
subsection (a), United States assistance, as nec-13
essary, for return travel to the United States 14
upon release of such United States national. 15
‘‘(3) S
UPPORT.— 16
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 17
seek to make available physical health services, 18
mental health services, and other support as ap-19
propriate, including providing information on 20
available legal or financial resources, to— 21
‘‘(i) any United States national un-22
lawfully or wrongfully detained abroad; 23
and 24
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‘‘(ii) any family member of such 1
United States national. 2
‘‘(B) L
IMITATIONS.— 3
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—For any support 4
described in subparagraph (A) for an indi-5
vidual described in clause (i) or (ii) of such 6
subparagraph that commences following 7
the return of a United States national who 8
was unlawfully or wrongfully detained 9
abroad, such support shall be made avail-10
able for up to 5 years from the date on 11
which any individual identified in subpara-12
graph (A) chooses to avail themselves of 13
the support described in that subpara-14
graph, unless the Special Presidential 15
Envoy for Hostage Affairs determines that 16
circumstances warrant extending such sup-17
port. 18
‘‘(ii) E
XCEPTION.—The time limita-19
tion under clause (i) does not apply to any 20
support provided during the pendency of 21
the detention of a United States national 22
unlawfully or wrongfully detained abroad. 23
‘‘(4) N
OTIFICATION REQUIREMENT .—The Sec-24
retary shall notify the Committee on Foreign Rela-25
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tions of the Senate, the Committee on Foreign Af-1
fairs of the House of Representatives, and the Com-2
mittees on Appropriations of the Senate and the 3
House of Representatives of any amount spent above 4
$250,000 for any fiscal year to carry out paragraphs 5
(2) and (3). 6
‘‘(5) F
UNDING.—Funds authorized to be appro-7
priated for the Department of State, which may in-8
clude funds made available for unforeseen emer-9
gencies arising in the diplomatic and consular serv-10
ice, may be used to provide the support authorized 11
by this section. 12
‘‘(6) R
EPORT.—Not later than 90 days after 13
the end of each fiscal year, the Secretary shall sub-14
mit to the Committees on Foreign Relations and Ap-15
propriations of the Senate and the Committee on 16
Foreign Affairs and Appropriations of the House of 17
Representatives a report that includes— 18
‘‘(A) a detailed description of expenditures 19
made pursuant to paragraphs (2) and (3); 20
‘‘(B) a detailed description of types of sup-21
port provided pursuant to paragraph (3), pro-22
vided that such description does not identify 23
any individuals receiving any physical or mental 24
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health support, in order to protect their privacy; 1
and 2
‘‘(C) the number and location of visits out-3
side of Washington, DC, during the prior fiscal 4
year made by the Special Presidential Envoy 5
for Hostage Affairs to family members of each 6
United States national unlawfully or wrongfully 7
detained abroad. 8
‘‘(7) S
UNSET.—The authority and requirements 9
under paragraphs (2), (3), (4), and (5) shall termi-10
nate on December 31, 2027. 11
‘‘(8) F
AMILY MEMBER DEFINED .—In this sub-12
section, the term ‘family member’ means a spouse, 13
father, mother, child, brother, sister, grandparent, 14
grandchild, aunt, uncle, nephew, niece, cousin, fa-15
ther-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in- 16
law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, step-17
mother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, step-18
sister, half brother, or half sister.’’. 19
Æ
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