II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 3047
To award payments to employees of Air America who provided support to
the United States from 1950 to 1976, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
OCTOBER17, 2023
Mr. R
UBIO(for himself, Mr. WARNER, and Mr. CORNYN) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was read twice and referred to the Select Committee
on Intelligence
A BILL
To award payments to employees of Air America who pro-
vided support to the United States from 1950 to 1976,
and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘Air America Act of 4
2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
(1) Air America and its affiliated companies, in 8
coordination with the Central Intelligence Agency, 9
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provided direct and indirect support to the United 1
States Government from 1950 to 1976. 2
(2) The service and sacrifice of employees of 3
Air America included— 4
(A) suffering a high rate of casualties in 5
the course of service; 6
(B) saving thousands of lives in search and 7
rescue missions for downed United States air-8
men and allied refugee evacuations; and 9
(C) serving lengthy periods under chal-10
lenging circumstances abroad. 11
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 12
In this Act: 13
(1) A
FFILIATED COMPANY .—The term ‘‘affili-14
ated company’’, with respect to Air America, in-15
cludes Air Asia Company Limited, CAT Incor-16
porated, Civil Air Transport Company Limited, and 17
the Pacific Division of Southern Air Transport. 18
(2) A
IR AMERICA.—The term ‘‘Air America’’ 19
means Air America, Incorporated. 20
(3) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -21
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-22
mittees’’ means— 23
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 24
and Governmental Affairs, the Select Com-25
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mittee on Intelligence, and the Committee on 1
Appropriations of the Senate; and 2
(B) the Committee on Oversight and Ac-3
countability, the Permanent Select Committee 4
on Intelligence, and the Committee on Appro-5
priations of the House of Representatives. 6
(4) C
HILD; DEPENDENT; WIDOW; WIDOWER.— 7
The terms ‘‘child’’, ‘‘dependent’’, ‘‘widow’’, and 8
‘‘widower’’ have the meanings given those terms in 9
section 8341(a) of title 5, United States Code, ex-10
cept that section shall be applied by substituting 11
‘‘individual who performed qualifying service’’ for 12
‘‘employee or Member’’. 13
(5) C
OVERED DECEDENT .—The term ‘‘covered 14
decedent’’ means an individual who was killed in 15
Southeast Asia while supporting operations of the 16
Central Intelligence Agency during the period begin-17
ning on January 1, 1950, and ending on December 18
31, 1976, as a United States citizen employee of Air 19
America or an affiliated company. 20
(6) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 21
the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. 22
(7) Q
UALIFYING SERVICE.— The term ‘‘quali-23
fying service’’ means service that— 24
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(A) was performed by a United States cit-1
izen as an employee of Air America or an affili-2
ated company during the period beginning on 3
January 1, 1950, and ending on December 31, 4
1976; and 5
(B) is documented in— 6
(i) the corporate records of Air Amer-7
ica or an affiliated company; 8
(ii) records possessed by the United 9
States Government; or 10
(iii) the personal records of a former 11
employee of Air America or an affiliated 12
company that are verified by the United 13
States Government. 14
(8) S
URVIVOR.—The term ‘‘survivor’’means— 15
(A) the widow or widower of— 16
(i) an individual who performed quali-17
fying service; or 18
(ii) a covered decedent; or 19
(B) an individual who, at any time during 20
or since the period of qualifying service, or on 21
the date of death of a covered decedent, was a 22
dependent or child of— 23
(i) the individual who performed such 24
qualifying service; or 25
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(ii) the covered decedent. 1
SEC. 4. AWARD AUTHORIZED TO ELIGIBLE PERSONS. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subject to the limitation in sub-3
section (d), the Director shall provide an award payment 4
of $40,000 under this section— 5
(1) to an individual who performed qualifying 6
service for a period of greater than or equal to 5 7
years or to a survivor of such individual; or 8
(2) to the survivor of a covered decedent. 9
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS.— 10
(1) I
N GENERAL.—To be eligible for a payment 11
under this subsection, an individual who performed 12
qualifying service or survivor (as the case may be) 13
must demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Director 14
that the individual whose qualifying service upon 15
which the payment is based meets the criteria of 16
paragraph (1) or (2) of subsection (a). 17
(2) R
ELIANCE ON RECORDS .—In carrying out 18
this subsection, in addition to any evidence provided 19
by such an individual or survivor, the Director may 20
rely on records possessed by the United States Gov-21
ernment. 22
(c) A
DDITIONALPAYMENT.—If an individual, or in 23
the case of a survivor, the individual whose qualifying 24
service upon which the payment is based, can demonstrate 25
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to the Director that the qualifying service of the individual 1
exceeded 5 years, the Director shall pay to such individual 2
or survivor an additional $8,000 for each full year in ex-3
cess of 5 years (and a proportionate amount for a partial 4
year). 5
(d) S
URVIVORS.—In the case of an award granted to 6
a survivor under this section, the payment shall be made— 7
(1) to the surviving widow or widower; or 8
(2) if there is no surviving widow or widower, 9
to the surviving dependent or child, in equal shares. 10
SEC. 5. FUNDING LIMITATION. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The total amount of awards 12
granted under this Act may not exceed $60,000,000. 13
(b) R
EQUESTS FORADDITIONALFUNDS.—If, at the 14
determination of the Director, the amount of funds re-15
quired to satisfy all valid applications for payment under 16
this Act exceeds the limitation set forth in subsection (a), 17
the Director shall submit to Congress a request for suffi-18
cient funds to fulfill all remaining payments. 19
(c) A
WARDS TOEMPLOYEES OF INTERMOUNTAIN 20
A
VIATION.—The Director may determine, on a case-by- 21
case basis, to award amounts to individuals who performed 22
service consistent with the definition of qualifying service 23
as employees of Intermountain Aviation. 24
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SEC. 6. TIME LIMITATION. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—To be eligible for an award pay-2
ment under this Act, a claimant must file a claim for such 3
payment with the Director not later than 2 years after 4
the effective date of the regulations prescribed by the Di-5
rector in accordance with section 7. 6
(b) D
ETERMINATION.—Not later than 90 days after 7
receiving a claim for an award payment under this section, 8
the Director shall determine the eligibility of the claimant 9
for payment. 10
(c) P
AYMENT.— 11
(1) I
N GENERAL.—If the Director determines 12
that the claimant is eligible for the award payment, 13
the Director shall pay the award payment not later 14
than 60 days after the date of such determination. 15
(2) L
UMP-SUM PAYMENT.—The Director shall 16
issue each payment as a one-time lump sum pay-17
ment contingent upon the timely filing of the claim-18
ant under this section. 19
(3) N
OTICE AND DELAYS.—The Director shall 20
notify the appropriate congressional committees of 21
any delays in making an award payment not later 22
than 30 days after the date such payment is due. 23
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SEC. 7. APPLICATION PROCEDURES. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Director shall prescribe pro-2
cedures to carry out this Act, which shall include processes 3
under which— 4
(1) claimants may submit claims for payment 5
under this Act; 6
(2) the Director will award the amounts under 7
section 4; and 8
(3) claimants can obtain redress and appeal de-9
terminations under section 6. 10
(b) O
THERMATTERS.—Such procedures— 11
(1) shall be— 12
(A) prescribed not later than 60 days after 13
the date of the enactment of this Act; and 14
(B) published in the Code of Federal Reg-15
ulations; and 16
(2) shall not be subject to chapter 5 of title 5, 17
United States Code. 18
SEC. 8. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 19
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to— 20
(1) entitle any person to Federal benefits, in-21
cluding retirement benefits under chapter 83 or 84 22
of title 5, United States Code, and disability or 23
death benefits under chapter 81 of such title; 24
(2) change the legal status of the former Air 25
America corporation or any affiliated company; or 26
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(3) create any legal rights, benefits, or entitle-1
ments beyond the one-time award authorized by this 2
Act. 3
SEC. 9. ATTORNEYS’ AND AGENTS’ FEES. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for more than 5
25 percent of an award paid pursuant to this Act to be 6
paid to, or received by, any agent or attorney for any serv-7
ice rendered to a person who receives an award under sec-8
tion 4, in connection with the award under this Act. 9
(b) V
IOLATION.—Any agent or attorney who violates 10
subsection (a) shall be fined under title 18, United States 11
Code. 12
SEC. 10. NO JUDICIAL REVIEW. 13
A determination by the Director pursuant to this Act 14
is final and conclusive and shall not be subject to judicial 15
review. 16
SEC. 11. REPORTS TO CONGRESS. 17
Until the date that all funds available for awards 18
under this Act are expended, the Director shall submit to 19
the appropriate congressional committees a semiannual re-20
port describing the numbers of award payments made and 21
denied during the 180 days preceding the submission of 22
the report, including the rationales for any denials, and 23
if, at the determination of the Director, the amount of 24
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funds provided to carry out this Act are insufficient to 1
satisfy any remaining or anticipated claims. 2
Æ
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