II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 509
To provide resources for United States nationals unlawfully or wrongfully
detained abroad, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY16, 2023
Mr. M
ENENDEZ(for himself, Mr. RISCH, Mrs. SHAHEEN, and Mr. HAGERTY)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Foreign Relations
A BILL
To provide resources for United States nationals unlawfully
or wrongfully detained abroad, 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 ‘‘Supporting Americans 4
Wrongfully or Unlawfully Detained Abroad Act of 2023’’. 5
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•S 509 IS
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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•S 509 IS
‘‘(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 Washington, DC, including travel by 8
air, train, bus, or other transit as appropriate, 9
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), compensation and assistance, as 13
necessary, for return travel to the United 14
States upon release of such United States na-15
tional. 16
‘‘(3) S
UPPORT.—The Secretary shall seek to 17
make available operational psychologists and clinical 18
social workers, to support the mental health and 19
well-being of— 20
‘‘(A) any United States national unlawfully 21
or wrongfully detained abroad; and 22
‘‘(B) any family member of such United 23
States national, with regard to the psycho-24
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•S 509 IS
logical, social, and mental health effects of such 1
unlawful or wrongful detention. 2
‘‘(4) N
OTIFICATION REQUIREMENT .—The Sec-3
retary shall notify the Committee on Foreign Rela-4
tions of the Senate, the Committee on Foreign Af-5
fairs of the House of Representatives, and the Com-6
mittees on Appropriations of the Senate and the 7
House of Representatives of any amount spent above 8
$250,000 for any fiscal year to carry out paragraphs 9
(2) and (3). 10
‘‘(5) R
EPORT.—Not later than 90 days after 11
the end of each fiscal year, the Secretary shall sub-12
mit to the Committees on Foreign Relations and Ap-13
propriations of the Senate and the Committee on 14
Foreign Affairs and Appropriations of the House of 15
Representatives a report that includes— 16
‘‘(A) a detailed description of expenditures 17
made pursuant to paragraphs (2) and (3); 18
‘‘(B) a detailed description of support pro-19
vided pursuant to paragraph (3) and the indi-20
viduals providing such support; and 21
‘‘(C) the number and location of visits out-22
side of Washington, DC, during the prior fiscal 23
year made by the Special Presidential Envoy 24
for Hostage Affairs to family members of each 25
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United States national unlawfully or wrongfully 1
detained abroad. 2
‘‘(6) S
UNSET.—The authority and requirements 3
under paragraphs (2), (3), (4), and (5) shall termi-4
nate on December 31, 2027. 5
‘‘(7) F
AMILY MEMBER DEFINED .—In this sub-6
section, the term ‘family member’ means a spouse, 7
father, mother, child, brother, sister, grandparent, 8
grandchild, aunt, uncle, nephew, niece, cousin, fa-9
ther-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in- 10
law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, step-11
mother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, step-12
sister, half brother, or half sister.’’. 13
Æ
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