I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2192
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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH18, 2025
Mr. G
ROTHMAN(for himself, Mr. SMITHof Washington, Mrs. RADEWAGEN,
Mr. G
IMENEZ, Mr. TONKO, Mr. VANORDEN, Mr. FOSTER, Ms. JAYAPAL,
Mrs. F
OUSHEE, Mr. TRAN, Mr. STEIL, Mr. VALADAO, Ms. TITUS, Mr.
S
ORENSEN, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Ms. MOOREof Wisconsin, Mr. VANDREW,
Mr. C
ISCOMANI, Ms. BROWNLEY, Ms. LOISFRANKELof Florida, Ms.
S
ALAZAR, Mr. POCAN, Mr. RUIZ, Mr. KHANNA, Ms. KELLYof Illinois,
Mr. M
OULTON, Mr. KENNEDYof New York, Mr. TIFFANY, Mr. CARTER
of Georgia, Mr. M
OOREof Alabama, Mr. MRVAN, Mr. BISHOP, Mr. NUNN
of Iowa, Mr. H
UFFMAN, Ms. CHU, Mr. TIMMONS, Ms. LEEof Nevada,
Ms. H
OULAHAN, Mr. MEUSER, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Mr. JOHNSONof Georgia,
Mr. T
HOMPSONof California, Mr. FEENSTRA, Ms. GARCIAof Texas, Mr.
C
OSTA, Mr. LARSENof Washington, Mr. MOOLENAAR, Mr. SCOTT
F
RANKLINof Florida, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Mr. WESTERMAN,
Ms. T
ENNEY, Ms. WASSERMANSCHULTZ, Mr. DAVISof North Carolina,
Ms. N
ORTON, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. BAIRD, Mr. HIMES, Ms. TOKUDA, Mr.
P
ANETTA, Mr. MORELLE, Ms. SA´NCHEZ, Mrs. TORRESof California, Ms.
W
ILLIAMSof Georgia, Mr. VEASEY, Mr. CASTROof Texas, Mr. GOLDEN
of Maine, Mr. G
OLDMANof New York, Mr. DELUZIO, Ms. PETTERSEN,
Ms. S
TRICKLAND, Mr. VARGAS, Mr. KEATING, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr.
L
YNCH, Ms. B ROWN, Mr. C ASTEN, Mr. C ARBAJAL, Mr.
K
RISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. FROST, Mr. TAKANO, Mrs. MCBATH, Mr.
P
APPAS, Mr. LANDSMAN, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. SUOZZI, Mr. FALLON, Ms.
B
ARRAGA´N, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. VICENTEGONZALEZof Texas, Ms. DAVIDS
of Kansas, Mr. H
UDSON, and Ms. KAPTUR) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
A BILL
To award payments to employees of Air America who pro-
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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
2025’’. 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
provided direct and indirect support to the United 10
States Government from 1950 to 1976. 11
(2) The service and sacrifice of employees of 12
Air America included— 13
(A) suffering a high rate of casualties in 14
the course of service; 15
(B) saving thousands of lives in search and 16
rescue missions for downed United States air-17
men and allied refugee evacuations; and 18
(C) serving lengthy periods under chal-19
lenging circumstances abroad. 20
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 21
In this Act: 22
(1) A
FFILIATED COMPANY .—The term ‘‘affili-23
ated company’’, with respect to Air America, in-24
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cludes Air Asia Company Limited, CAT Incor-1
porated, Civil Air Transport Company Limited, and 2
the Pacific Division of Southern Air Transport. 3
(2) A
IR AMERICA.—The term ‘‘Air America’’ 4
means Air America, Incorporated. 5
(3) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -6
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-7
mittees’’ means— 8
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 9
and Governmental Affairs, the Select Com-10
mittee on Intelligence, and the Committee on 11
Appropriations of the Senate; and 12
(B) the Committee on Oversight and Ac-13
countability, the Permanent Select Committee 14
on Intelligence, and the Committee on Appro-15
priations of the House of Representatives. 16
(4) C
HILD; DEPENDENT; WIDOW; WIDOWER.— 17
The terms ‘‘child’’, ‘‘dependent’’, ‘‘widow’’, and 18
‘‘widower’’ have the meanings given those terms in 19
section 8341(a) of title 5, United States Code, ex-20
cept that section shall be applied by substituting 21
‘‘individual who performed qualifying service’’ for 22
‘‘employee or Member’’. 23
(5) C
OVERED DECEDENT .—The term ‘‘covered 24
decedent’’ means an individual who was killed in 25
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Southeast Asia while supporting operations of the 1
Central Intelligence Agency during the period begin-2
ning on January 1, 1950, and ending on December 3
31, 1976, as a United States citizen employee of Air 4
America or an affiliated company. 5
(6) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 6
the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. 7
(7) Q
UALIFYING SERVICE.—The term ‘‘quali-8
fying service’’ means service that— 9
(A) was performed by a United States cit-10
izen as an employee of Air America or an affili-11
ated company during the period beginning on 12
January 1, 1950, and ending on December 31, 13
1976; and 14
(B) is documented in— 15
(i) the corporate records of Air Amer-16
ica or an affiliated company; 17
(ii) records possessed by the United 18
States Government; or 19
(iii) the personal records of a former 20
employee of Air America or an affiliated 21
company that are verified by the United 22
States Government. 23
(8) S
URVIVOR.—The term ‘‘survivor’’means— 24
(A) the widow or widower of— 25
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(i) an individual who performed quali-1
fying service; or 2
(ii) a covered decedent; or 3
(B) an individual who, at any time during 4
or since the period of qualifying service, or on 5
the date of death of a covered decedent, was a 6
dependent or child of— 7
(i) the individual who performed such 8
qualifying service; or 9
(ii) the covered decedent. 10
SEC. 4. AWARD AUTHORIZED TO ELIGIBLE PERSONS. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subject to the limitation in sub-12
section (d), the Director shall provide an award payment 13
of $40,000 under this section— 14
(1) to an individual who performed qualifying 15
service for a period of greater than or equal to 5 16
years or to a survivor of such individual; or 17
(2) to the survivor of a covered decedent. 18
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS.— 19
(1) I
N GENERAL.—To be eligible for a payment 20
under this subsection, an individual who performed 21
qualifying service or survivor (as the case may be) 22
must demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Director 23
that the individual whose qualifying service upon 24
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which the payment is based meets the criteria of 1
paragraph (1) or (2) of subsection (a). 2
(2) R
ELIANCE ON RECORDS .—In carrying out 3
this subsection, in addition to any evidence provided 4
by such an individual or survivor, the Director may 5
rely on records possessed by the United States Gov-6
ernment. 7
(c) A
DDITIONALPAYMENT.—If an individual, or in 8
the case of a survivor, the individual whose qualifying 9
service upon which the payment is based, can demonstrate 10
to the Director that the qualifying service of the individual 11
exceeded 5 years, the Director shall pay to such individual 12
or survivor an additional $8,000 for each full year in ex-13
cess of 5 years (and a proportionate amount for a partial 14
year). 15
(d) S
URVIVORS.—In the case of an award granted to 16
a survivor under this section, the payment shall be made— 17
(1) to the surviving widow or widower; or 18
(2) if there is no surviving widow or widower, 19
to the surviving dependent or child, in equal shares. 20
SEC. 5. FUNDING LIMITATION. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The total amount of awards 22
granted under this Act may not exceed $60,000,000. 23
(b) R
EQUESTS FORADDITIONALFUNDS.—If, at the 24
determination of the Director, the amount of funds re-25
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quired to satisfy all valid applications for payment under 1
this Act exceeds the limitation set forth in subsection (a), 2
the Director shall submit to Congress a request for suffi-3
cient funds to fulfill all remaining payments. 4
(c) A
WARDS TOEMPLOYEES OF INTERMOUNTAIN 5
A
VIATION.—The Director may determine, on a case-by- 6
case basis, to award amounts to individuals who performed 7
service consistent with the definition of qualifying service 8
as employees of Intermountain Aviation. 9
SEC. 6. TIME LIMITATION. 10
(a) I
NGENERAL.—To be eligible for an award pay-11
ment under this Act, a claimant must file a claim for such 12
payment with the Director not later than 2 years after 13
the effective date of the regulations prescribed by the Di-14
rector in accordance with section 7. 15
(b) D
ETERMINATION.—Not later than 90 days after 16
receiving a claim for an award payment under this section, 17
the Director shall determine the eligibility of the claimant 18
for payment. 19
(c) P
AYMENT.— 20
(1) I
N GENERAL.—If the Director determines 21
that the claimant is eligible for the award payment, 22
the Director shall pay the award payment not later 23
than 60 days after the date of such determination. 24
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(2) LUMP-SUM PAYMENT.—The Director shall 1
issue each payment as a one-time lump sum pay-2
ment contingent upon the timely filing of the claim-3
ant under this section. 4
(3) N
OTICE AND DELAYS.—The Director shall 5
notify the appropriate congressional committees of 6
any delays in making an award payment not later 7
than 30 days after the date such payment is due. 8
SEC. 7. APPLICATION PROCEDURES. 9
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Director shall prescribe pro-10
cedures to carry out this Act, which shall include processes 11
under which— 12
(1) claimants may submit claims for payment 13
under this Act; 14
(2) the Director will award the amounts under 15
section 4; and 16
(3) claimants can obtain redress and appeal de-17
terminations under section 6. 18
(b) O
THERMATTERS.—Such procedures— 19
(1) shall be— 20
(A) prescribed not later than 60 days after 21
the date of the enactment of this Act; and 22
(B) published in the Code of Federal Reg-23
ulations; and 24
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(2) shall not be subject to chapter 5 of title 5, 1
United States Code. 2
SEC. 8. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 3
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to— 4
(1) entitle any person to Federal benefits, in-5
cluding retirement benefits under chapter 83 or 84 6
of title 5, United States Code, and disability or 7
death benefits under chapter 81 of such title; 8
(2) change the legal status of the former Air 9
America corporation or any affiliated company; or 10
(3) create any legal rights, benefits, or entitle-11
ments beyond the one-time award authorized by this 12
Act. 13
SEC. 9. ATTORNEYS’ AND AGENTS’ FEES. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for more than 15
25 percent of an award paid pursuant to this Act to be 16
paid to, or received by, any agent or attorney for any serv-17
ice rendered to a person who receives an award under sec-18
tion 4, in connection with the award under this Act. 19
(b) V
IOLATION.—Any agent or attorney who violates 20
subsection (a) shall be fined under title 18, United States 21
Code. 22
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SEC. 10. NO JUDICIAL REVIEW. 1
A determination by the Director pursuant to this Act 2
is final and conclusive and shall not be subject to judicial 3
review. 4
SEC. 11. REPORTS TO CONGRESS. 5
Until the date that all funds available for awards 6
under this Act are expended, the Director shall submit to 7
the appropriate congressional committees a semiannual re-8
port describing the numbers of award payments made and 9
denied during the 180 days preceding the submission of 10
the report, including the rationales for any denials, and 11
if, at the determination of the Director, the amount of 12
funds provided to carry out this Act are insufficient to 13
satisfy any remaining or anticipated claims. 14
Æ
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