I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 445
To establish trust funds relating to border security, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY15, 2025
Mr. M
ORAN(for himself, Mr. ELLZEY, Mr. SELF, Mr. BABIN, Mr. GOODEN,
Mr. N
EHLS, and Mr. WEBERof Texas) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security, and in addi-
tion to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To establish trust funds relating to border security, 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 ‘‘Border Security In-4
vestment Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF TRUST FUNDS RELATING TO 6
BORDER SECURITY. 7
(a) A
DDITIONALREMITTANCETRANSFERFEES.— 8
Section 920 of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (relating 9
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•HR 445 IH
to remittance transfers) (15 U.S.C. 1693o–1) is amend-1
ed— 2
(1) by redesignating subsection (g) as sub-3
section (h); and 4
(2) by inserting after subsection (f) the fol-5
lowing: 6
‘‘(g) A
DDITIONALREMITTANCEFEES.— 7
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A remittance transfer pro-8
vider that is a money services business shall impose 9
a fee on each person sending a remittance transfer 10
to a covered country in an amount equal to 37 per-11
cent of the remittance transfer amount. 12
‘‘(2) T
RANSFER OF FEES .—All fees collected 13
under this subsection shall be submitted to the De-14
partment of the Treasury for deposit in the general 15
fund, in such form and in such manner as the Sec-16
retary of the Treasury shall establish by rule. 17
‘‘(3) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 18
‘‘(A) C
OVERED COUNTRY .—With respect 19
to a fiscal year, the term ‘covered country’ 20
means each country identified by the Commis-21
sioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection 22
as one of the 5 countries that had the most citi-23
zens or nationals unlawfully enter the United 24
States during the previous fiscal year. 25
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‘‘(B) MONEY SERVICES BUSINESS .—The 1
term ‘money services business’ has the meaning 2
given that term under section 1010.100 of title 3
31, Code of Federal Regulations.’’. 4
(b) B
ORDERSECURITYSTATEREIMBURSEMENT 5
T
RUSTFUND.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—There is established in the 7
Treasury a trust fund, to be known as the ‘‘Border 8
Security State Reimbursement Trust Fund’’ (in this 9
section referred to as the ‘‘Reimbursement Fund’’), 10
consisting of amounts transferred under paragraph 11
(2) and any amounts credited under paragraph (3). 12
(2) T
RANSFER.—In the fiscal year that begins 13
immediately after the date of the enactment of this 14
Act and each fiscal year thereafter, the Secretary of 15
the Treasury shall transfer to the Reimbursement 16
Fund, from the general fund of the Treasury, an 17
amount equal to fifty percent of the total amount of 18
remittance fees collected under subsection (g)(2) of 19
section 920 of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (re-20
lating to remittance transfers; 15 U.S.C. 1693o–1) 21
during the immediately preceding fiscal year. 22
(3) I
NVESTMENT OF AMOUNTS .— 23
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of the 24
Treasury shall invest such portion of the Reim-25
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•HR 445 IH
bursement Fund as is not required to meet cur-1
rent withdrawals in interest-bearing obligations 2
of the United States or in obligations guaran-3
teed as to both principal and interest by the 4
United States. 5
(B) I
NTEREST AND PROCEEDS .—The in-6
terest on, and the proceeds from the sale or re-7
demption of, any obligations held in the Reim-8
bursement Fund shall be credited to the Reim-9
bursement Fund. 10
(4) P
URPOSE; APPLICATION.— 11
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Amounts in the Reim-12
bursement Fund shall be available to the Sec-13
retary of Homeland Security, without further 14
appropriation, to reimburse border States for 15
expenditures incurred by such States relating to 16
border security enforcement measures. 17
(B) A
PPLICATION.—Not later than 30 18
days after the date of the enactment of this 19
Act, a border State may apply to the Secretary 20
to receive amounts from the Reimbursement 21
Fund by submitting receipts, in such form and 22
manner as the Secretary deems appropriate, of 23
expenditures relating to border security enforce-24
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•HR 445 IH
ment measures made during the immediately 1
preceding fiscal year. 2
(C) A
MOUNT.—The Secretary shall 3
promptly distribute from the Reimbursement 4
Fund, to any border State that submits an ap-5
plication under subparagraph (B), an amount 6
equal to the proportion that the amount ex-7
pended by such a border State in the applicable 8
immediately preceding fiscal year bears to the 9
total amount expended in such fiscal year by all 10
such border States so submitting an applica-11
tion. 12
(D) B
ORDER SECURITY ENFORCEMENT 13
MEASURES.—In this subparagraph, an expendi-14
ture by a border State shall be deemed to be re-15
lated to border security enforcement measures 16
if that expenditure directly or indirectly was 17
used for the mission of deterring unlawful 18
crossings, detecting unlawful activity and entry 19
into the United States, or for gaining oper-20
ational control of the southwest border. 21
(c) B
ORDERSECURITYTRUSTFUND.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—There is established in the 23
Treasury a trust fund, to be known as the ‘‘Border 24
Security Trust Fund’’ (in this section referred to as 25
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•HR 445 IH
the ‘‘Security Fund’’), consisting of amounts trans-1
ferred under paragraph (2) and any amounts cred-2
ited under paragraph (3). 3
(2) T
RANSFERS.—In the fiscal year that begins 4
immediately after the date of the enactment of this 5
Act and each fiscal year thereafter, the Secretary of 6
the Treasury shall transfer to the Security Fund, 7
from the general fund of the Treasury, an amount 8
equal to fifty percent of the total amount of remit-9
tance fees collected under subsection (g)(2) of sec-10
tion 920 of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (relat-11
ing to remittance transfers; 15 U.S.C. 1693o–1) 12
during the immediately preceding fiscal year. 13
(3) I
NVESTMENT OF AMOUNTS .— 14
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of the 15
Treasury shall invest such portion of the Secu-16
rity Fund as is not required to meet current 17
withdrawals in interest-bearing obligations of 18
the United States or in obligations guaranteed 19
as to both principal and interest by the United 20
States. 21
(B) I
NTEREST AND PROCEEDS .—The in-22
terest on, and the proceeds from the sale or re-23
demption of, any obligations held in the Secu-24
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•HR 445 IH
rity Fund shall be credited to the Security 1
Fund. 2
(4) P
URPOSES.—Amounts in the Security Fund 3
shall be available to the Secretary of Homeland Se-4
curity, without further appropriation, for the fol-5
lowing purposes: 6
(A) The deployment of technology intended 7
to detect and prevent unlawful crossings along 8
the United States-Mexico border. 9
(B) The installation of physical barriers at 10
the southern border. 11
(C) Wages and salaries for U.S. Border 12
Patrol agents. 13
(d) R
ESCISSION OFEXCESSAMOUNTS.—If the sum 14
of the total funds in each of the Reimbursement Fund and 15
the Security Fund is greater than $50,000,000,000, an 16
amount equal to the funds in excess of $50,000,000,000 17
shall be— 18
(1) permanently rescinded from such total 19
funds; and 20
(2) deposited in the general fund of the Treas-21
ury where such funds shall be— 22
(A) dedicated for the sole purpose of def-23
icit reduction; and 24
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(B) prohibited from use as an offset for 1
other spending increases or revenue reductions. 2
(e) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—This Act and the amendment 3
made by this Act shall take effect and apply not later than 4
30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act. 5
Æ
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