[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1836 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1836

To establish appropriate procedures and sanctions to ensure that unpaid 
parking fines and penalties owed to New York City by foreign countries 
                               are paid.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 11, 2011

Mr. Grimm (for himself, Mr. Towns, and Mr. King of New York) introduced 
  the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
                                Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To establish appropriate procedures and sanctions to ensure that unpaid 
parking fines and penalties owed to New York City by foreign countries 
                               are paid.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) The City of New York is host to the diplomatic 
        representatives of 289 missions and consulates of foreign 
        countries located in the city.
            (2) Foreign diplomats in New York City incurred more than 
        $17.2 million dollars in fines and penalties on parking tickets 
        issued by the municipality.
            (3) Many of the parking fines were issued due to safety 
        violations, including the blocking of fire hydrants, which put 
        lives of residents of the city in danger.
            (4) The legal doctrine of diplomatic immunity prohibits the 
        imposition of traditional sanctions to ensure payment of such 
        parking fines.
            (5) Section 545 of the Foreign Operations, Export 
        Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2002 
        (Public Law 107-115) provided that ``an amount equivalent to 
        110 percent of the total unpaid fully adjudicated parking fines 
        and penalties owed to the District of Columbia and New York 
        City, New York by such country as of the date of the enactment 
        of this Act that were incurred after the first day of the 
        fiscal year preceding the current fiscal year shall be withheld 
        from obligation for such country until the Secretary of State 
        certifies and reports in writing to the appropriate 
        congressional committees that such fines and penalties are 
        fully paid to the governments of the District of Columbia and 
        New York City, New York''.
    (b) Purpose.--It is the purpose of this Act to establish 
appropriate procedures and sanctions to ensure that parking fines and 
penalties incurred in New York, New York, by foreign countries are 
paid.

SEC. 2. SANCTIONS.

    (a) In General.--Whenever a foreign country owes to New York, New 
York, unpaid fully adjudicated parking fines and penalties as of 
September 15 of each year, and until the Secretary of State receives 
certification that such fines and penalties have been paid--
            (1) the Secretary of State shall deny the issuance or 
        renewal of any diplomatic license plates for vehicles for that 
        country;
            (2) notwithstanding any other provision of law, the 
        Secretary of State shall withhold from obligation funds 
        available for that country under part I of the Foreign 
        Assistance Act of 1961; and
            (3) notwithstanding any other provision of law, unobligated 
        funds available for that country under part I of the Foreign 
        Assistance Act of 1961 are authorized to be reappropriated to 
        pay any fully adjudicated parking fines and penalties owed by 
        that country to New York, New York.
    (b) Standard for Determination.--For the purposes of this Act, the 
term ``fully adjudicated'' includes circumstances in which the 
registrant has not responded to the parking violation summons or has 
not followed the appropriate adjudication procedure to challenge the 
summons and the period of time for payment or challenge of the summons 
has lapsed.
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