[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3299 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3299

 To provide that United States citizens evacuating Israel shall not be 
   required to reimburse the United States Government, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

            November 14 (legislative day, November 13), 2023

  Mrs. Blackburn (for herself and Ms. Rosen) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign 
                               Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide that United States citizens evacuating Israel shall not be 
   required to reimburse the United States Government, and for other 
                               purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Saving Americans in Foreign 
Evacuations (SAFE) Act''.

SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT TO PROVIDE FREE TRAVEL TO UNITED STATES CITIZENS 
              EVACUATING ISRAEL.

    Notwithstanding section 4(b)(2)(A)(ii) of the State Department 
Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2671(b)(2)(A)(ii)), private 
United States citizens and permanent resident aliens evacuating Israel 
in response to the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas and the resulting 
war and civil unrest shall not be required to reimburse the United 
States Government for travel organized by the Department of State 
during fiscal year 2024 pursuant to such section.

SEC. 3. REPORT.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to Congress 
a report examining the feasibility of expanding the reimbursement 
requirement under section (2) to future evacuations worldwide.
    (b) Elements.--The report required under subsection (a) shall 
include the following elements:
            (1) The estimated annual costs of providing cost-free 
        flights and other forms of transportation.
            (2) A description of the additional responsibilities the 
        Department would bear under such a requirement.
            (3) A description of additional authorities the Department 
        would need to under such a requirement.
            (4) A description of moral hazard issues that may arise 
        from such a requirement.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There is authorized to be appropriated $2,000,000 for fiscal year 
2024 for the Department of State to carry out activities under this 
Act.
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