“To amend the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 to establish a repatriation grant program.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section revises the emergency expenditures authority in the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2671) as follows: (1) in evacuation assistance for those endangered by war, civil unrest, or natural disaster, expands eligibility from private U.S. citizens or third-country nationals to also include lawful permanent residents and converts assistance from a reimbursable basis (with repayments credited to appropriations and capped at commercial airfare rates) to grants to the maximum extent practicable; (2) converts repatriation assistance for destitute persons abroad from loans to grants and expands eligibility from U.S. citizens to also include lawful permanent residents; and (3) revises administrative provisions in subsection (d) to replace loan-related terms (e.g., borrower, loan agreement) with grant-related terms (e.g., grantee, grant agreement), strikes paragraphs (3) through (11), and directs the Secretary of State to update the "Repatriation Loans" section of the Foreign Affairs Manual. (Thus, repatriation assistance—previously requiring repayment—becomes non-repayable for eligible U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.)