Bill Details
S.566 - 119th Congress
Status
Latest action
2025-02-13 - Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Introduced Date
2025-02-13
Policy Area
Emergency Management
Committees
View committees (1)
Cosponsors
8
0
0
AI Summary This summary was generated by AI from the bill text. AI can get information wrong.
This bill would make it easier for people who lose important documents in a major disaster to replace them without paying certain fees. If a disaster is serious enough to qualify for federal help for individuals and households, the President would be required to automatically waive fees for replacing critical documents, such as passports and other key papers, for people whose documents were destroyed. The bill also says the State Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services must clearly post information about these fee waivers, and both agencies must report each year to Congress on how many waivers they gave and how much they cost.
- The fee waiver would apply only after a major disaster that is officially declared and that also allows federal individual and household disaster assistance.
- The President would have to act in consultation with the governor of the affected state.
- The State Department and USCIS would be required to make the waiver information easy to find on their websites.
- Both agencies would send yearly reports to Congress showing the number of waivers given and the cost of the program.
Official Summaries
No summaries available
Current Full Text
[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 566 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 566
To amend the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 to require the
President to automatically waive certain critical document fees for
individuals and households affected by major disasters for which
assistance is provided under the Individuals and Households Program.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 13, 2025
Mr. Hickenlooper (for himself, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Bennet, and Mr.
Curtis) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 to require the
President to automatically waive certain critical document fees for
individuals and households affected by major disasters for which
assistance is provided under the Individuals and Households Program.
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 ``Replacing Essential Passports and
Licenses After Certain Emergencies Act'' or the ``REPLACE Act''.
SEC. 2. CRITICAL DOCUMENT FEE WAIVER.
Section 1238(a) of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 (42
U.S.C. 5174b) is amended--
(1) in paragraph (2), by striking ``applies regardless''
and inserting ``and the requirement of the President to waive
fees under paragraph (4) apply regardless'';
(2) by redesignating paragraph (4) as paragraph (8); and
(3) by inserting after paragraph (3) the following:
``(4) Waiver.--The President, in consultation with the
Governor of a State, shall provide a fee waiver described in
paragraph (1) to any individual or household that has been
adversely affected by a major disaster declared under section
401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency
Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170)--
``(A) for which the President provides assistance
to individuals and households under section 408 of that
Act (42 U.S.C. 5174); and
``(B) that destroyed a critical document described
in paragraph (1) of the individual or household.
``(5) Waiver availability.--The Secretary of State and the
Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration
Services shall make publicly available on the website of the
Department of State and the United States Citizenship and
Immigration Services, respectively, a notice of the
availability of fee waivers described in paragraph (4).
``(6) Report from uscis.--Not later than 1 year after the
date of enactment of this paragraph, and every year thereafter,
the Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration
Services shall submit to Congress a report that includes, for
the period covered by the report--
``(A) the number of fee waivers granted under this
subsection; and
``(B) the cost to the United States Citizenship and
Immigration Services of granting fee waivers under this
subsection.
``(7) Report from department of state.--Not later than 1
year after the date of enactment of this paragraph, and every
year thereafter, the Secretary of State shall submit to
Congress a report that includes, for the period covered by the
report--
``(A) the number of fee waivers granted under this
subsection; and
``(B) the cost to the Department of State of
granting fee waivers under this subsection.''.
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