S. 2318 (112th): Department of State Rewards Program Update and Technical Corrections Act of 2012

Introduced:
Apr 19, 2012 (112th Congress, 2011–2013)
Sponsor:
Sen. John Kerry [D-MA]
Status:
Signed by the President
Slip Law:
This bill became Pub.L. 112-283.

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. S. stands for Senate bill.

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Status

This bill was enacted after being signed by the President on January 14, 2013.

Progress
Introduced Apr 19, 2012
Referred to Committee Apr 19, 2012
Reported by Committee Sep 19, 2012
Passed Senate Dec 19, 2012
Passed House Jan 01, 2013
Signed by the President Jan 14, 2013
Cosponsors
8 cosponsors (5D, 3R) (show)
Committees

House Foreign Affairs

Senate Foreign Relations

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

A bill to authorize the Secretary of State to pay a reward to combat transnational organized crime and for information concerning foreign nationals wanted by international criminal tribunals, and for other purposes.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

Read Bill Text »

Last updated Jan 02, 2013.
4 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

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GovTrack’s Bill Summary

We don’t have a summary available yet.

Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

1/1/2013.
Section 2 -
Expresses the sense of Congress that the Department of State rewards program should be expanded to: (1) address the threat to U.S. interests from transnational criminal activity, such as intellectual property rights piracy, money laundering, trafficking in persons, arms trafficking, and cyber crime; and (2) target individuals indicted by international, hybrid, or mixed tribunals for genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity.
Section 3 -
Amends the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 to include in the program's purpose the prevention of acts of transnational organized crime and violations of international humanitarian law.
Authorizes the Secretary of State to issue rewards for information leading to:
(1) the arrest or conviction in any country of any individual for participating in, primarily outside the United States, transnational organized crime;
(2) the arrest or conviction in any country of any individual conspiring to participate in or attempting to participate in transnational organized crime; or
(3) the arrest or conviction in any country, or the transfer to or conviction by an international criminal tribunal, of any foreign national accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide.
Directs the Secretary to notify Congress at least 15 days before announcing a reward for a foreign national accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide.
Section 4 -
Eliminates program references to the reward for the capture or death of Osama bin Laden.
Section 5 -
States that nothing in this Act shall be construed as authorizing the use of activity precluded under the American Servicemembers' Protection Act of 2002.
Section 6 -
States that the Secretary shall use amounts available to the Department's Emergencies in the Diplomatic and Consular Services account to pay rewards authorized pursuant to this Act and to carry out other related activities.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/112/2/s2318.

Background

According to Senate Report 112-232, “S. 2318, the Department of State Rewards Program Update and Technical Corrections Act of 2012, expands the existing authority of the Secretary of State to issue rewards for information leading to the arrest or conviction of persons accused of committing certain crimes. Under current law, the Secretary is authorized to issue rewards for information related to terrorism, narcotics trafficking, and for information leading to the arrest or conviction of persons indicted for serious violations of international humanitarian law by three specified international tribunals: the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR', all of which are now winding down their activities. The origins of these programs date back to 1984 when, at the request of the Reagan administration, Congress passed the Act to Combat International Terrorism.”

Summary

S. 2318 would authorize the State Department to offer rewards for the arrest or conviction of participants in transnational organized crime, or (after notice to Congress) foreign nationals accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide. The bill would all the State Department to make payments for information that would prevent or disrupt transnational organized crime or lead to the arrest or conviction of persons involved in war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide.

Under the bill, the State Department would be required to consult as is appropriate with relevant agencies or departments, rather than solely with the attorney general, as is the case under current law. The department must notify Congress at least 15 days before announcing the availability of new rewards, and must explain why the arrest or conviction of such foreign national is in the interests of the United States. The legislation would also strike a specific authorization in current law that provides for a reward for bin Laden.

The bill would clarify that nothing in the legislation shall be construed as authorizing the use of activity that is otherwise precluded by the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act of 2002. That law protects U.S. military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the federal government against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which the U.S. is not party.

Cost

CBO estimates that implementing the bill would have discretionary costs of $10 million over the 2013-2017 period, assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts.

Pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply to this legislation because it would not affect direct spending or revenues.

S. 2318 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.

Estimated cost to the Federal Government: The estimated budgetary impact of S. 2318 is shown in the following table. The costs of this legislation fall within budget function 150 (international affairs).

House Democratic Caucus Summary

The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.

So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.

We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.

The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

Slip Laws

Slip laws refer to enacted bills and joint resolutions in their original form as enacted by Congress, that is, before other laws amend them. Slip laws are cited as “Public Law XXX-YYY”, where XXX is the number of the Congress in which the bill or resolution was introduced.

  • Public Law 107-206

United States Code

The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)