I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 369 
To direct the Secretary of the Treasury to establish a program to reimburse 
States and political subdivisions of States for expenses related to the 
presence of aliens having no lawful immigration status, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 14, 2015 
Mrs. ELLMERS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To direct the Secretary of the Treasury to establish a pro-
gram to reimburse States and political subdivisions of 
States for expenses related to the presence of aliens 
having no lawful immigration status, and for other pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accountability in For-
eign Aid Act of 2015’’. 
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SEC. 2. REIMBURSEMENT FOR STATES AND POLITICAL 
SUBDIVISIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Treasury 
shall establish a program for the purpose of reimbursing 
States, and political subdivisions of States, for expenses 
required to be incurred and related to the presence within 
the geographical area of the State or political subdivision 
of aliens having no lawful immigration status in the 
United States. 
(b) EXPENSES DESCRIBED.—The expenses described 
in subsection (a) shall include expenses such as the fol-
lowing: 
(1) Public elementary and secondary education. 
(2) Incarceration and detention. 
(3) Public benefits described in section 411(b) 
of the Personal Responsibility and Work Oppor-
tunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 
1621(b)). 
(c) EXCEPTIONS.—Expenses are not reimbursable 
under this section if the Secretary of the Treasury deter-
mines that— 
(1) the State or political subdivision has failed 
to submit sufficient documents, statements, or 
records necessary to support the request for reim-
bursement; 
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(2) the State or political subdivision otherwise 
has been substantially compensated for the expenses; 
or 
(3) such compensation will be forthcoming in a 
reasonable period of time. 
(d) PUBLIC ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDU-
CATION.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Compensation for a local 
educational agency under subsection (b)(1) shall be 
based on— 
(A) the number of children having no law-
ful immigration status in the United States who 
were in average daily attendance during the 
preceding school year at the schools of such 
agency and for whom such agency provided a 
free public education; multiplied by 
(B) the average per-pupil expenditure of 
the State in which the local educational agency 
is located. 
(2) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub-
section, the terms ‘‘average daily attendance’’, ‘‘av-
erage per-pupil expenditure’’, ‘‘free public edu-
cation’’, and ‘‘local educational agency’’ have the 
meanings given such terms in section 9101 of the 
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Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 
(20 U.S.C. 7801). 
(e) INCARCERATION AND DETENTION.—Compensa-
tion under subsection (b)(2) shall be the average cost of 
incarceration of a prisoner in the relevant State, as deter-
mined by the Attorney General. 
(f) APPLICATIONS.— 
(1) STATE APPLICATIONS.—A State desiring to 
receive reimbursement for expenses required to be 
incurred by the State and related to the presence 
within the geographical area of the State of aliens 
having no lawful immigration status in the United 
States shall submit an application for such payment 
to the Secretary of the Treasury. Such application 
shall be submitted not later than September 30 of 
each year. 
(2) LOCAL APPLICATIONS.—A political subdivi-
sion of a State desiring to receive reimbursement for 
expenses required to be incurred by the political sub-
division and related to the presence within the geo-
graphical area of the political subdivision of aliens 
having no lawful immigration status in the United 
States shall submit an application for such payment 
to the State. Subject to verification (as determined 
necessary by the State), the State shall include such 
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local expenses in the State application submitted 
under paragraph (1). The Governor of the State 
shall establish deadlines for the submission of local 
applications under this paragraph, and shall dis-
tribute all funds received from the Secretary of the 
Treasury on behalf of a political subdivision of a 
State to the political subdivision. 
(g) INSUFFICIENT APPROPRIATIONS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—If the amount made avail-
able to carry out this section for a fiscal year is in-
sufficient to pay the full amount determined by the 
Secretary of the Treasury to be due to all States for 
the year, the Secretary shall ratably reduce the pay-
ment to each State. 
(2) RESUBMISSION.—If a State or political sub-
division of a State does not receive reimbursement 
for any expense due to a reduction made under 
paragraph (1), the State or political subdivision may 
resubmit documentation for the succeeding fiscal 
year demonstrating the validity of the claimed 
amount and that the amount has not yet been reim-
bursed from any other source. 
(h) CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out this section, 
the Secretary of the Treasury shall not— 
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(A) make any publication whereby the in-
formation furnished by any particular alien can 
be identified; or 
(B) permit anyone other than the sworn 
officers and employees of the Department of the 
Treasury to examine individually identifiable in-
formation. 
(2) IMMIGRATION OFFICIALS.—Except as pro-
vided in this subsection, the Secretary of Homeland 
Security, the Attorney General, the Secretary of 
State, any other official or employee of the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security, the Department of Jus-
tice, or the Department of State, or any bureau or 
agency thereof, shall not use information collected or 
furnished in support of requests for reimbursement 
under this section for any purpose. 
(3) REQUIRED
DISCLOSURES.—The Secretary 
of the Treasury shall provide the information fur-
nished under this section, and any other information 
derived from such furnished information, to a duly 
recognized law enforcement entity in connection with 
a criminal investigation or prosecution of fraud or 
other malfeasance under this section, when such in-
formation is requested in writing by such entity. 
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(i) VERIFICATION
OF
IMMIGRATION
STATUS
OF 
ALIENS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 
when used for purposes of establishing or demonstrating 
eligibility for reimbursement under this section, the head 
of each State or local public agency that incurs costs in 
connection with a benefit or service provided to an alien 
may use the immigration status verification system of 
such agency or the Systematic Alien Verification For Enti-
tlements Program (SAVE) of the Department of Home-
land Security to determine the immigration status of such 
alien. 
SEC. 3. TRANSFER OF FUNDS. 
15 percent of any discretionary amounts made avail-
able for each of fiscal years 2017 through 2022 for the 
Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related 
Programs (other than amounts made available for ‘‘Bilat-
eral Economic Assistance—Funds Appropriated to the 
President—Global Health Programs’’ and ‘‘Department 
of State—Nonproliferation, Anti-Terrorism, Demining 
and Related Programs’’) for foreign assistance shall be 
made available to the Secretary of the Treasury to carry 
out section 2 of this Act for a 90-day period beginning 
on the date of the enactment of each Act appropriating 
such amounts. 
Æ 
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