I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 3321
To authorize the Secretary of Commerce to make grants to States for
advertising that stimulates economic activity by promoting travel and tourism.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER 16, 2001
Mr. FOLEY (for himself, Mr. FARR of California, Mrs. BONO, Mrs. CAPITO,
Ms. BERKLEY, Mrs. CHRISTENSEN, and Mr. GILMAN) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Com-
merce
A BILL
To authorize the Secretary of Commerce to make grants
to States for advertising that stimulates economic activ-
ity by promoting travel and tourism.
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 ‘‘American Travel Pro-
motion Act of 2001’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001, combined with an already weak economy, hit
the travel and tourism industry particularly hard.
(2) In the fourth quarter of 2001, forecasting
predicted a 12-percent decrease in business travel
and a 9-percent drop in pleasure travel, compared
with the same period in 2000.
(3) In 2000, the United States travel industry
took in $584.3 billion from domestic and inter-
national travelers. These travel expenditures, in
turn, generated 7.8 million jobs for Americans, with
$173.7 billion in payroll income, and $100 billion in
tax revenues for Federal, State, and local govern-
ments.
(4) A $43 billion decline in spending by domes-
tic and international travelers is projected for 2001.
(5) During 2002, total domestic travel volume
by Americans is expected to decline by 3.5 percent
and international arrivals are projected to decline
nearly 13 percent.
(6) Total domestic and international travel-gen-
erated employment is expected to show a dramatic
decline in 2001. The 2-year job loss for 2001–2002
is projected to total 527,400 jobs lost, compared to
2000 levels.
SEC. 3. TRAVEL AND TOURISM PROMOTION GRANTS.
(a) GRANT AUTHORITY.—The Secretary of Com-
merce shall provide as a grant to the qualified agency of
each State the amount allocated to the State under sub-
section (c), for use by such agency for advertising to pro-
mote travel and tourism.
(b) COST SHARING.—The Federal share of the cost
of an activity carried out with a grant under this section
shall not exceed 50 percent.
(c) ALLOCATION.—
(1) IN
GENERAL.—From the total amount
available for grants under this section, the Secretary
shall allocate to each State an amount that the Sec-
retary determines bears the same proportion to such
total amount available as the amount expended by
the State in 2000 for advertising to promote travel
and tourism bears to the aggregate of the amounts
of such expenditures by all States.
(2) MINIMUM
ALLOCATION.—Notwithstanding
paragraph (1), the Secretary shall allocate to each
State not less than 0.1 percent of the total amount
available for such grants.
(d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
(1) ADVERTISING—The term ‘‘advertising’’
means any communication, by any form of print, tel-
evision, radio, Internet, or other media, that is in-
tended to persuade, inform, recommend, or notify
any individual or group of individuals.
(2) QUALIFIED AGENCY.—The term ‘‘qualified
agency’’ means the State agency having authority
under State law to conduct programs to promote
travel and tourism.
(3) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means—
(A) any State of the United States;
(B) American Samoa, Guam, the Northern
Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin
Islands; and
(C) any other commonwealth, territory, or
possession of the United States, or separate
sovereign in free association with the United
States.
(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—For grants under this sec-
tion there is authorized to be appropriated to the
Secretary $100,000,000.
(2) REVERSION OF UNOBLIGATED AMOUNTS.—
There shall revert to the Treasury all amounts ap-
propriated under this section that remain unex-
pended and unobligated upon the expiration of the
9-month period beginning on the date the amounts
are first available for expenditure.
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