I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1498 
To direct the President to designate an existing Federal officer to coordinate 
efforts to secure the release of United States citizens who are hostages 
of hostile groups or state sponsors of terrorism, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 19, 2015 
Mr. HUNTER (for himself, Mr. ZINKE, Mr. LYNCH, Mr. GOSAR, Mr. NUGENT, 
Mr. COOK, Mr. RIGELL, Mr. GUINTA, and Mr. PERRY) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To direct the President to designate an existing Federal 
officer to coordinate efforts to secure the release of 
United States citizens who are hostages of hostile groups 
or state sponsors of terrorism, and for other purposes. 
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 ‘‘Hostage Recovery Im-
provement Act’’. 
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SEC. 
2. 
INTERAGENCY 
HOSTAGE 
RECOVERY 
COORDI-
NATOR. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall des-
ignate an existing Federal officer to coordinate efforts to 
secure the release of United States citizens who are hos-
tages of hostile groups or state sponsors of terrorism. For 
purposes of carrying out the duties described in subsection 
(b), such officer shall have the title of ‘‘Interagency Hos-
tage Recovery Coordinator’’. 
(b) DUTIES.—The Coordinator shall have the fol-
lowing duties: 
(1) Coordinate and direct all activities of the 
Federal Government relating to each hostage situa-
tion described in subsection (a) to ensure efforts to 
secure the release of all hostages in the hostage situ-
ation are properly resourced and correct lines of au-
thority are established and maintained. 
(2) Establish a task force consisting of appro-
priate personnel of the Federal Government with re-
spect to each hostage situation described in sub-
section (a). 
SEC. 3. QUARTERLY REPORT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Coordinator shall submit to 
Congress a quarterly report on each hostage situation de-
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scribed in section 2(a) and efforts to secure the release 
of all hostages in such hostage situation. 
(b) FORM.—The report required by subsection (a) 
shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may contain 
a classified annex if necessary. 
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that the Coordinator 
should develop and pursue an entire range of options with 
respect to each hostage situation described in section 2(a), 
including kinetic and non-kinetic options. 
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) COORDINATOR.—The term ‘‘Coordinator’’ 
means the Interagency Hostage Recovery Coordi-
nator designated under section 1(a). 
(2) 
HOSTILE
GROUP.—The 
term 
‘‘hostile 
group’’ means— 
(A) a group that is designated as a foreign 
terrorist organization under section 219(a) of 
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1189(a)); 
(B) a group that is engaged in armed con-
flict with the United States; or 
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(C) any other group that the President de-
termines to be a hostile group for purposes of 
this paragraph. 
(3) STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM.—The term 
‘‘state sponsor of terrorism’’— 
(A) means a country the government of 
which the Secretary of State has determined, 
for purposes of section 6(j) of the Export Ad-
ministration Act of 1979, section 620A of the 
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, section 40 of 
the Arms Export Control Act, or any other pro-
vision of law, to be a government that has re-
peatedly provided support for acts of inter-
national terrorism; and 
(B) includes North Korea. 
Æ 
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