§1733 Interagency Hostage Recovery Coordinator

Summary

The President must pick an existing federal official within 60 days after November 25, 2015 and give them the title "Interagency Hostage Recovery Coordinator." That person must lead and organize the federal effort to free U.S. citizens taken hostage abroad. They must make sure agencies work together, that the right people and money are assigned, chair a joint team of federal staff (a "fusion cell"), set rules for decisions and appeals, and keep hostage families informed in ways that do not harm U.S. national security. The Coordinator must also work with the government’s family engagement representative. Every quarter the Coordinator must send a report to the appropriate congressional committees summarizing each hostage case (classified or unclassified) and give a quarterly briefing to the U.S. Senator from the hostage’s State and the House Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner for the hostage’s district. "Appropriate congressional committees" means the House committees on Armed Services, the Judiciary, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Foreign Affairs; and the Senate committees on Armed Services, the Judiciary, the Select Committee on Intelligence, and Foreign Relations.