Warren Weinstein Hostage Rescue Act

Warren Weinstein Hostage Rescue Act

This bill amends the National Security Act of 1947 to establish: (1) the Committee on Hostage Recovery within the National Security Council (NSC), and (2) the Interagency Fusion Cell on Hostage Recovery which shall execute the Committee's hostage retrieval strategies.

The Committee's functions shall include:

• coordinating retrieval of U.S. hostages among federal departments and agencies and among the United States and its allies;
• coordinating with the Interagency Fusion Cell on Hostage Recovery;
• developing hostage retrieval strategies and guidelines;
• developing information sharing policies and procedures; and
• developing a strategy to keep family members of U.S. hostages informed, and policies that do not compromise U.S. national security.

It is the sense of Congress that the President should appoint a Special Advisor on Hostage Affairs who: (1) serves as the chair of the NSC Committee on Hostage Recovery; (2) has extensive foreign policy, counterterrorism, and hostage recovery experience; and; (3) serves (or the designee of the Special Advisor serves) as a primary liaison between the federal government and the family of a U.S. hostage.

Nothing in this Act shall be construed as authorizing the federal government to negotiate with a state sponsor of terrorism or a foreign terrorist organization.