Reforms and modernizes the outdated 1887 Electoral Count Act, ensuring that electoral votes tallied by Congress accurately reflect each state’s public vote for U.S. President. This provision, passed in the FY23 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, replaces ambiguous provisions of the 19th-century law with clear procedures that maintain appropriate state and federal roles in selecting the President and Vice President of the United States.
Key provisions from this act were passed in a supplemental appropriations act in late July of 2021, shortly before the withdrawal from Afghanistan unfolded. It was one of the most bipartisan acts to pass Congress in recent years. The act waives a requirement that SIV applicants must receive a medical screening in Afghanistan, and allows individuals to instead receive one in the United States. This helps cut red tape and expedite the SIV application process for vulnerable Afghan allies. Additionally, the bill appropriates $500 million to evacuate Afghan allies ahead of the U.S. troop withdrawal, $600 million to the State Department for refugee and migration assistance, and $25 million to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement for the Special Immigrant Visa program.
This act passed alongside the HOPE Act and increases the total number of available Special Immigrant Visas for Afghan nationals by 8,000 – thereby raising the total available visas by over 30%.
Provides crucial resettlement assistance to Afghan evacuees. This assistance is necessary because due to the rushed nature of the Afghan evacuation, many Afghans came to the U.S. under a program called ‘humanitarian parole,’ rendering them ineligible for the assistance that they would have received had they arrived as refugees or SIVs.
This provision was included in the FY22 National Defense Authorization Act directs the Department of Defense and the Department of State to submit a joint report on the use of the Synchronized Predeployment and Operational Tracker (SPOT) database to identify Afghans eligible for Special Immigrant Visas. The SPOT database is a government contracting database that helps verify Afghan contractors who are eligible for SIVs. The rapid collapse of the Afghan government and a lack of U.S. consular presence has exacerbated the problem of identifying SIV eligible Afghans; this legislation helps address this issue.
Creates a non-partisan, independent commission to conduct a comprehensive examination of the war in Afghanistan and then produce a public, and unclassified report with actionable recommendations to ensure the U.S. learns from our experience in Afghanistan, and is prepared for future conflicts. As partisan recriminations have swirled in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, no serious, objective examination of the nearly 20 years war has occurred; this Commission, based on the 9/11 Commission, will fix that.
Requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to conduct a security assessment of the Arctic region, and establish an Arctic Security Initiative with a five-year plan to fully resource the DOD and provide individual service-specific strategies for the Arctic.
Extends the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program until December 31, 2024 and allows for an increase of 4,000 additional visas.
This provision was included in the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act and directs the Secretary of Defense to submit a report detailing the department’s lines of efforts in support of the National Strategy for the Arctic Region, which includes implementation plans for each military department and the Office of Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict. This follows With Honor Action’s previous work on the passage of the Arctic Security Initiative Act (S.2294).
Authorizes an additional 12,000 Afghan Special Immigrant Visas and extends the program through 2025. This is the largest expansion of the Afghan SIV program to date.
Enhances sanctions against terrorist organizations that use human shields, specifically Hamas.
Declares the trafficking of fentanyl a national emergency and takes steps to combat the flow of opioids into the U.S., including requiring the U.S. President to sanction transnational criminal organizations and drug cartels’ key members engaged in international fentanyl trafficking.