Remembering American Hostages Act of 2025
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill expands when and where the Hostage and Wrongful Detainee flag must be displayed at federal government buildings. It adds specific historical dates related to hostage crises (including the Iranian hostage crisis and the October 7 Hamas attack) as mandatory display days, and requires more federal agencies and locations to display the flag.
Who Benefits and How
Hostage families and advocacy groups benefit symbolically through increased recognition and commemoration of hostage-related events. The flag manufacturing industry may see a modest increase in demand as more federal locations need to display the flag.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Federal agencies (State Department, Justice Department, Education Department, Transportation Department, Commerce Department) must implement flag display procedures and ensure compliance at their facilities, embassies, consulates, and passport offices. This creates administrative burden but minimal cost.
Key Provisions
- Adds November 4, January 20 (Iranian hostage crisis), August 19 (James Foley's death), and October 7 (Hamas attack) as mandatory flag display dates
- Expands display locations to include State Department and DOJ offices, embassies, consulates, and passport facilities
- Adds the Attorney General and Secretaries of Education, Transportation, and Commerce to the list of officials who must display the flag
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Expands the display requirements for the Hostage and Wrongful Detainee flag by adding key historical dates related to hostage crises and expanding the list of federal locations and officials responsible for displaying the flag
Key Policy Areas
Federal Government Operations, Foreign Affairs, National Symbols
Primary Purpose
Expands the display requirements for the Hostage and Wrongful Detainee flag by adding key historical dates related to hostage crises and expanding the list of federal locations and officials responsible for displaying the flag
Policy Domains
Bill Wide - Hostage Flag Display Requirements
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Hostage families and advocacy groups
- Flag manufacturing
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Federal agencies (State, Justice, Education, Transportation, Commerce)
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Kean (for himself and Mr. Moskowitz) introduced the following …
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Department of Justice, Department of State, Passport offices
General public, Hostage and wrongful detainee families
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_administrator"
- → Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration
- "secretary_of_state"
- → Secretary of State
- "the_attorney_general"
- → Attorney General
- "secretary_of_commerce"
- → Secretary of Commerce
- "secretary_of_education"
- → Secretary of Education
- "secretary_of_transportation"
- → Secretary of Transportation
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Includes November 4 and January 20 (Iranian hostage crisis), August 19 (death of James Foley), and October 7 (Hamas attack where 240+ taken hostage including 12 Americans)
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology