No American Benefits Abroad Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The No American Benefits Abroad Act creates a direct restriction on remittances by people receiving means-tested public assistance. An individual receiving public assistance may not transfer money from the United States to a person or entity outside the United States through an international wire transfer. The bill also requires any provider of international wire transfer services, before providing the service, to require the individual to notify the provider in writing whether the individual receives public assistance. Public assistance is defined as any payment or other benefit from a means-tested welfare or public-assistance program.
Who Benefits and How
Federal and state welfare program administrators, taxpayers concerned about benefit leakage, and policymakers focused on domestic use of public-assistance dollars benefit because the bill would create a front-end screen before international remittances. Wire-transfer providers benefit from a clear written-certificate process for identifying covered customers.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Public assistance recipients, immigrant families, mixed-status households, and relatives abroad who rely on remittances bear the direct burden because covered recipients could not send international wire transfers. Money transmitters, banks offering remittance services, check-cashing businesses, and compliance teams must collect written notices, update workflows, train staff, and decide how to handle customers who report public-assistance receipt.
Key Provisions
- Prohibits individuals receiving means-tested public assistance from sending international wire transfers from the United States.
- Requires international wire-transfer providers to obtain written notice of whether a customer receives public assistance before providing service.
- Defines public assistance as payments or benefits from means-tested welfare or public-assistance programs.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Bars recipients of means-tested public assistance from sending international wire transfers and requires wire-transfer providers to obtain a written certification about public-assistance receipt before providing service.
Key Policy Areas
Social Services, Financial Services
Primary Purpose
Bars recipients of means-tested public assistance from sending international wire transfers and requires wire-transfer providers to obtain a written certification about public-assistance receipt before providing service.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Welfare program administrators
- Taxpayers concerned about benefit leakage
- Wire-transfer providers
- Public assistance oversight staff
Identified Costs
- Public assistance recipients
- Immigrant families using remittances
- Relatives abroad receiving remittances
- Money transmitters
- Bank compliance teams
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
Introduced in House
Mr. Feenstra (for himself and Mr. Hunt) introduced the following …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Bank remittance teams, International wire transfer providers, Money transmitters
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
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