WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) yesterday delivered a floor speech to celebrate the Senate clearing his bipartisan Stop Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, as well as his broader efforts help Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad. His legislation would prevent the IRS from imposing fines and penalties on American hostages and wrongful detainees for failing to pay taxes while they are held abroad.
Senator Coons was inspired to write the bill after hearing from Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter who was wrongfully detained by the Iranian government for 544 days. Upon his release and return to the United States, Rezaian owed a large sum to the IRS due to non-payment of taxes during his detention.
Senator Coons also discussed his other work on hostage issues, including forthcoming legislation to repair the credit scores of those held hostage or wrongfully detained, and his bipartisan bill that President Biden signed into law to establish a National Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day and flag.
A full transcript is available below:
Senator Coons: Madam President, I come to the floor today to speak for a few moments about the urgent – the pressing – matter of Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad, and about a specific positive recent development to make sure that when they are released and freed, they’re welcomed home in a positive and meaningful way.
Today, there’s somewhere between 30 and 40 Americans wrongfully detained abroad, and they range all over, from their backgrounds to the countries in which they’re held. I’ve met repeatedly with Rachel and Jon, who are the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American Israeli who was attending the music festival in Israel when he was attacked, badly injured, kidnapped by Hamas terrorists, and dragged to Gaza, where he is still today a hostage beneath Gaza in tunnels. Ryan Corbett has been held in Afghanistan for years, an NGO worker who was abducted by the Taliban. Mark Swidan has been held in China on narcotics trafficking charges, a sentence upheld recently but not yet imposed. And of course, Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, currently in prison in Russia, whose mother I met with recently and who I joined with his family in continuing to pray and work for his release.
There has recently been a positive step forward in how we welcome home these hostages. But first, Madam President, I have to tell you something disturbing about how we have long welcomed home hostages.
Jason Rezaian. He’s a Washington Post reporter who was taken prisoner in Iran and ultimately served a year-and-a-half – 544 days – in prison in Tehran before he was released. And I want you to guess, what was the first thing Jason got from the United States government when he returned home? It was a tax bill with fines and penalties for his failure to file and pay his taxes on time. Jason came to meet with me and recounted to me that when he pointed out to the IRS that it was front-page news in The Washington Post that he was unjustly imprisoned – of course, he couldn't pay his taxes on time – they said, ‘We’d like to help you, Mr. Rezaian, but Congress needs to act in order for us to stop imposing tax penalties on American hostages.’
So, today I’m here to celebrate that my dear friend Mike Rounds [S.D.], Republican Senator, and I have introduced, and the Senate has now passed, a bill with the catchy title ‘Stop Tax Penalties on American Hostages.’ It cleared unanimously; thank you. And we now await House action.
This is the latest in a number of actions several of us have taken together. There is now a National Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day. It was recognized by a bill that was passed in the defense authorization bill last year and signed into law by President Biden – that’s March 9. We are also working on legislation to repair the credit score of those who are wrongfully imprisoned, held hostage, or detained. As you can imagine, if you spend years in prison in Russia or in Iran or being held captive in Afghanistan or in Gaza, and you aren’t making payments on your bills, your credit score suffers. Senator [Thom] Tillis [R-N.C.] and I are next hoping to move the Fair Credit for American Hostages Act.
Let me conclude by saying this: We have to do more, together, to deter hostage-taking; to restore to the United States those who’ve been wrongfully detained; to cooperate across our government. I’m grateful that the Biden administration has increased its focus on this urgent moral issue and that 47 wrongfully detained Americans have been brought home so far under the present administration. But frankly, all of us should be working together to hold in our prayers and thoughts those who are hostages, those who are wrongful detainees and their loved ones, and to work together, as Senator Rounds and I have in recent weeks, and as the Congress as a whole will in coming days.