Sponsors (6)
The bill increases accountability and could strengthen U.S. hostage‑recovery planning and oversight for missing Americans, but it imposes administrative costs and raises risks to operational security and service members if recommendations are implemented without safeguards or funding.
Military personnel, interagency partners, and state actors see strengthened operational planning and coordination because DoD must assess command interactions and recommend formal doctrine and posture for hostage recovery ('No American Left Behind').
Families of missing, detained, or deceased U.S. nationals receive clearer accounting and potential recovery pathways because DoD must produce a report within 180 days describing cases and options for recovery or repatriation.
Congressional defense committees and taxpayers gain better oversight because the report must identify legal, policy, intelligence, and resource gaps and recommend fixes for DoD hostage-recovery and repatriation posture.
Service members could face increased operational risk if recommendations lead to expanded rescue authorities or operations without new funding, training, or risk mitigations.
Families and the public may face reduced transparency or jeopardized operations because unclassified reporting could reveal sensitive information and classified annexes limit public visibility.
Taxpayers and DoD staff bear administrative costs because preparing the detailed (and possibly classified) report requires staff time and resources within the military.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires DoD to report within 180 days on support, gaps, and doctrine options for recovering/repatriating U.S. nationals who are missing, detained, deceased, or of unresolved status, focusing on Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Official title: To require the Secretary of Defense to submit to Congress a report on the recovery of certain United States nationals, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 10, 2026 by Abraham J. Hamadeh · Last progress June 10, 2026
Requires the Secretary of Defense to deliver, within 180 days of enactment, a detailed report to congressional defense committees on Department of Defense support for recovery, repatriation, and accountability of U.S. nationals who are deceased, unlawfully detained, missing, or of unresolved status. The report must emphasize areas of recent or current U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Africa (notably Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan) and may include a classified annex for case-specific material. The report must assess current DoD structures and interactions (including Special Operations and the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell), identify criteria for recommending use of military assets for recovery/rescue, evaluate intelligence/policy/statutory/resource gaps, review partner-nation practices, consider a formal doctrine called “No American Left Behind,” and provide a case-level assessment of remains-recovery and unresolved cases.