Sponsors (18)
The bill redirects $160M in unobligated travel-promotion fee balances to Brand USA to boost international tourism and local economic activity without a new appropriation, but it does so by reallocating funds away from other priorities, weakening a statutory spending cap, and imposing matching/carryforward constraints that may shift costs to private partners.
Small-business owners in the travel and tourism sector (hotels, restaurants, tour operators) gain access to $160M for Brand USA marketing intended to increase international visitors, bookings, and revenue.
Local communities and state governments could see higher tax receipts and more tourism-related jobs from expanded statewide and local marketing funded by Brand USA.
Taxpayers are less likely to face a new Congressional appropriation for this purpose because the bill uses unobligated fee balances rather than new direct spending requests.
Taxpayers and other federal priorities lose potential uses for $160M because fee-derived funds are redirected to Brand USA instead of being used for other programs or deficit reduction.
Exempting this transfer from the Travel Promotion Act's statutory cap reduces a fiscal control and could set a precedent for future overrides of statutory limits on program funding.
Brand USA will be subject to matching and carryforward rules that could limit how quickly funds are used and may shift costs or responsibilities onto private partners and participating businesses.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Transfers $160 million from unobligated Travel Promotion Fund fee balances to Brand USA, exempting that transfer from the usual statutory cap while keeping matching and carryforward rules.
Official title: To transfer $160,000,000 from the Travel Promotion Fund to Brand USA.
Introduced November 19, 2025 by Gus Bilirakis · Last progress November 19, 2025
Directs the Treasury Secretary to transfer $160 million from existing unobligated fee balances in the Travel Promotion Fund to the Corporation for Travel Promotion (Brand USA) within 30 days of enactment. The transfer is exempted from an existing statutory cap on transfers but remains subject to the Fund’s matching and carryforward rules. The measure simply reallocates already-collected travel-promotion fees to provide immediate funding to Brand USA for marketing and promotion activities supporting U.S. inbound tourism.