Cville Right Now: Spanberger and Carey seek to eliminate passport fees for families visiting injured service members overseas

CVILLE RIGHT NOW, JAY HART

Virginia 7th District Representative Abigail Spanberger along with Ohio Republican Mike Carey has introduced bipartisan legislation to waive passport fees for family members obtaining a passport for the purpose of visiting an injured servicemember overseas. Servicemembers injured while serving overseas often must remain abroad until they are stable enough to be transferred to the United States. In the event of an extended stay, the U.S. Department of Defense will often arrange for a family member to travel to visit the injured servicemember… however, a valid passport is still required.

Under existing law, passport fees are waived for family members attending an overseas funeral or memorial service for a fallen servicemember. The No Passport Fees for Heroes’ Families Act would expand and waive passport fees, including fees to expedite, for family members visiting servicemembers who are not yet medically cleared to travel back to the United States.