22 U.S.C. § 214 — Fees for execution and issuance of passports; persons excused from payment

(a) Fees for execution and issuance of passports; persons excused from payment (1) The Secretary of State sets, by regulation, a fee for filing each passport application (covering issuance and use of the passport) and a separate fee for processing (executing) each application. The Secretary can let state officials or the U.S. Postal Service keep the processing fee themselves when they're the ones accepting the application. These fees generally can't be refunded, unless the Secretary's regulations say otherwise. (2) Even so, no passport fee is charged to: (A) a U.S. government officer or employee traveling abroad for official duties, or their immediate family; (B) an American sailor who needs a passport for duties on a U.S.-flag ship; (C) a widow, widower, child, parent, grandparent, brother, or sister of a service member who died, traveling abroad to visit the grave or attend a funeral or memorial service; (D) someone abroad returning to the United States, if the Secretary decides skipping the fee is justified for humanitarian or law-enforcement reasons; or (E) at the Secretary's discretion, someone working under a government contract, grant, or cooperative agreement to help with search, rescue, or disaster relief after a natural disaster in a foreign country, or who must stay ready to travel abroad for that purpose under such an agreement. (3) If someone is excused from the passport fee under this section, they also don't have to pay the processing fee, as long as a federal official is the one handling the application. (b) Surcharge for compliance costs (1) The Secretary of State can add, by regulation, a surcharge on top of passport fees to pay for the extra cost of meeting rising demand caused by complying with section 7209(b) of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. This surcharge comes on top of the regular fees and any other fees or surcharges the law allows, and the money goes into the Consular and Border Security Programs account, staying available until it's spent for that purpose. (2) The Secretary can't keep collecting this surcharge after September 30, 2010. (3) For fiscal years 2006 and 2007, the Secretary must try — as much as practical — to keep the total cost of a passport application, including the surcharge, from going above what it cost on December 1, 2005.