WASHINGTON, DC -- President Bush today signed legislation authored by Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) that will waive the passport fees for family members of U.S. Servicemen killed in action, but buried or memorialized overseas. Under current law, passport fees are waived for the widows, parents, children, and siblings of deceased members of the armed forces going abroad to visit the grave of such member. However, State Department regulations on this law are narrow, and do not cover the case of traveling to attend a funeral or memorial service for the service member.

Biden’s bill remedies that gap and broadens existing law to include a fee waiver for a funeral or memorial service, and adds grandparents to the list of relatives covered by the law.

“The need for such a waiver does not happen often, but it does happen,” said Senator Biden. “At a time of such grieving for a lost servicemember, the family of the fallen hero should not have to worry about paying passport fees, which can add up quickly for a family. Waiving the fee in such cases is the least that we can do.”