(a) Authority to charge fee

(1) Subject to paragraph (2), the Secretary of State is authorized to charge a fee to cover the actual or estimated cost of providing any person, firm or organization (other than agencies of the United States Government) with commercial services at posts abroad on matters within the authority of the Department of State.

Terms Used In 22 USC 2724

  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • State: means a State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any other territory or possession of the United States. See 1 USC 7

(2) The authority of this section may be exercised only in countries where the Department of Commerce does not perform commercial services for which it collects fees.

(b) Use of fees

Funds collected under the authority of subsection (a) shall be deposited as an offsetting collection to any Department of State appropriation to recover the costs of providing commercial services. Funds deposited under this subsection shall remain available for obligation through September 30 of the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the funds were deposited.