(Colorado Newsline) U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper of Colorado is hoping Congress can pass a bill to waive document replacement fees for survivors of disasters like wildfires and floods.

“When families get knocked upside down, some losing their homes and businesses, we’ve got to do a better job in helping them recover,” the Democrat said during a Monday call on the legislation.

The bill was introduced in September with Senator James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican. It has not seen any committee action yet. In the House, it is sponsored by Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse, a Colorado Democrat, and Representative John Curtis, a Utah Republican.

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There is still time for either chamber’s version of the bill to pass committee and get a floor vote — even attached to a larger bill — by the end of the year and current congressional session. But Hickenlooper said Monday that if the bill doesn’t pass this year, it will be a priority in the new Congress that convenes in January.

“This is the time when we don’t have a terrible wildfire or looming flood,” he said. “These different pieces of legislation are not dramatic and won’t change the world, but if we get enough of them done then the next time we have a disaster, it will make life easier for the people of Colorado.”

Federal agencies can already waive replacement fees for documents like passports, visas and proof of citizenship for victims of declared major disasters, but Hickenlooper said the use of that waiver is sporadic. Those documents are often crucial in a person’s rebuilding process after a disaster, and fees can run into the thousands of dollars.

It costs $160 to replace passport materials and over $400 to replace a permanent resident card.

The bill would automatically waive the cost of replacing passports, visa forms, permanent residence cards, declaration of intent forms, citizenship documents, employment authorizations and the associated biometric service fees.

“We already have processes for waiving these fees. But why add to the bureaucracy and the red tape and make people jump through more hoops to get something waived, when we can just make it cost effective in the first place at no charge?” Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann said.

Hickenlooper, Neguse and Democratic U.S. Senator Michael Bennet introduced similar legislation in 2022 after the Marshall Fire in Boulder County, which destroyed over 1,000 homes in the final days of 2021. It did not get a committee hearing that session.

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