Congressional Committee Seeks To Create 'National Hostage Day' Following Brittney Griner's Release

Only days after Brittney Griner was released from ten months of imprisonment in Russia, Democratic and Republican lawmakers agreed to introduce legislation to establish March 9 as an annual day to remember Americans detained abroad. 

The bill, introduced on Tuesday according to text reported by Reuters, seeks to make March 9 "National Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day" to call attention to Americans unjustly held abroad and to add urgency to the push to bring them home.

"Brittney Griner's release and unjust imprisonment has only underscored the need for Congress to continue working to safeguard the lives of wrongfully detained Americans," said Senator Chris Coons (D), a lead sponsor of the bill. 

The measure's sponsors also include Republican Senator Marco Rubio (FL) and Reps. Haley Stevens (MI-D) and French Hill (AR-R).

The bill would establish an official "Hostage and Detainee" flag, similar to the black-and-white POW-MIA flag adopted in 1972 to honor and bring attention to American prisoners of war or missing combatants during the Vietnam War era.

March 9 is the day on which Robert Levinson disappeared in Iran in 2007. He was declared dead in absentia in 2020.

According to the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, there are actually 64 publicly known cases of Americans being held hostage or wrongfully detained in some 18 countries. The foundation was named after Foley, an American journalist who was kidnapped by Islamic State extremists on Nov. 22, 2012. He was killed after more than a year in captivity. Video of his gruesome murder was released online and shocked the world.

Brittney Griner Release

President Biden announced Griner's release last Thursday in a prisoner swap for the convicted Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout.

Griner, a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, who had been playing for the last seven years on a Russian basketball team, was arrested one week before Russia invaded Ukraine. She was later charged and sentenced to nine years in prison for possessing less than a gram of cannabis oil.

The administration has been unable to secure the release of former US Marine Paul Whelan, who was jailed in Russia on 2020 on spying charges.