Could a ‘Hostage Czar’ Have Saved Warren Weinstein? One Lawmaker Thinks So

American hostages held by terrorists around the world are dying. A lawmaker says the United States needs to do more to find them before they’re killed.

Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) introduced a bill Friday that would create a “hostage czar,” a National Security Council-level position dedicated to coordinating efforts to locate and free U.S. hostages. The bill, called the Warren Weinstein Hostage Rescue Act, is named after American aid worker Warren Weinstein, who was killed by an American drone strike in Pakistan in January. It took three months for the Obama administration to tell his family about his death.

Delaney told Foreign Policy he consulted with Weinstein’s relatives while drafting the bill and that he had hoped to introduce it before the Maryland man was killed. It comes after complaints from Weinstein’s family and the families of other American hostages that the response from the U.S. government was “inconsistent and disappointing over the course of three and a half years,” as Elaine Weinstein, Warren’s widow, said in a recent statement that also praised Delaney by name for his help in trying to free her husband.

“We saw that, in Warren’s case, the government was not as well coordinated as it could have been. We could have done a better job,” Delaney said in a Friday afternoon interview. “It makes me think we’re not doing enough.”

He said his bill does not address whether the U.S. should change its official stance not to negotiate with terrorists. The goal of the legislation, he said, is about marshaling U.S. resources to find captured Americans.

The bill comes as American hostage negotiating policy is in disarray. The White House maintains that the neither the U.S. government nor the families of hostages can negotiate with terrorists for the release of their loved ones. The family of journalist James Foley, who was beheaded by the Islamic State, says they were threatened with legal action if they paid off his captors.

But Foreign Policy recently reported Weinstein’s family funneled a $250,000 ransom payment through the Pakistani government to help secure Weinstein’s release. There are also other instances of the U.S. government knowing about the payment of ransoms — like when the family of journalist Peter Theo Curtis paid an al Qaeda branch in Syria for his release — although Obama administration officials continue to publicly insist the non-negotiation policy is still in place, and that payoffs only encourage more hostage taking.

Critics of U.S. policy argue it that it is hypocritical for the White House to bar ransom payments when it has shown a willingness to negotiate with terrorists — and accede to their demands. In 2014, the United States freed five prisoners from Guantánamo Bay in exchange for the release Bowe Bergdahl, a missing American serviceman who has since been charged with deserting his post in Afghanistan. The involvement of the FBI in Weinstein’s case, as the Wall Street Journal reported, also shows American policy toward negotiating with terrorists has been far from consistent.

The White House is currently in the midst of a five month review of its hostage negotiating policy. ABC News recently reported that the National Counterterrorism Center, which is conducting it, will recommend allowing families to pay ransoms without the threat of legal action. Many foreign nations have successfully paid off kidnappers to win the release their citizens.

National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan declined to comment on the timing of the announcement on Weinstein’s death or when the policy review will be completed. On Thursday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said “helping with a ransom payment is not tantamount to paying a ransom.”

Delaney said he is working to building a roster of cosponsors for the bill. His chief of staff, Justin Schall, told FP that staffers from Delaney’s office are talking to senior Obama officials involved in the hostage review process to build support for the legislation.

The bill also requires various government agencies to improve information sharing on hostage’s possible locations and the United States to better engage with foreign allies and non-governmental organizations. The hostage czar would also manage the government’s communication with families of hostages.

The Maryland lawmaker added that while he understood some delay between Weinstein’s January death and a public announcement was understandable, “the fact that there was a 90-day lag is a little suspicious.”

Photo courtesy of the Weinstein family