Funds for payment of the commission's awards are derived from congressional appropriations, international claims settlements, or liquidation of foreign assets in the United States by the Departments of Justice and the U.S. treasury.
The FCSC and its predecessor agencies have successfully completed 43 claims programs to resolve claims against various countries including the Federal Republic of Germany, Iran, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Italy, Cuba, China, East Germany, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Egypt, Panama, and Albania.
The United States and Germany signed an agreement on September 19, 1995, providing for reparations for certain U.S.-citizen survivors of the Holocaust, with compensation to be paid in two stages.
Legislation passed in early 1996 authorized the commission to receive and adjudicate cases of additional claimants, a process which it completed in March 1998.
Following further negotiations, the German Government paid to the United States in June 1999 an additional lump sum of 34.5 million Deutsche Mark (about $18 million) in final settlement of any and all claims of United States citizens against Germany for Nazi persecution in concentration camps, whether or not they were adjudicated by the commission.
In the ensuing months, the Department of the Treasury completed the process of distributing the settlement fund to the claimants previously found eligible for awards.
The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996, Public Law 104–114, known as the "Helms-Burton Act," includes as Title III a provision authorizing U.S. nationals whose Cuban property was confiscated by the Castro regime to bring federal court actions against foreign entities "trafficking" in those properties.
Since the statute's enactment, however, Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama have continually waived the implementation of the right to file Title III actions, citing the need to seek agreement with U.S. trading partners on policy toward Cuba; it remains suspended as of 2014[update].
However, it is important to emphasize that this work was totally independent, and that it was carried out solely for the edification of and at the direction of the members of the Review Commission and was in no way identified with or sponsored by either the FCSC or the Department of Justice.
The Review Commission held hearings on Guam in December 2003 to take testimony of survivors of the Japanese occupation concerning their wartime and post-war experiences, and in February 2004 it held a conference in Washington, DC, to hear opinions and insights of legal experts on a variety of war claims-related issues.