I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1710
To impose sanctions with respect to the system of compensation of the
Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority that
supports acts of terrorism.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Mr. L
AWLER(for himself, Mr. MOSKOWITZ, Ms. TENNEY, and Mr.
G
OTTHEIMER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Fi-
nancial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To impose sanctions with respect to the system of compensa-
tion of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the
Palestinian Authority that supports acts of terrorism.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘PLO and PA Terror 4
Payments Accountability Act of 2025’’. 5
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Mar 15, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1710.IH H1710
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2
•HR 1710 IH
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; STATEMENT OF POLICY. 1
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-2
ings: 3
(1) The Palestine Liberation Organization and 4
the Palestinian Authority provide hundreds of mil-5
lions of dollars per year in payments, salaries, and 6
benefits to terrorists and the families of terrorists as 7
part of a system compensation that incentivizes, en-8
courages, rewards, and supports acts of terrorism. 9
(2) The Palestine Liberation Organization and 10
the Palestinian Authority policies, laws, and regula-11
tions that direct, authorize, enact, facilitate, and im-12
plement a system of compensation in support of acts 13
of terrorism require payments, salaries, and benefits 14
to terrorists including those who are members and 15
part of organizations designated as foreign terrorist 16
organizations by the Secretary of State under sec-17
tion 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 18
U.S.C. 1189), including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, 19
that receive direct support including financial and 20
military assistance from Iran, the leading state 21
sponsor of terrorism in the world. 22
(3) In 2018, Congress passed the Taylor Force 23
Act (title X of division S of Public Law 115–141; 24
132 Stat. 1143) into law that calls on the Palestine 25
Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Author-26
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Mar 15, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1710.IH H1710
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3
•HR 1710 IH
ity to end their system of compensation that 1
incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts 2
of terrorism and restricts United States assistance 3
‘‘that directly benefits the Palestinian Authority’’ 4
unless the Secretary of State certifies to Congress 5
that the Palestine Liberation Organization and the 6
Palestinian Authority have met specific conditions 7
including terminating that system of compensation 8
and revoking the policies, laws, and regulations that 9
authorize and implement the system of compensa-10
tion. 11
(4) Despite the enactment of the Taylor Force 12
Act, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the 13
Palestinian Authority have continued their system of 14
compensation that incentivizes, encourages, rewards, 15
and supports acts of terrorism. 16
(5) On October 7, 2023, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, 17
and other Gaza-based terrorist organizations at-18
tacked Israel on Shabbat and during the Jewish hol-19
iday of Simchat Torah, committing the deadliest at-20
tack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. 21
(6) On October 7, 2023, Hamas fired thou-22
sands of rockets into Israel, deliberately targeting 23
Israeli civilians, and thousands of terrorists invaded 24
Israeli communities—massacring, raping, torturing, 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Mar 15, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1710.IH H1710
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4
•HR 1710 IH
decapitating, burning alive, seriously injuring, and 1
kidnapping Israelis and Americans, including men, 2
women, children, babies, and grandparents, and in-3
cluding Holocaust survivors, with children being 4
murdered in front of their parents and parents being 5
murdered in front of their children. 6
(7) On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered more 7
than 1,200 who were mostly civilians, and kidnapped 8
more than 240, including Israeli and American men, 9
women, children, babies, and grandparents, and took 10
them to Gaza as hostages. 11
(b) S
TATEMENT OF POLICY.—It shall be the policy 12
of the United States to hold the Palestine Liberation Or-13
ganization and the Palestinian Authority accountable in-14
cluding through the imposition of sanctions for providing 15
payments, salaries, and benefits to terrorists and the fami-16
lies of terrorists as part of a system compensation that 17
incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts of 18
terrorism. 19
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 20
In this Act: 21
(1) A
CT OF TERRORISM.—The term ‘‘act of ter-22
rorism’’— 23
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Mar 15, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1710.IH H1710
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5
•HR 1710 IH
(A) means an act of international ter-1
rorism (as defined in section 2331 of title 18, 2
United States Code); and 3
(B) includes the meanings given the terms 4
‘‘terrorist activity’’ and ‘‘engage in terrorist ac-5
tivity’’ by section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigra-6
tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 7
1182(a)(3)(B)). 8
(2) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -9
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-10
mittees’’ means— 11
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 12
the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 13
Representatives; and 14
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations 15
and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 16
Urban Affairs of the Senate. 17
(3) F
OREIGN PERSON.—The term ‘‘foreign per-18
son’’ means any person or entity that is not a 19
United States person. 20
(4) K
NOWINGLY.—The term ‘‘knowingly’’, with 21
respect to conduct, a circumstance, or a result, 22
means that a person had actual knowledge, or 23
should have known, of the conduct, the cir-24
cumstance, or the result. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Mar 15, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1710.IH H1710
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6
•HR 1710 IH
(5) SYSTEM OF COMPENSATION .—The term 1
‘‘system of compensation’’, with respect to the Pales-2
tinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Or-3
ganization, means the payments described in sub-4
paragraph (B) of section 1004(a)(1) of the Taylor 5
Force Act (22 U.S.C. 2378c–1) and the system of 6
compensation described in subparagraph (C) of that 7
section. 8
(6) U
NITED STATES PERSON .—The term 9
‘‘United States person’’ means— 10
(A) a United States citizen or an alien law-11
fully admitted for permanent residence to the 12
United States; 13
(B) an entity organized under the laws of 14
the United States or any jurisdiction within the 15
United States, including a foreign branch of 16
such an entity; or 17
(C) a person in the United States. 18
SEC. 4. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS ON CERTAIN FOREIGN 19
PERSONS SUPPORTING TERRORISM. 20
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 21
date of the enactment of this Act, and an ongoing basis 22
thereafter, the President shall impose the sanctions de-23
scribed in subsection (b) on— 24
(1) any foreign person that— 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Mar 15, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1710.IH H1710
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 7
•HR 1710 IH
(A) has served in a position as a represent-1
ative, minister, official, or employee of the Pal-2
estine Liberation Organization, the Palestinian 3
Authority, or any other foreign person that has 4
directed, authorized, been responsible for, mate-5
rially assisted with, enacted, implemented, or 6
otherwise facilitated the Palestine Liberation 7
Organization and the Palestinian Authority sys-8
tem of compensation supporting acts of ter-9
rorism; or 10
(B) has provided payments, salaries, and 11
benefits to terrorists and the families of terror-12
ists as part of the Palestine Liberation Organi-13
zation and the Palestinian Authority system of 14
compensation supporting acts of terrorism; 15
(2) any entity that directly or indirectly has op-16
erated, ordered, controlled, directed, or otherwise fa-17
cilitated the Palestine Liberation Organization and 18
the Palestinian Authority system of compensation 19
supporting acts of terrorism including the Commis-20
sion of Prisoners and Released Prisoners, the Insti-21
tute for the Care of the Families of the Martyrs and 22
the Wounded, the Palestine National Fund, National 23
Association of the Families of the Martyrs of Pal-24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Mar 15, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1710.IH H1710
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 8
•HR 1710 IH
estine, or any successor, agency, instrumentality, or-1
ganization, or affiliated entities thereof; or 2
(3) any foreign person that has knowingly pro-3
vided significant financial, technological, or material 4
support and resources support to, or knowingly en-5
gaged in a significant transaction with a foreign per-6
son described in subparagraph (1) or (2). 7
(b) S
ANCTIONSDESCRIBED.—The sanctions that 8
shall be imposed with respect to a foreign person described 9
in subsection (a) are the following: 10
(1) B
LOCKING OF PROPERTY .—The President 11
shall exercise all of the powers granted to the Presi-12
dent under the International Emergency Economic 13
Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to the extent 14
necessary to block and prohibit all transactions in 15
property and interests in property of the foreign per-16
son if such property and interests in property are in 17
the United States, come within the United States, or 18
are or come within the possession or control of a 19
United States person. 20
(2) I
NELIGIBILITY FOR VISAS, ADMISSION, OR 21
PAROLE.— 22
(A) V
ISAS, ADMISSION, OR PAROLE.—An 23
alien described in subsection (a) is— 24
(i) inadmissible to the United States; 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Mar 15, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1710.IH H1710
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 9
•HR 1710 IH
(ii) ineligible to receive a visa or other 1
documentation to enter the United States; 2
and 3
(iii) otherwise ineligible to be admitted 4
or paroled into the United States or to re-5
ceive any other benefit under the Immigra-6
tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et 7
seq.). 8
(B) C
URRENT VISAS REVOKED .— 9
(i) I
N GENERAL.—An alien described 10
in subsection (a) is subject to revocation of 11
any visa or other entry documentation re-12
gardless of when the visa or other entry 13
documentation is or was issued. 14
(ii) I
MMEDIATE EFFECT .—A revoca-15
tion under clause (i) shall— 16
(I) take effect immediately; and 17
(II) automatically cancel any 18
other valid visa or entry documenta-19
tion that is in the alien’s possession. 20
(iii) P
ENALTIES.—The penalties pro-21
vided for in subsections (b) and (c) of sec-22
tion 206 of the International Emergency 23
Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) 24
shall apply to a person that violates, at-25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Mar 15, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1710.IH H1710
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 10
•HR 1710 IH
tempts to violate, conspires to violate, or 1
causes a violation of this section or any 2
regulations promulgated to carry out this 3
section to the same extent that such pen-4
alties apply to a person that commits an 5
unlawful act described in section 206(a) of 6
that Act. 7
(c) C
ONGRESSIONALREQUESTS.—Not later than 30 8
days after receiving a request from the chairman or rank-9
ing member of one of the appropriate congressional com-10
mittees with respect to whether a person meets the criteria 11
of a person described in subsection (a), the President 12
shall— 13
(1) determine if the person meets such criteria; 14
and 15
(2) submit a classified or unclassified report to 16
the chairman or ranking member, that submitted the 17
request with respect to that determination that in-18
cludes a statement of whether or not the President 19
imposed or intends to impose sanctions with respect 20
to the person. 21
(d) I
MPLEMENTATION; REGULATIONS.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The President may exercise 23
all authorities provided under sections 203 and 205 24
of the International Emergency Economic Powers 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Mar 15, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1710.IH H1710
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 11
•HR 1710 IH
Act (50 U.S.C. 1702 and 1704) for purposes of car-1
rying out this section. 2
(2) R
EGULATIONS.—Not later than 60 days 3
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 4
President shall issue such regulations or other guid-5
ance as may be necessary for the implementation of 6
this section. 7
(e) D
EFINITION.—In this section: 8
(1) M
ATERIAL SUPPORT OR RESOURCES .—The 9
term ‘‘material support or resources’’ has the mean-10
ing given that term in section 2339A(b) of title 18, 11
United States Code. 12
SEC. 5. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO FI-13
NANCIAL INSTITUTIONS THAT FACILITATE 14
TRANSACTIONS SUPPORTING TERRORISM. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 16
date of the enactment of this Act, and on an ongoing basis 17
thereafter, the President shall impose the sanctions de-18
scribed in subsection (c) with respect to each foreign fi-19
nancial institution that engages in the activities described 20
in subsection (b). 21
(b) A
CTIVITIESDESCRIBED.—A foreign financial in-22
stitution engages in an activity described in this subsection 23
if the institution— 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Mar 15, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1710.IH H1710
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 12
•HR 1710 IH
(1) processes, participates in, facilitates, or pro-1
vides a transaction that are payments, salaries, or 2
benefits, or any other conduct described in section 3
4(a); or 4
(2) knowingly conducted or facilitated any sig-5
nificant financial transaction with any foreign per-6
son subject to sanctions under section 4(a). 7
(c) S
ANCTIONSDESCRIBED.—The President shall 8
prohibit the opening, and prohibit or impose strict condi-9
tions on the maintaining, in the United States of a cor-10
respondent account or a payable-through account by a for-11
eign financial institution described in subsection (a). 12
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 13
(1) C
ORRESPONDENT ACCOUNT ; PAYABLE- 14
THROUGH ACCOUNT .—The terms ‘‘correspondent ac-15
count’’ and ‘‘payable-through account’’ have the 16
meanings given those terms in section 5318A of title 17
31, United States Code. 18
(2) F
OREIGN FINANCIAL INSTITUTION .—The 19
term ‘‘foreign financial institution’’ has the meaning 20
of that term as determined by the Secretary of the 21
Treasury pursuant to section 104(i) of the Com-22
prehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Di-23
vestment Act of 2010 (22 U.S.C. 8513(i)). 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Mar 15, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1710.IH H1710
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 13
•HR 1710 IH
SEC. 6. TERMINATION. 1
The provisions of this Act shall have no force or effect 2
only if the Secretary of State certifies in writing to the 3
appropriate congressional committees that the Palestine 4
Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority 5
system of compensation providing payments, salaries, and 6
benefits to terrorists and the families of terrorists that 7
incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts of 8
terrorism as described in this Act, has ceased to be in ef-9
fect and is no longer taking place. 10
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Mar 15, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1710.IH H1710
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS