I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 23
To impose sanctions with respect to the International Criminal Court engaged
in any effort to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any protected
person of the United States and its allies.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY3, 2025
Mr. R
OY(for himself, Mr. MAST, Mr. MCCAUL, Mr. CRENSHAW, Mr. HIGGINS
of Louisiana, Mr. F
LEISCHMANN, Mr. FINSTAD, Mr. CLINE, Mr. BIGGS
of Arizona, Mr. A
RRINGTON, Mrs. HOUCHIN, Mr. CRANE, Ms. TENNEY,
Mr. S
ELF, Mr. JACKSONof Texas, Mr. MILLERof Ohio, Mr. FEENSTRA,
Mr. W
ILSONof South Carolina, and Mr. BUCHANAN) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and
in addition to the Committees on the Judiciary, and Appropriations, for
a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com-
mittee concerned
A BILL
To impose sanctions with respect to the International Crimi-
nal Court engaged in any effort to investigate, arrest,
detain, or prosecute any protected person of the United
States and its allies.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Illegitimate Court 2
Counteraction Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4
Congress finds the following: 5
(1) The United States and Israel are not par-6
ties to the Rome Statute or members of the Inter-7
national Criminal Court (ICC), and therefore the 8
ICC has no legitimacy or jurisdiction over the 9
United States or Israel. 10
(2) On May 20, 2024, the Prosecutor of the 11
International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, an-12
nounced arrest warrant applications for Israeli 13
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister 14
of Defense Yoav Gallant and should be condemned 15
in the strongest possible terms. 16
(3) On November 21, 2024, the ICC’s Pre-Trial 17
Chamber issued warrants for the arrest of 18
Netanyahu and Gallant, which should be condemned 19
in the strongest possible terms. 20
(4) The bipartisan American Servicemembers’ 21
Protection Act was enacted in 2002 to protect 22
United States military personnel, United States offi-23
cials, and officials and military personnel of certain 24
allied countries against criminal prosecution by an 25
international criminal court to which the United 26
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States is not party, stating, ‘‘In addition to exposing 1
members of the Armed Forces of the United States 2
to the risk of international criminal prosecution, the 3
Rome Statute creates a risk that the President and 4
other senior elected and appointed officials of the 5
United States Government may be prosecuted by the 6
International Criminal Court.’’. 7
(5) The ICC’s actions against Israel, including 8
the preliminary examination and investigation of 9
Israel and issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli 10
officials, are illegitimate and baseless and create a 11
damaging precedent that threatens the United 12
States, Israel, and all United States partners who 13
have not consented to the ICC’s jurisdiction. 14
(6) The United States must oppose any action 15
by the ICC against the United States, Israel, or any 16
other ally of the United States that has not con-17
sented to ICC jurisdiction or is not a state party to 18
the Rome Statute of the ICC. 19
SEC. 3. SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE INTER-20
NATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after the 22
date of enactment of this Act, and on an ongoing basis 23
thereafter, if the International Criminal Court is engaging 24
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in any attempt to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute 1
any protected person, the President shall impose— 2
(1) the sanctions described in subsection (b) 3
with respect to any foreign person the President de-4
termines— 5
(A) has directly engaged in or otherwise 6
aided any effort by the International Criminal 7
Court to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute 8
a protected person; 9
(B) has materially assisted, sponsored, or 10
provided financial, material, or technological 11
support for, or goods or services to or in sup-12
port of any effort by the International Criminal 13
Court to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute 14
a protected person; or 15
(C) is owned or controlled by, or is cur-16
rently acting or purports to have acted, directly 17
or indirectly, for or on behalf of any person 18
that directly engages in any effort by the Inter-19
national Criminal Court to investigate, arrest, 20
detain, or prosecute a protected person; and 21
(2) the sanctions described in subsection (b)(2) 22
with respect to the immediate family members of 23
each foreign person who is subject to sanctions pur-24
suant to paragraph (1). 25
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(b) SANCTIONSDESCRIBED.—The sanctions de-1
scribed in this subsection with respect to a foreign person 2
described in subsection (a) are the following: 3
(1) P
ROPERTY BLOCKING.—The President shall 4
exercise all of the powers granted by the Inter-5
national Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 6
U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to the extent necessary to block 7
and prohibit all transactions in all property and in-8
terests in property of any foreign person described 9
in subsection (a)(1) if such property and interests in 10
property are in the United States, come within the 11
United States, or are or come within the possession 12
or control of a United States person. 13
(2) A
LIENS INADMISSIBLE FOR VISAS , ADMIS-14
SION, OR PAROLE.— 15
(A) V
ISAS, ADMISSION, OR PAROLE.—In 16
the case of an alien described in subsection (a), 17
the alien is— 18
(i) inadmissible to the United States; 19
(ii) ineligible to receive a visa or other 20
documentation to enter the United States; 21
and 22
(iii) otherwise ineligible to be admitted 23
or paroled into the United States or to re-24
ceive any other benefit under the Immigra-25
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•HR 23 IH
tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et 1
seq.). 2
(B) C
URRENT VISAS REVOKED .— 3
(i) I
N GENERAL.—The visa or other 4
entry documentation of an alien described 5
in subparagraph (A) shall be revoked, re-6
gardless of when such visa or other entry 7
documentation was issued. 8
(ii) I
MMEDIATE EFFECT .—A revoca-9
tion under clause (i) shall— 10
(I) take effect immediately; and 11
(II) automatically cancel any 12
other valid visa or entry documenta-13
tion that is in the alien’s possession. 14
(c) I
MPLEMENTATION; PENALTIES.— 15
(1) I
MPLEMENTATION.—The President may ex-16
ercise all authorities provided under sections 203 17
and 205 of the International Emergency Economic 18
Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702 and 1704) to carry out 19
this section. 20
(2) P
ENALTIES.—A person that violates, at-21
tempts to violate, conspires to violate, or causes a 22
violation of this section or any regulation, license, or 23
order issued to carry out this section shall be subject 24
to the penalties set forth in subsections (b) and (c) 25
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of section 206 of the International Emergency Eco-1
nomic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to the same ex-2
tent as a person that commits an unlawful act de-3
scribed in subsection (a) of that section. 4
(d) N
OTIFICATION TOCONGRESS.—Not later than 10 5
days after any imposition of sanctions pursuant to sub-6
section (a), the President shall brief and provide written 7
notification to the appropriate congressional committees 8
regarding the imposition of sanctions that shall include— 9
(1) a description of the foreign person or per-10
sons subject to the imposition of such sanctions, in-11
cluding the foreign person’s role at or relation to the 12
International Criminal Court; 13
(2) a description of any activity undertaken by 14
such foreign person or persons in support of efforts 15
to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any pro-16
tected person; and 17
(3) the specific sanctions imposed on such for-18
eign person or persons. 19
(e) W
AIVER.— 20
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The President may, on a 21
case-by-case basis and for periods not to exceed 90 22
days each, waive the application of sanctions im-23
posed or maintained with respect to a foreign person 24
under this section if the President submits to the 25
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•HR 23 IH
appropriate congressional committees before the 1
waiver is to take effect a report that contains a de-2
termination of the President that the waiver is vital 3
to the national security interests of the United 4
States. 5
(2) C
ONTENTS.—Each report required by para-6
graph (1) with respect to a waiver of the application 7
of sanctions imposed or maintained with respect to 8
a foreign person under this section, or the renewal 9
of such a waiver, shall include— 10
(A) a specific and detailed rationale for the 11
determination that the waiver is vital to the na-12
tional security interests of the United States; 13
(B) a description of the activity that re-14
sulted in the foreign person being subject to 15
sanctions; 16
(C) a detailed description and list of ac-17
tions the United States has taken to stop the 18
International Criminal Court from engaging in 19
any effort to investigate, arrest, detain, or pros-20
ecute all protected persons; and 21
(D) a detailed description and list of ac-22
tions the International Criminal Court has 23
taken to permanently close, withdraw, end, or 24
otherwise terminate any preliminary examina-25
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tion, investigation, or any other effort to inves-1
tigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute all protected 2
persons. 3
(3) F
ORM.—Each report required by paragraph 4
by paragraph (1) shall be submitted in unclassified 5
form but may include a classified annex. 6
(f) S
PECIALRULE.—The President may terminate 7
the sanctions with respect to the foreign persons described 8
in subsection (a) if the President certifies in writing to 9
the appropriate congressional committees that the Inter-10
national Criminal Court— 11
(1) has ceased engaging in any effort to inves-12
tigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute all protected per-13
sons; and 14
(2) has permanently closed, withdrawn, ended, 15
and otherwise terminated any preliminary examina-16
tion, investigation, or any other effort by the Inter-17
national Criminal Court to investigate, arrest, de-18
tain, or prosecute all protected persons. 19
SEC. 4. RESCISSION OF FUNDS FOR INTERNATIONAL 20
CRIMINAL COURT. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Effective on the date of the enact-22
ment of this Act, any amounts appropriated for the Inter-23
national Criminal Court and available for obligation as of 24
such date of enactment are hereby rescinded. 25
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(b) PROHIBITION ONFUTUREAPPROPRIATIONS.— 1
On and after the date of the enactment of this Act, no 2
appropriated funds may be used for the International 3
Criminal Court. 4
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 5
In this Act: 6
(1) A
DMITTED ALIEN.—The terms ‘‘admitted’’ 7
and ‘‘alien’’ have the meanings given those terms in 8
section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 9
(8 U.S.C. 1101). 10
(2) A
LLY OF THE UNITED STATES .—The term 11
‘‘ally of the United States’’ means— 12
(A) a government of a member country of 13
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; or 14
(B) a government of a major non-NATO 15
ally, as that term is defined by section 2013(7) 16
of the American Service-Members’ Protection 17
Act (22 U.S.C. 7432(7)). 18
(3) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -19
TEES DEFINED.—The term ‘‘appropriate congres-20
sional committees’’ means— 21
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the 22
Committee on Financial Services, and the Com-23
mittee on the Judiciary of the House of Rep-24
resentatives; and 25
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(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations 1
the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 2
Urban Affairs, and the Committee on the Judi-3
ciary of the Senate. 4
(4) F
OREIGN PERSON.—The term ‘‘foreign per-5
son’’ means a person that is not a United States 6
person. 7
(5) I
MMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBER .—The term 8
‘‘immediate family member’’, with respect to a for-9
eign person, means the spouse, parent, sibling, or 10
adult child of the person. 11
(6) I
NTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT ; ROME 12
STATUTE.—The terms ‘‘International Criminal 13
Court’’ and ‘‘Rome Statute’’ have the meaning given 14
those terms in section 2013 of the American Service- 15
Members’ Protection Act (22 U.S.C. 7432). 16
(7) P
ROTECTED PERSON.—The term ‘‘protected 17
person’’ means— 18
(A) any United States person, unless the 19
United States provides formal consent to Inter-20
national Criminal Court jurisdiction and is a 21
state party to the Rome Statute of the Inter-22
national Criminal Court, including— 23
(i) current or former members of the 24
Armed Forces of the United States; 25
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(ii) current or former elected or ap-1
pointed officials of the United States Gov-2
ernment; and 3
(iii) any other person currently or for-4
merly employed by or working on behalf of 5
the United States Government; 6
(B) any foreign person that is a citizen or 7
lawful resident of an ally of the United States 8
that has not consented to International Crimi-9
nal Court jurisdiction or is not a state party to 10
the Rome Statute of the International Criminal 11
Court, including— 12
(i) current or former members of the 13
Armed Forces of such ally of the United 14
States; 15
(ii) current or former elected or ap-16
pointed government officials of such ally of 17
the United States; and 18
(iii) any other person currently or for-19
merly employed by or working on behalf of 20
such a government. 21
(8) U
NITED STATES PERSON .—The term 22
‘‘United States person’’ means— 23
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(A) an individual who is a United States 1
citizen or an alien lawfully admitted for perma-2
nent residence to the United States; 3
(B) an entity organized under the laws of 4
the United States or any jurisdiction within the 5
United States, including a foreign branch of 6
such an entity; or 7
(C) any person in the United States. 8
Æ
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