II
Calendar No. 3
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 23
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY9, 2025
Received; read the first time
J
ANUARY13, 2025
Read the second time and placed on the calendar
AN ACT
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
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Illegitimate Court 4
Counteraction Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
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(1) The United States and Israel are not par-1
ties to the Rome Statute or members of the Inter-2
national Criminal Court (ICC), and therefore the 3
ICC has no legitimacy or jurisdiction over the 4
United States or Israel. 5
(2) On May 20, 2024, the Prosecutor of the 6
International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, an-7
nounced arrest warrant applications for Israeli 8
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister 9
of Defense Yoav Gallant and should be condemned 10
in the strongest possible terms. 11
(3) On November 21, 2024, the ICC’s Pre-Trial 12
Chamber issued warrants for the arrest of 13
Netanyahu and Gallant, which should be condemned 14
in the strongest possible terms. 15
(4) The bipartisan American Servicemembers’ 16
Protection Act was enacted in 2002 to protect 17
United States military personnel, United States offi-18
cials, and officials and military personnel of certain 19
allied countries against criminal prosecution by an 20
international criminal court to which the United 21
States is not party, stating, ‘‘In addition to exposing 22
members of the Armed Forces of the United States 23
to the risk of international criminal prosecution, the 24
Rome Statute creates a risk that the President and 25
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other senior elected and appointed officials of the 1
United States Government may be prosecuted by the 2
International Criminal Court.’’. 3
(5) The ICC’s actions against Israel, including 4
the preliminary examination and investigation of 5
Israel and issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli 6
officials, are illegitimate and baseless and create a 7
damaging precedent that threatens the United 8
States, Israel, and all United States partners who 9
have not consented to the ICC’s jurisdiction. 10
(6) The United States must oppose any action 11
by the ICC against the United States, Israel, or any 12
other ally of the United States that has not con-13
sented to ICC jurisdiction or is not a state party to 14
the Rome Statute of the ICC. 15
SEC. 3. SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE INTER-16
NATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT. 17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after the 18
date of enactment of this Act, and on an ongoing basis 19
thereafter, if the International Criminal Court is engaging 20
in any attempt to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute 21
any protected person, the President shall impose— 22
(1) the sanctions described in subsection (b) 23
with respect to any foreign person the President de-24
termines— 25
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(A) has directly engaged in or otherwise 1
aided any effort by the International Criminal 2
Court to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute 3
a protected person; 4
(B) has materially assisted, sponsored, or 5
provided financial, material, or technological 6
support for, or goods or services to or in sup-7
port of any effort by the International Criminal 8
Court to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute 9
a protected person; or 10
(C) is owned or controlled by, or is cur-11
rently acting or purports to have acted, directly 12
or indirectly, for or on behalf of any person 13
that directly engages in any effort by the Inter-14
national Criminal Court to investigate, arrest, 15
detain, or prosecute a protected person; and 16
(2) the sanctions described in subsection (b)(2) 17
with respect to the immediate family members of 18
each foreign person who is subject to sanctions pur-19
suant to paragraph (1). 20
(b) S
ANCTIONSDESCRIBED.—The sanctions de-21
scribed in this subsection with respect to a foreign person 22
described in subsection (a) are the following: 23
(1) P
ROPERTY BLOCKING.—The President shall 24
exercise all of the powers granted by the Inter-25
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national Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 1
U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to the extent necessary to block 2
and prohibit all transactions in all property and in-3
terests in property of any foreign person described 4
in subsection (a)(1) if such property and interests in 5
property are in the United States, come within the 6
United States, or are or come within the possession 7
or control of a United States person. 8
(2) A
LIENS INADMISSIBLE FOR VISAS , ADMIS-9
SION, OR PAROLE.— 10
(A) V
ISAS, ADMISSION, OR PAROLE.—In 11
the case of an alien described in subsection (a), 12
the alien is— 13
(i) inadmissible to the United States; 14
(ii) ineligible to receive a visa or other 15
documentation to enter the United States; 16
and 17
(iii) otherwise ineligible to be admitted 18
or paroled into the United States or to re-19
ceive any other benefit under the Immigra-20
tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et 21
seq.). 22
(B) C
URRENT VISAS REVOKED .— 23
(i) I
N GENERAL.—The visa or other 24
entry documentation of an alien described 25
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in subparagraph (A) shall be revoked, re-1
gardless of when such visa or other entry 2
documentation was issued. 3
(ii) I
MMEDIATE EFFECT .—A revoca-4
tion under clause (i) shall— 5
(I) take effect immediately; and 6
(II) automatically cancel any 7
other valid visa or entry documenta-8
tion that is in the alien’s possession. 9
(c) I
MPLEMENTATION; PENALTIES.— 10
(1) I
MPLEMENTATION.—The President may ex-11
ercise all authorities provided under sections 203 12
and 205 of the International Emergency Economic 13
Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702 and 1704) to carry out 14
this section. 15
(2) P
ENALTIES.—A person that violates, at-16
tempts to violate, conspires to violate, or causes a 17
violation of this section or any regulation, license, or 18
order issued to carry out this section shall be subject 19
to the penalties set forth in subsections (b) and (c) 20
of section 206 of the International Emergency Eco-21
nomic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to the same ex-22
tent as a person that commits an unlawful act de-23
scribed in subsection (a) of that section. 24
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(d) NOTIFICATION TOCONGRESS.—Not later than 10 1
days after any imposition of sanctions pursuant to sub-2
section (a), the President shall brief and provide written 3
notification to the appropriate congressional committees 4
regarding the imposition of sanctions that shall include— 5
(1) a description of the foreign person or per-6
sons subject to the imposition of such sanctions, in-7
cluding the foreign person’s role at or relation to the 8
International Criminal Court; 9
(2) a description of any activity undertaken by 10
such foreign person or persons in support of efforts 11
to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any pro-12
tected person; and 13
(3) the specific sanctions imposed on such for-14
eign person or persons. 15
(e) W
AIVER.— 16
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The President may, on a 17
case-by-case basis and for periods not to exceed 90 18
days each, waive the application of sanctions im-19
posed or maintained with respect to a foreign person 20
under this section if the President submits to the 21
appropriate congressional committees before the 22
waiver is to take effect a report that contains a de-23
termination of the President that the waiver is vital 24
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to the national security interests of the United 1
States. 2
(2) C
ONTENTS.—Each report required by para-3
graph (1) with respect to a waiver of the application 4
of sanctions imposed or maintained with respect to 5
a foreign person under this section, or the renewal 6
of such a waiver, shall include— 7
(A) a specific and detailed rationale for the 8
determination that the waiver is vital to the na-9
tional security interests of the United States; 10
(B) a description of the activity that re-11
sulted in the foreign person being subject to 12
sanctions; 13
(C) a detailed description and list of ac-14
tions the United States has taken to stop the 15
International Criminal Court from engaging in 16
any effort to investigate, arrest, detain, or pros-17
ecute all protected persons; and 18
(D) a detailed description and list of ac-19
tions the International Criminal Court has 20
taken to permanently close, withdraw, end, or 21
otherwise terminate any preliminary examina-22
tion, investigation, or any other effort to inves-23
tigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute all protected 24
persons. 25
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(3) FORM.—Each report required by paragraph 1
by paragraph (1) shall be submitted in unclassified 2
form but may include a classified annex. 3
(f) S
PECIALRULE.—The President may terminate 4
the sanctions with respect to the foreign persons described 5
in subsection (a) if the President certifies in writing to 6
the appropriate congressional committees that the Inter-7
national Criminal Court— 8
(1) has ceased engaging in any effort to inves-9
tigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute all protected per-10
sons; and 11
(2) has permanently closed, withdrawn, ended, 12
and otherwise terminated any preliminary examina-13
tion, investigation, or any other effort by the Inter-14
national Criminal Court to investigate, arrest, de-15
tain, or prosecute all protected persons. 16
SEC. 4. RESCISSION OF FUNDS FOR INTERNATIONAL 17
CRIMINAL COURT. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Effective on the date of the enact-19
ment of this Act, any amounts appropriated for the Inter-20
national Criminal Court and available for obligation as of 21
such date of enactment are hereby rescinded. 22
(b) P
ROHIBITION ONFUTUREAPPROPRIATIONS.— 23
On and after the date of the enactment of this Act, no 24
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appropriated funds may be used for the International 1
Criminal Court. 2
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 3
In this Act: 4
(1) A
DMITTED ALIEN.—The terms ‘‘admitted’’ 5
and ‘‘alien’’ have the meanings given those terms in 6
section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 7
(8 U.S.C. 1101). 8
(2) A
LLY OF THE UNITED STATES .—The term 9
‘‘ally of the United States’’ means— 10
(A) a government of a member country of 11
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; or 12
(B) a government of a major non-NATO 13
ally, as that term is defined by section 2013(7) 14
of the American Service-Members’ Protection 15
Act (22 U.S.C. 7432(7)). 16
(3) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -17
TEES DEFINED.—The term ‘‘appropriate congres-18
sional committees’’ means— 19
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the 20
Committee on Financial Services, and the Com-21
mittee on the Judiciary of the House of Rep-22
resentatives; and 23
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations 24
the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 25
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Urban Affairs, and the Committee on the Judi-1
ciary of the Senate. 2
(4) F
OREIGN PERSON.—The term ‘‘foreign per-3
son’’ means a person that is not a United States 4
person. 5
(5) I
MMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBER .—The term 6
‘‘immediate family member’’, with respect to a for-7
eign person, means the spouse, parent, sibling, or 8
adult child of the person. 9
(6) I
NTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT ; ROME 10
STATUTE.—The terms ‘‘International Criminal 11
Court’’ and ‘‘Rome Statute’’ have the meaning given 12
those terms in section 2013 of the American Service- 13
Members’ Protection Act (22 U.S.C. 7432). 14
(7) P
ROTECTED PERSON.—The term ‘‘protected 15
person’’ means— 16
(A) any United States person, unless the 17
United States provides formal consent to Inter-18
national Criminal Court jurisdiction and is a 19
state party to the Rome Statute of the Inter-20
national Criminal Court, including— 21
(i) current or former members of the 22
Armed Forces of the United States; 23
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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
Passed the House of Representatives January 9,
2025.
Attest: KEVIN F. MCCUMBER,
Clerk.
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3
119
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
H. R. 23
AN ACT
To impose sanctions with respect to the Inter-
national Criminal Court engaged in any effort to
investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any pro-
tected person of the United States and its allies.
J
ANUARY
13, 2025
Read the second time and placed on the calendar
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