Us Congress 2025 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB2609 Introduced / Bill

Filed 04/08/2025

                    I 
119THCONGRESS 
1
STSESSION H. R. 2609 
To promote education and training to United States diplomatic personnel 
relating to the Abraham Accords and other normalization agreements 
with Israel, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL2, 2025 
Mr. S
CHNEIDER(for himself and Mr. HAMADEHof Arizona) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To promote education and training to United States diplo-
matic personnel relating to the Abraham Accords and 
other normalization agreements with Israel, and for other 
purposes. 
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 ‘‘Promoting Education 4
on the Abraham Accords for Comprehensive Engagement 5
Act’’ or the ‘‘PEACE Act’’. 6
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 7
It is the sense of Congress that— 8
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:04 Apr 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2609.IH H2609
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2 
•HR 2609 IH
(1) educating relevant Federal officials on the 1
provisions of the Abraham Accords, as well as the 2
provisions of prior normalization agreements with 3
Israel, is essential to advancing the United States 4
commitment to peace, cooperation, and stability in 5
the Middle East; 6
(2) the Secretary of State should ensure that 7
United States diplomats and related personnel work-8
ing in the region or on related issues receive com-9
prehensive training on the history, principles, and 10
future applications of the Abraham Accords and 11
other normalization agreements; and 12
(3) the Secretary of State should ensure that 13
United States diplomats are taught about the policy 14
codified in section 104 of the Israel Relations Nor-15
malization Acts of 2022 and future iterations of the 16
policy as amended. 17
SEC. 3. ABRAHAM ACCORDS AND NORMALIZATION EDU-18
CATION AND TRAINING. 19
(a) I
NGENERAL.—To carry out the policy described 20
in section 2, the Secretary of State may undertake the 21
following: 22
(1) Supplementing existing offerings at the 23
Foreign Service Institute and other relevant Depart-24
ment of State training facilities with courses focused 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:04 Apr 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2609.IH H2609
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3 
•HR 2609 IH
on the Abraham Accords, peace agreements with 1
Egypt and Jordan, and other such normalization 2
agreements relating to Israel as determined by the 3
Secretary of State. Such courses shall be developed 4
to provide an understanding of these agreements’ 5
diplomatic history, implementation strategies, and 6
implications for regional peace. 7
(2) Developing virtual training modules and 8
interactive content accessible by employees and offi-9
cers of the Department of State worldwide, focused 10
on the principles, history, and diplomatic impacts of 11
these agreements. 12
(b) S
COPE OFTRAINING.—For purposes of training 13
and education activities implementing subsection (a)(2), 14
the Secretary of State shall determine the countries eligi-15
ble to provide such training in a manner that ensures 16
alignment with current diplomatic landscape and objec-17
tives. 18
SEC. 4. FELLOWSHIPS AND EXCHANGES. 19
The Director General of the Foreign Service is au-20
thorized to award fellowships or grants to eligible Foreign 21
Service officers participating in programs, projects, or ac-22
tivities engaging with appropriate counterparts of Abra-23
ham Accords and other normalization agreement coun-24
tries, as determined by the Secretary of State pursuant 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:04 Apr 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2609.IH H2609
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4 
•HR 2609 IH
to section 3(b), or engaging with regional organizations 1
in the Middle East, including— 2
(1) short-term and long-term fellowships with 3
educational institutions, nongovernmental organiza-4
tions, or diplomatic organizations involved in the ne-5
gotiation and implementation of the Abraham Ac-6
cords and other agreements; and 7
(2) opportunities to collaborate with regional 8
governmental and non-governmental institutions that 9
are part of the Abraham Accords or have normalized 10
relations with Israel. 11
SEC. 5. ABRAHAM ACCORDS AND NORMALIZATION ADVI-12
SORY BOARD. 13
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 180 days after 14
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 15
State shall establish a nonpartisan Abraham Accords and 16
Normalization Advisory Board consisting of 4 individuals 17
with expertise in diplomacy, Middle Eastern studies, inter-18
faith dialogue, and peace-building. 19
(b) M
EMBERSHIP.—The members of the Abraham 20
Accords and Normalization Advisory Board shall be ap-21
pointed as follows: 22
(1) One member each by the Chairperson and 23
Ranking Member of the Committee on Foreign Af-24
fairs of the House of Representatives. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:04 Apr 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2609.IH H2609
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5 
•HR 2609 IH
(2) One member each by the Chairperson and 1
Ranking Member of the Committee on Foreign Rela-2
tions of the Senate. 3
(c) D
UTIES.—The Board shall be responsible for pro-4
viding on a unanimous basis independent advice and rec-5
ommendations on curriculum development, resource man-6
agement, and strategic planning for education and train-7
ing curricula within the Foreign Service Institute and the 8
Department of State relating to the Abraham Accords and 9
other normalization agreements. 10
SEC. 6. STRATEGY AND REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 12
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall develop 13
and submit to the appropriate congressional committees 14
a strategy for the Department of State to implement com-15
prehensive training and education programs focused on 16
the Abraham Accords and other normalization agreements 17
with Israel. 18
(b) E
LEMENTS.—The strategy shall include: 19
(1) A plan for integrating education on the 20
Abraham Accords and other normalization agree-21
ments into existing training frameworks for Foreign 22
Service Officers and other personnel of the Depart-23
ment of State; 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:04 Apr 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2609.IH H2609
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6 
•HR 2609 IH
(2) A description of the unanimous rec-1
ommendations of the Abraham Accords and Normal-2
ization Advisory Board established pursuant to sec-3
tion 5 and a detailed explanation of any departure 4
from such recommendations in the course of imple-5
menting the education and training required by this 6
Act. 7
(3) An outline of training requirements and 8
goals to promote the understanding and operational 9
capacity of United States personnel working with or 10
on issues related to Abraham Accords and normal-11
ization agreements in the relevant countries; and 12
(4) An analysis of the manner and extent to 13
which the implementation of the education and 14
training required by this Act supports the strategy 15
required by section 105 of the Israel Relations Nor-16
malization Act of 2022 (division Z of the Consoli-17
dated Appropriations Act, 2022; 22 U.S.C. 8601 18
note). 19
(c) O
NGOINGREPORTS.—Not later than 1 year after 20
the submission of the report required by subsection (a), 21
and annually thereafter for 4 years, the Secretary of State 22
shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees 23
a report detailing the progress, challenges, and measurable 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:04 Apr 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2609.IH H2609
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 7 
•HR 2609 IH
outcomes of the educational initiatives developed pursuant 1
to this Act. 2
(d) A
PPROPRIATECONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES 3
D
EFINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate con-4
gressional committees’’ means— 5
(1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the 6
Committee on Appropriations of the House of Rep-7
resentatives; and 8
(2) the Committee on Foreign Relations and 9
the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate. 10
Æ 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:04 Apr 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2609.IH H2609
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS