II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 198
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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY22, 2025
Mr. C
OTTON(for himself, Mr. CRAMER, Mr. BUDD, Mr. SCOTTof Florida,
Mr. H
AGERTY, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. RICKETTS, Mr. CRUZ, and Mr.
S
CHMITT) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
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
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; STATEMENT OF POLICY. 6
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-7
ings: 8
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(1) The Palestine Liberation Organization and 1
the Palestinian Authority provide hundreds of mil-2
lions of dollars per year in payments, salaries, and 3
benefits to terrorists and the families of terrorists as 4
part of a system compensation that incentivizes, en-5
courages, rewards, and supports acts of terrorism. 6
(2) The Palestine Liberation Organization and 7
the Palestinian Authority policies, laws, and regula-8
tions that direct, authorize, enact, facilitate, and im-9
plement a system of compensation in support of acts 10
of terrorism require payments, salaries, and benefits 11
to terrorists including those who are members and 12
part of organizations designated as foreign terrorist 13
organizations by the Secretary of State under sec-14
tion 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 15
U.S.C. 1189), including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, 16
that receive direct support including financial and 17
military assistance from Iran, the leading state 18
sponsor of terrorism in the world. 19
(3) In 2018, Congress passed the Taylor Force 20
Act (title X of division S of Public Law 115–141; 21
132 Stat. 1143) into law that calls on the Palestine 22
Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Author-23
ity to end their system of compensation that 24
incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts 25
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of terrorism and restricts United States assistance 1
‘‘that directly benefits the Palestinian Authority’’ 2
unless the Secretary of State certifies to Congress 3
that the Palestine Liberation Organization and the 4
Palestinian Authority have met specific conditions 5
including terminating that system of compensation 6
and revoking the policies, laws, and regulations that 7
authorize and implement the system of compensa-8
tion. 9
(4) Despite the enactment of the Taylor Force 10
Act, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the 11
Palestinian Authority have continued their system of 12
compensation that incentivizes, encourages, rewards, 13
and supports acts of terrorism. 14
(5) On October 7, 2023, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, 15
and other Gaza-based terrorist organizations at-16
tacked Israel on Shabbat and during the Jewish hol-17
iday of Simchat Torah, committing the deadliest at-18
tack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. 19
(6) On October 7, 2023, Hamas fired thou-20
sands of rockets into Israel, deliberately targeting 21
Israeli civilians, and thousands of terrorists invaded 22
Israeli communities—massacring, raping, torturing, 23
decapitating, burning alive, seriously injuring, and 24
kidnapping Israelis and Americans, including men, 25
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women, children, babies, and grandparents, and in-1
cluding Holocaust survivors, with children being 2
murdered in front of their parents and parents being 3
murdered in front of their children. 4
(7) On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered more 5
than 1,200 who were mostly civilians, and kidnapped 6
more than 240, including Israeli and American men, 7
women, children, babies, and grandparents, and took 8
them to Gaza as hostages. 9
(b) S
TATEMENT OF POLICY.—It shall be the policy 10
of the United States to hold the Palestine Liberation Or-11
ganization and the Palestinian Authority accountable in-12
cluding through the imposition of sanctions for providing 13
payments, salaries, and benefits to terrorists and the fami-14
lies of terrorists as part of a system compensation that 15
incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts of 16
terrorism. 17
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 18
In this Act: 19
(1) A
CT OF TERRORISM.—The term ‘‘act of ter-20
rorism’’— 21
(A) means an act of international ter-22
rorism (as defined in section 2331 of title 18, 23
United States Code); and 24
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(B) includes the meanings given the terms 1
‘‘terrorist activity’’ and ‘‘engage in terrorist ac-2
tivity’’ by section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigra-3
tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 4
1182(a)(3)(B)). 5
(2) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -6
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-7
mittees’’ means— 8
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 9
the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 10
Representatives; and 11
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations, 12
the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 13
Urban Affairs, and the Committee on the Judi-14
ciary of the Senate. 15
(3) F
OREIGN PERSON.—The term ‘‘foreign per-16
son’’ means any person or entity that is not a 17
United States person. 18
(4) K
NOWINGLY.—The term ‘‘knowingly’’, with 19
respect to conduct, a circumstance, or a result, 20
means that a person had actual knowledge, or 21
should have known, of the conduct, the cir-22
cumstance, or the result. 23
(5) S
YSTEM OF COMPENSATION .—The term 24
‘‘system of compensation’’, with respect to the Pales-25
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tinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Or-1
ganization, means the payments described in sub-2
paragraph (B) of section 1004(a)(1) of the Taylor 3
Force Act (22 U.S.C. 2378c–1(a)(1)) and the sys-4
tem of compensation described in subparagraph (C) 5
of that section. 6
(6) U
NITED STATES PERSON .—The term 7
‘‘United States person’’ means— 8
(A) a United States citizen or an alien law-9
fully admitted for permanent residence to the 10
United States; 11
(B) an entity organized under the laws of 12
the United States or any jurisdiction within the 13
United States, including a foreign branch of 14
such an entity; or 15
(C) a person in the United States. 16
SEC. 4. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS ON CERTAIN FOREIGN 17
PERSONS SUPPORTING TERRORISM. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 19
date of the enactment of this Act, and an ongoing basis 20
thereafter, the President shall impose the sanctions de-21
scribed in subsection (b) on— 22
(1) any foreign person that— 23
(A) has served in a position as a represent-24
ative, minister, official, or employee of the Pal-25
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estine Liberation Organization, the Palestinian 1
Authority, or any other foreign person that has 2
directed, authorized, been responsible for, mate-3
rially assisted with, enacted, implemented, or 4
otherwise facilitated the Palestine Liberation 5
Organization and the Palestinian Authority sys-6
tem of compensation supporting acts of ter-7
rorism; or 8
(B) has provided payments, salaries, and 9
benefits to terrorists and the families of terror-10
ists as part of the Palestine Liberation Organi-11
zation and the Palestinian Authority system of 12
compensation supporting acts of terrorism; 13
(2) any entity that directly or indirectly has op-14
erated, ordered, controlled, directed, or otherwise fa-15
cilitated the Palestine Liberation Organization and 16
the Palestinian Authority system of compensation 17
supporting acts of terrorism including the Commis-18
sion of Prisoners and Released Prisoners, the Insti-19
tute for the Care of the Families of the Martyrs and 20
the Wounded, the Palestine National Fund, National 21
Association of the Families of the Martyrs of Pal-22
estine, or any successor, agency, instrumentality, or-23
ganization, or affiliated entities thereof; or 24
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(3) any foreign person that has knowingly pro-1
vided significant financial, technological, or material 2
support and resources support to, or knowingly en-3
gaged in a significant transaction with a foreign per-4
son described in subparagraphs (1) or (2). 5
(b) S
ANCTIONSDESCRIBED.—The sanctions that 6
shall be imposed with respect to a foreign person described 7
in subsection (a) are the following: 8
(1) B
LOCKING OF PROPERTY .—The President 9
shall exercise all of the powers granted to the Presi-10
dent under the International Emergency Economic 11
Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to the extent 12
necessary to block and prohibit all transactions in 13
property and interests in property of the foreign per-14
son if such property and interests in property are in 15
the United States, come within the United States, or 16
are or come within the possession or control of a 17
United States person. 18
(2) I
NELIGIBILITY FOR VISAS, ADMISSION, OR 19
PAROLE.— 20
(A) V
ISAS, ADMISSION, OR PAROLE.—An 21
alien described in subsection (a) is— 22
(i) inadmissible to the United States; 23
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(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
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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
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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) M
ATERIALSUPPORT ORRESOURCESDEFINED.— 8
In this section, the term ‘‘material support or resources’’ 9
has the meaning given that term in section 2339A(b) of 10
title 18, United States Code. 11
SEC. 5. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO FI-12
NANCIAL INSTITUTIONS THAT FACILITATE 13
TRANSACTIONS SUPPORTING TERRORISM. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 15
date of the enactment of this Act, and on an ongoing basis 16
thereafter, the President shall impose the sanctions de-17
scribed in subsection (c) with respect to each foreign fi-18
nancial institution that engages in the activities described 19
in subsection (b). 20
(b) A
CTIVITIESDESCRIBED.—A foreign financial in-21
stitution engages in an activity described in this subsection 22
if the institution— 23
(1) processes, participates in, facilitates, or pro-24
vides a transaction that are payments, salaries, or 25
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benefits, or any other conduct described in section 1
4(a); or 2
(2) knowingly conducted or facilitated any sig-3
nificant financial transaction with any foreign per-4
son subject to sanctions under section 4(a). 5
(c) S
ANCTIONSDESCRIBED.—The President shall 6
prohibit the opening, and prohibit or impose strict condi-7
tions on the maintaining, in the United States of a cor-8
respondent account or a payable-through account by a for-9
eign financial institution described in subsection (a). 10
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 11
(1) C
ORRESPONDENT ACCOUNT ; PAYABLE- 12
THROUGH ACCOUNT .—The terms ‘‘correspondent ac-13
count’’ and ‘‘payable-through account’’ have the 14
meanings given those terms in section 5318A of title 15
31, United States Code. 16
(2) F
OREIGN FINANCIAL INSTITUTION .—The 17
term ‘‘foreign financial institution’’ has the meaning 18
of that term as determined by the Secretary of the 19
Treasury pursuant to section 104(i) of the Com-20
prehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Di-21
vestment Act of 2010 (22 U.S.C. 8513(i)). 22
SEC. 6. TERMINATION. 23
The provisions of this Act shall have no force or effect 24
only if the Secretary of State certifies in writing to the 25
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appropriate congressional committees that the Palestine 1
Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority 2
system of compensation providing payments, salaries, and 3
benefits to terrorists and the families of terrorists that 4
incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts of 5
terrorism as described in this Act, has ceased to be in ef-6
fect and is no longer taking place. 7
Æ
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