II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 898
To restore funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH6, 2025
Mr. W
ELCH(for himself, Mr. MERKLEY, Mr. SANDERS, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr.
V
ANHOLLEN, Ms. SMITH, and Ms. HIRONO) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Re-
lations
A BILL
To restore funding for the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
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 ‘‘UNRWA Funding 4
Emergency Restoration Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 6
Congress— 7
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(1) recognizes that preventing further erosion 1
of civilian conditions in Gaza remains in the stra-2
tegic and moral interests of the United States; 3
(2) supports UNRWA’s unique and indispen-4
sable contribution to immediately addressing urgent 5
humanitarian needs in Gaza, especially in mitigating 6
and stopping the spread of famine and disease; 7
(3) reaffirms the imperative of UNRWA’s con-8
tinued provision of humanitarian and human devel-9
opment services to Palestinian refugees in all its cur-10
rent fields of operation, including Jordan, Lebanon, 11
Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank (including East Je-12
rusalem); 13
(4) urges the Government of Israel to assist 14
UNRWA in its neutrality efforts by providing 15
names, information, and evidence UNRWA can use 16
to aggressively pursue allegations related to staff 17
violations of UNRWA’s neutrality policies; 18
(5) urges the President— 19
(A) to join United States allies in restoring 20
funding to UNRWA in response to the respon-21
sible actions taken by the United Nations and 22
the commitments made by UNRWA toward ad-23
ditional accountability and transparency; and 24
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(B) to ensure continued funding to 1
UNRWA is assessed based on UNRWA’s ongo-2
ing execution of the recommendations of the 3
Independent Review Group, led by Catherine 4
Colonna; 5
(6) recognizes the implementation of some of 6
the Independent Review Group’s recommendations 7
will require United Nations member state coopera-8
tion, including additional funding; 9
(7) urges the United States and Israel to assist 10
UNRWA in its implementation efforts of the Inde-11
pendent Review Group’s recommendations; and 12
(8) supports appropriating critical funds to 13
UNRWA for fiscal year 2025 and beyond. 14
SEC. 3. RESTORATION OF FUNDING FOR UNRWA. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Beginning on the date of the en-16
actment of this Act— 17
(1) title III of division G of the Further Con-18
solidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (Public Law 19
118–47) is hereby repealed; 20
(2) section 308 of the Israel Security Supple-21
mental Appropriations Act, 2024 (division A of Pub-22
lic Law 118–50) is hereby repealed; and 23
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(3) the Secretary of State shall, notwith-1
standing any other provision of law and as soon as 2
practicable— 3
(A) resume the provision of funding to 4
UNRWA under current authorities of the De-5
partment of State; and 6
(B) provide funding to UNRWA consistent 7
with the Secretary’s waiver for lifesaving hu-8
manitarian aid; and 9
(4) the President shall rescind the Executive 10
order entitled ‘‘Withdrawing the United States From 11
and Ending Funding to Certain United Nations Or-12
ganizations and Reviewing United States Support to 13
All International Organizations’’ of February 4, 14
2025 (90 Fed. Reg. 9275). 15
(b) R
EPORTS.—Not later than 90 days after the date 16
of the enactment of this Act, and quarterly thereafter 17
through December 31, 2028, the Secretary of State shall 18
submit a report to the appropriate congressional commit-19
tees of jurisdiction describing the steps UNRWA is taking 20
to implement the recommendations made by the Inde-21
pendent Review Group, led by Catherine Colonna. 22
Æ
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