Sponsors (13)
Last progress October 31, 2025 (4 months ago)
Introduced on October 31, 2025 by James R. Walkinshaw
Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Expresses the House’s view that the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi and other acts of “transnational repression” are serious abuses, notes past U.S. sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act, and urges the Government of Saudi Arabia to hold responsible parties accountable, release people alleged to be wrongfully detained, and protect basic rights such as free assembly, association, and press. The resolution is a nonbinding statement of Congress’s position and does not create new legal obligations or funding.
Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist who fled Saudi Arabia to live in Virginia and was killed and dismembered by agents of the Government of Saudi Arabia in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018.
In February 2021 the U.S. Government submitted an unclassified report to Congress and announced the “Khashoggi Ban,” which allows the Department of State to impose visa restrictions on people who directly engage in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities (such as suppressing, harassing, surveilling, threatening, or harming journalists or activists).
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence found that Muhammad bin Salman (the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia) approved an operation in Istanbul to capture or kill Jamal Khashoggi.
The preamble quotes Freedom House’s definition of “transnational repression” as governments reaching across borders to silence dissent among diasporas and exiles by means including assassinations, illegal deportations, abductions, digital threats, Interpol abuse, and family intimidation.
According to Freedom House, the Governments of Iran, the People’s Republic of China, Egypt, the Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, and other states are increasingly disregarding U.S. laws to threaten, harass, surveil, stalk, and sometimes plot physical harm to individuals in the United States.
Direct legal impact is minimal because the resolution is nonbinding. Primary effects are political and diplomatic: it publicly pressures the Government of Saudi Arabia to investigate and punish those responsible for Khashoggi’s killing, to release detainees alleged to be wrongfully held, and to protect freedoms for activists, journalists, and dissidents. Affected groups include exiled journalists and dissidents who may receive increased international attention and advocacy; U.S. citizens named as targets who may find reinforced political support; and U.S.–Saudi diplomatic relations, which could face increased strain as Congress signals human-rights concerns. The resolution could also influence executive-branch policy decisions (e.g., diplomacy, sanctions reviews), civil society advocacy, and media coverage, but it does not itself change U.S. law, funding, or sanctions.
Updated 26 minutes ago
Last progress October 29, 2025 (4 months ago)