Sponsors (7)
Requires sanctions and visa bans on PLO/PA officials, entities, and foreign banks that operate or facilitate a system of payments rewarding terrorism, and restricts U.S. correspondent accounts for such banks.
Official title: To impose sanctions with respect to the system of compensation of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority that supports acts of terrorism.
Introduced February 27, 2025 by Michael Lawler · Last progress February 27, 2025
The bill strengthens U.S. tools to deny funds, travel, and financial access to actors tied to payments that incentivize terrorism—improving enforcement and leverage—while risking humanitarian harm, expanded immigration/rights impacts, higher costs for banks and customers, and potential diplomatic downsides if sanctions reduce U.S. negotiating flexibility.
People and institutions that finance or facilitate payments tied to terrorism will face U.S. asset blocks, visa/entry bans, and transaction restrictions, reducing their ability to use U.S. financial systems and travel to the U.S., which helps cut funding streams to violent actors.
The bill clarifies key definitions (e.g., who is a 'United States person,' what counts as an act of terrorism, and what comprises the PA/PLO 'system of compensation') and names oversight committees, improving legal certainty and making enforcement and aid conditions easier to implement and challenge.
Targeting foreign banks' access to U.S. correspondent and payable‑through accounts strengthens U.S. leverage (and helps protect U.S. banks and depositors) by making sanctions against designated parties harder to evade.
Palestinian civilians, migrants, and low‑income families could face reduced humanitarian aid, disrupted charitable channels, and impaired remittances if sanctions or aid conditions cut off funding pathways, worsening humanitarian conditions on the ground.
Conditioning aid and imposing sanctions may reduce U.S. diplomatic leverage, complicate negotiations, provoke retaliation or escalation by regional actors, and ultimately increase political and security risks for U.S. interests.
Broad definitions and a 'knowingly' standard that includes 'should have known,' plus tying terms to criminal/immigration statutes, could sweep in non‑violent individuals, humanitarian actors, and charities—creating serious rights and liberty concerns and risking exclusion of legitimate actors.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Requires the President to impose sanctions on officials, entities, and foreign financial institutions that operate, facilitate, or process payments, salaries, or benefits from the PLO/Palestinian Authority that support or reward acts of terrorism, and to block U.S. correspondent and payable-through accounts for banks that process such funds. Sanctions include blocking property under IEEPA and mandatory visa ineligibility and revocation for covered persons; the measures apply within 90 days of enactment and continue unless the Secretary of State certifies the PLO/PA has ended the compensation system.