PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Congressional Research Service
No official summary is available in the imported record yet.
People & committees
Rep. Lawler, Michael [R-NY-17] · R–NY
Legislative record
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Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We also preserved the text version used in the PlainBill explanation below.
Source last updated: Jan 10, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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PlainBill explanation
Based on the full Introduced in House · 2025-02-27 text. This explanation has not received human editorial review. This overview describes the proposal’s major provisions; it does not establish what its real-world effects would be.
The proposed PLO and PA Terror Payments Accountability Act of 2025 would require sanctions over the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority compensation system described in the bill as supporting terrorism. It would target covered officials, payment providers, organizations, supporters, and foreign financial institutions. Sanctions would block covered property transactions, restrict immigration benefits, and limit specified U.S. financial accounts. The bill would stop having effect only after the Secretary of State certifies that the compensation system has ended.
This Act may be cited as the PLO and PA Terror Payments Accountability Act of 2025.
The President shall exercise all of the powers granted to the President under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to the extent necessary to block and prohibit all transactions in property and interests in property of the foreign person if such property and interests in property are in the United States, come within the United States, or are or come within the possession or control of a United States person.
otherwise ineligible to be admitted or paroled into the United States or to receive any other benefit under the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.).
The President shall prohibit the opening, and prohibit or impose strict conditions on the maintaining, in the United States of a correspondent account or a payable-through account by a foreign financial institution described in subsection (a).
The provisions of this Act shall have no force or effect only if the Secretary of State certifies in writing to the appropriate congressional committees that the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority system of compensation providing payments, salaries, and benefits to terrorists and the families of terrorists that incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts of terrorism as described in this Act, has ceased to be in effect and is no longer taking place.
Section 2 presents congressional findings alleging that the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority continued a compensation system supporting terrorism despite the Taylor Force Act. It would declare U.S. policy to hold those organizations accountable, including through sanctions. These are the bill's stated findings and policy, not independently established effects.
Despite the enactment of the Taylor Force Act, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority have continued their system of compensation that incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts of terrorism.
It shall be the policy of the United States to hold the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority accountable including through the imposition of sanctions for providing payments, salaries, and benefits to terrorists and the families of terrorists as part of a system compensation that incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts of terrorism.
The bill defines terrorism and the covered compensation system by referring to existing federal laws. Those referenced definitions are not reproduced in the supplied text.
The term act of terrorism— (A) means an act of international terrorism (as defined in section 2331 of title 18, United States Code); and (B) includes the meanings given the terms terrorist activity and engage in terrorist activity by section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3)(B)).
The term system of compensation, with respect to the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, means the payments described in subparagraph (B) of section 1004(a)(1) of the Taylor Force Act (22 U.S.C. 2378c–1) and the system of compensation described in subparagraph (C) of that section.
A “foreign person” would mean a person or entity outside the bill's definition of a United States person. That U.S. definition includes citizens, lawful permanent residents, U.S.-organized entities and their foreign branches, and people in the United States.
The term foreign person means any person or entity that is not a United States person.
The term United States person means— (A) a United States citizen or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence to the United States; (B) an entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States, including a foreign branch of such an entity; or (C) a person in the United States.
Where the bill requires someone to act “knowingly,” it would cover both actual knowledge and circumstances in which the person should have known.
The term knowingly, with respect to conduct, a circumstance, or a result, means that a person had actual knowledge, or should have known, of the conduct, the circumstance, or the result.
Section 4 would require the President to impose sanctions within 90 days after enactment and continue imposing them on an ongoing basis.
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and an ongoing basis thereafter, the President shall impose the sanctions described in subsection (b)
The sanctions criteria would reach foreign people who have served as representatives, ministers, officials, or employees of the Palestine Liberation Organization or Palestinian Authority, or of another foreign person involved in the compensation system. They would also cover foreign people or entities that provided payments, salaries, or benefits under that system.
(1) any foreign person that— (A) has served in a position as a representative, minister, official, or employee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Palestinian Authority, or any other foreign person that has directed, authorized, been responsible for, materially assisted with, enacted, implemented, or otherwise facilitated the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority system of compensation supporting acts of terrorism; or (B) has provided payments, salaries, and benefits to terrorists and the families of terrorists as part of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority system of compensation supporting acts of terrorism;
The bill would also target entities that directly or indirectly operated, controlled, directed, or otherwise facilitated the compensation system. It names four organizations and includes their successors and affiliated bodies.
any entity that directly or indirectly has operated, ordered, controlled, directed, or otherwise facilitated the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority system of compensation supporting acts of terrorism including the Commission of Prisoners and Released Prisoners, the Institute for the Care of the Families of the Martyrs and the Wounded, the Palestine National Fund, National Association of the Families of the Martyrs of Palestine, or any successor, agency, instrumentality, organization, or affiliated entities thereof;
Foreign people or entities that knowingly provided significant financial, technological, or material support to covered persons, or knowingly engaged in significant transactions with them, would also face sanctions. The bill takes the meaning of “material support or resources” from another federal statute.
any foreign person that has knowingly provided significant financial, technological, or material support and resources support to, or knowingly engaged in a significant transaction with a foreign person described in subparagraph (1) or (2).
The term material support or resources has the meaning given that term in section 2339A(b) of title 18, United States Code.
Property sanctions would block transactions involving a covered foreign person's property or interests in property located in or entering the United States, or in or coming within the possession or control of a United States person. The President would use powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose these restrictions.
The President shall exercise all of the powers granted to the President under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to the extent necessary to block and prohibit all transactions in property and interests in property of the foreign person if such property and interests in property are in the United States, come within the United States, or are or come within the possession or control of a United States person.
Covered noncitizens would be inadmissible to the United States and ineligible for visas or other entry documents, admission, parole into the United States, or any other benefits under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
An alien described in subsection (a) is— (i) inadmissible to the United States; (ii) ineligible to receive a visa or other documentation to enter the United States; and (iii) otherwise ineligible to be admitted or paroled into the United States or to receive any other benefit under the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.).
Covered noncitizens would be subject to revocation of visas or entry documents regardless of when issued. A revocation would take effect immediately and automatically cancel any other valid visa or entry documentation in the person's possession.
An alien described in subsection (a) is subject to revocation of any visa or other entry documentation regardless of when the visa or other entry documentation is or was issued.
A revocation under clause (i) shall— (I) take effect immediately; and (II) automatically cancel any other valid visa or entry documentation that is in the alien’s possession.
Violating section 4 or its implementing regulations—including attempts, conspiracies, and causing violations—would trigger the referenced penalties under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The bill does not reproduce those penalties.
The penalties provided for in subsections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) shall apply to a person that violates, attempts to violate, conspires to violate, or causes a violation of this section or any regulations promulgated to carry out this section to the same extent that such penalties apply to a person that commits an unlawful act described in section 206(a) of that Act.
The chair or ranking member of specified congressional committees could request a determination about whether a person meets section 4's sanctions criteria. Within 30 days, the President would have to decide and report whether sanctions were imposed or intended. The report could be classified or unclassified.
Not later than 30 days after receiving a request from the chairman or ranking member of one of the appropriate congressional committees with respect to whether a person meets the criteria of a person described in subsection (a), the President shall— (1) determine if the person meets such criteria; and (2) submit a classified or unclassified report to the chairman or ranking member, that submitted the request with respect to that determination that includes a statement of whether or not the President imposed or intends to impose sanctions with respect to the person.
The term appropriate congressional committees means— (A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives; and (B) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate.
The President could use specified existing emergency economic powers to implement section 4. Necessary regulations or other guidance would have to be issued within 60 days after enactment.
The President may exercise all authorities provided under sections 203 and 205 of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702 and 1704) for purposes of carrying out this section.
Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall issue such regulations or other guidance as may be necessary for the implementation of this section.
Section 5 would require sanctions against covered foreign financial institutions within 90 days after enactment and on an ongoing basis. It covers processing or facilitating compensation transactions or other conduct described in section 4(a), as well as knowingly conducting or facilitating significant financial transactions with foreign persons subject to section 4(a) sanctions.
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and on an ongoing basis thereafter, the President shall impose the sanctions described in subsection (c) with respect to each foreign financial institution that engages in the activities described in subsection (b).
A foreign financial institution engages in an activity described in this subsection if the institution— (1) processes, participates in, facilitates, or provides a transaction that are payments, salaries, or benefits, or any other conduct described in section 4(a); or (2) knowingly conducted or facilitated any significant financial transaction with any foreign person subject to sanctions under section 4(a).
For covered foreign financial institutions, the President would have to prohibit opening specified U.S. banking accounts and either prohibit keeping them or impose strict conditions. The affected account types are called correspondent and payable-through accounts; their precise scope, and the definition of a foreign financial institution, come from authorities not reproduced in the bill.
The President shall prohibit the opening, and prohibit or impose strict conditions on the maintaining, in the United States of a correspondent account or a payable-through account by a foreign financial institution described in subsection (a).
The terms correspondent account and payable-through account have the meanings given those terms in section 5318A of title 31, United States Code.
The term foreign financial institution has the meaning of that term as determined by the Secretary of the Treasury pursuant to section 104(i) of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 (22 U.S.C. 8513(i)).
The bill sets no calendar expiration date. Its provisions would cease to have effect only if the Secretary of State certifies in writing to the specified congressional committees that the described compensation system has ceased to be in effect and is no longer taking place.
The provisions of this Act shall have no force or effect only if the Secretary of State certifies in writing to the appropriate congressional committees that the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority system of compensation providing payments, salaries, and benefits to terrorists and the families of terrorists that incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts of terrorism as described in this Act, has ceased to be in effect and is no longer taking place.
The supplied official-actions snapshot, updated January 10, 2026, records introduction in the House on February 27, 2025, and referral that day to the Foreign Affairs, Financial Services, and Judiciary committees. This snapshot does not establish subsequent action or enactment.
Source snapshot updated 2026-01-10T07:23:10Z.
2025-02-27: Introduced in House
2025-02-27: Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
A closer look
Reviewed version: Introduced in House · 2025-02-27. These findings describe provisions and who may benefit; they are not judgments of waste, corruption, or motive.
This review covers the supplied bill text. “None identified” does not rule out provisions in later versions or accompanying reports and disclosures.
Provisions outside the bill’s main subject, or policy changes attached to appropriations.
None identified in the reviewed text
No unrelated provision or policy change attached to appropriations was identified after reviewing the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Spending directed to particular recipients or places outside ordinary competitive or formula-based allocation.
None identified in the reviewed text
No congressionally directed spending for particular recipients or places was identified after reviewing the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Narrow exceptions, exemptions, or preferential treatment that warrant a closer look.
None identified in the reviewed text
No materially narrow preferential benefit, exemption, or carve-out was identified after reviewing the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Full text preserved for this analysis. Legislative record snapshot: Jan 10, 2026. How PlainBill uses AI