S. 198 — PLO and PA Terror Payments Accountability Act of 2025

This section sets forth congressional findings that the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority provide hundreds of millions of dollars per year in payments, salaries, and benefits to terrorists and their families—including members of foreign terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad—as part of a system that incentivizes terrorism; that this system persists despite the Taylor Force Act, which restricts U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority unless it terminates such payments; and that Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorists conducted deadly attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, murdering more than 1,200 people (mostly civilians) and kidnapping more than 240. The section declares it the policy of the United States to hold the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority accountable—including through sanctions—for such payments.

This section defines terms for purposes of the Act: (1) act of terrorism, as an act of international terrorism under 18 U.S.C. 2331 or as terrorist activity or engaging in terrorist activity under section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3)(B)); (2) appropriate congressional committees, as the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Judiciary and the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations, Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and Judiciary; (3) foreign person, as any person or entity that is not a United States person; (4) knowingly, as having actual knowledge or should have known of the conduct, circumstance, or result; (5) system of compensation, with respect to the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization, as the payments described in section 1004(a)(1)(B) and (C) of the Taylor Force Act (22 U.S.C. 2378c–1(a)(1)(B), (C)); and (6) United States person, as a U.S. citizen, alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, entity organized under U.S. laws (including foreign branches), or person in the United States.

This section directs the President, not later than 90 days after enactment and on an ongoing basis, to impose sanctions on (1) foreign persons who have served in specified roles with or provided payments to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) or Palestinian Authority (PA) system of compensation supporting terrorism; (2) entities, 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, and the National Association of the Families of the Martyrs of Palestine (or successors or affiliates), that have operated or facilitated that system; and (3) foreign persons that knowingly provide significant financial, technological, or material support to persons or entities described in (1) or (2). The required sanctions are (1) blocking and prohibiting all transactions in any property or interests in property of sanctioned persons within U.S. jurisdiction, using all powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA, 50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.); and (2) rendering sanctioned aliens inadmissible to the United States, ineligible for visas, admission, or parole under the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.), and subject to immediate revocation of any existing visas (with IEEPA civil and criminal penalties applying to violations). This section further (1) requires the President to determine, within 30 days, whether a person meets the sanction criteria upon request from the chair or ranking member of specified congressional committees and to report accordingly; (2) authorizes use of IEEPA implementation authorities (50 U.S.C. 1702, 1704); and (3) directs issuance of implementing regulations within 60 days after enactment. (Thus, the provision invokes IEEPA's property-blocking powers, which generally require a national emergency declaration in effect, to target a specific terrorism-related payment system.)

This section directs the President, not later than 90 days after enactment and on an ongoing basis thereafter, to impose sanctions on foreign financial institutions that (1) process, participate in, facilitate, or provide transactions that are payments, salaries, benefits, or any other conduct described in section 4(a); or (2) knowingly conduct or facilitate any significant financial transaction with any foreign person subject to sanctions under section 4(a). The sanctions prohibit the opening, and prohibit or impose strict conditions on the maintaining, in the United States of a correspondent account or payable-through account by such institutions (terms as defined in 31 U.S.C. 5318A), with "foreign financial institution" having the meaning determined by the Secretary of the Treasury under the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010.

This section terminates the provisions of this Act upon written certification by the Secretary of State to the appropriate congressional committees that the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority have ceased their system of compensation providing payments, salaries, and benefits to terrorists and their families that incentivizes, encourages, rewards, and supports acts of terrorism.