S. 384 — RECOGNIZING Judea and Samaria Act

This section designates the short title of the Act as the “Retiring the Egregious Confusion Over the Genuine Name of Israel’s Zone of Influence by Necessitating Government-use of Judea and Samaria Act” or the “RECOGNIZING Judea and Samaria Act”.

This section states the sense of Congress that the U.S. government (1) should refer to the land annexed by Israel from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War by its historical names of “Judea and Samaria”—with the land south of Jerusalem considered “Judea” and the land north of Jerusalem considered “Samaria”—and (2) should no longer use the term “West Bank” in official government materials.

This section prohibits the obligation or expenditure of funds authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available after enactment to prepare or promulgate any policy, guidance, regulation, notice, Executive order, materials, briefing, press release, communications, or other work product that refers to Judea and Samaria as the “West Bank”. The prohibition does not apply to funds relating to U.S. obligations under international treaties or other agreements. The Secretary of State may waive the prohibition upon determining it is in the U.S. interest, with an explanation submitted to Congress within 30 days.

This section amends multiple U.S. laws concerning foreign assistance, security, and diplomacy to replace all references to "the West Bank" (and "west bank") with "Judea and Samaria", including (1) the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (sections 620K and 620L); (2) the Taylor Force Act (section 1004); (3) the Multinational Force and Observers Participation Resolution (section 2); (4) the Omnibus Diplomatic Security and Antiterrorism Act of 1986 (section 414); (5) the United States-Israel Free Trade Area Implementation Act of 1985 (section 9); (6) the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (section 2021(i)); (7) the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (section 699); and (8) the Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act (section 8005).