Congress: 105 · Status: active · Israel/Palestine classification: pro-Israel
Data (JSON) — machine-readable record of this bill (identifiers, sponsor, classification, actions, and the member-by-member vote breakdown).
Official record on Congress.gov — full text, actions, and cosponsor history for HR 4181.
Sponsor: Sherman, Brad (D-California)
Jerusalem and Berlin Embassy Relocation Act of 1998 - Expresses the sense of the Congress that the United States should proceed simultaneously with the design, construction, and occupancy of an embassy in Berlin, the capital of Germany, and in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. Prohibits the expenditure of certain Department of State appropriations for the construction of chancery facilities in Berlin, Germany, unless construction of chancery facilities in Jerusalem, Israel, has either commenced or commences simultaneously in a manner to ensure comparable rates of construction and completion of the two facilities. Declares that no chancery facilities in Berlin, Germany, shall be occupied or used unless prior to or simultaneous with such occupancy and use, the United States has opened chancery facilities in Jerusalem, Israel.
Congress declared its sense that the US should build embassies in Berlin and Jerusalem simultaneously. The bill blocked spending on Berlin embassy construction unless Jerusalem embassy work began or proceeded at the same pace, and prohibited occupying the Berlin embassy unless the Jerusalem embassy opened first or at the same time.
The bill linked Berlin embassy funding to Jerusalem embassy construction, institutionalizing recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and making a key diplomatic commitment to Israel contingent on US spending priorities. This directly advanced the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act agenda of relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.