Congress: 108 · 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 3871.
Sponsor: Turner, Jim (D-TX)
United States-Israel Homeland Security Foundation Act - Amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a United States-Israel Homeland Security Foundation for awarding conditional grants to joint business ventures between U.S. and Israeli private corporate entities to develop, manufacture, sell, or otherwise provide products and services with applications related to homeland security. Limits grant amounts to 50 percent of proposed costs. Requires grant recipients to repay the Foundation up to 150 percent of the grant awarded. Directs the Foundation to include an advisory board. Provides Foundation funding through the Acceleration Fund for Research and Development of Homeland Security Technologies. Directs the Secretary, if not establishing the Foundation, to use a specified amount from such Fund to support the efforts of the Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation to make grants to joint U.S.-Israeli business ventures for projects relating to homeland security.
Authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to create a foundation that awards grants covering up to 50% of costs to joint U.S.-Israeli private companies developing homeland security products and services. Grant recipients must repay the foundation up to 150% of what they receive. If DHS doesn't establish the foundation, it must instead fund the existing Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation to make similar grants to U.S.-Israeli joint ventures.
This creates a new mechanism for directing U.S. homeland security funding to Israeli companies and joint ventures, expanding the scope of U.S.-Israel security cooperation beyond traditional foreign aid. The repayment requirement means some federal dollars may flow back, but the grants themselves represent a subsidy to these ventures.