Congress: 117 · 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 3977.
Sponsor: Budd, Ted (R-North Carolina)
The bill blocks US aid to the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization unless the State Department certifies they have stopped paying financial benefits to families of Palestinians killed in attacks. If the Secretary of State cannot make this certification, funds designated for Palestinian aid are automatically redirected to the US Defense Department to purchase Israel's Iron Dome air defense system. The State Department must recertify compliance every six months and submit annual reports on any such payments.
This mechanism ties Palestinian aid to a specific behavioral condition while creating an automatic funding transfer to Israeli military hardware if that condition is unmet. It sets a precedent for redirecting development assistance to military support and narrows the definition of what qualifies as aid cuts based on Palestinian government compensation policies.