Congress: 118 · 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 S 431.
Sponsor: Risch, James E. (R-Idaho)
UNRWA Accountability and Transparency Act This bill makes changes to U.S. foreign policy in matters concerning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). For purposes of this policy, the bill defines Palestinian refugee as a person who (1) resided from June 1946 to May 1948 in Mandatory Palestine (a region controlled by Britain until 1948), (2) was personally displaced as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, and (3) has not accepted citizenship or other permanent adjustment in status in another country. Furthermore, under U.S. policy, derivative refugee status may only extend to the spouse or minor child of such a Palestinian refugee. The bill withholds U.S. funding for the UNRWA unless the Department of State makes certifications concerning the UNRWA's staff, partners, and funding. Specifically, the State Department must certify that neither UNRWA staff and partners nor its funding and facilities are affiliated with terrorism or disseminating certain rhetoric, such as calling for the destruction of Israel or describing Israelis as occupiers or settlers . Additionally, the State Department must certify that the UNRWA is (1) subject to comprehensive independent financial audits, and (2) not affiliated with any financial institutions complicit in money laundering or terror financing. The State Department must also implement a plan to encourage other countries to align their UNRWA-related activities with U.S. policy objectives, including the phaseout of the UNRWA by resettling Palestinian refugees outside of Israel.
This bill cuts U.S. funding to UNRWA (the UN agency serving Palestinian refugees) unless the State Department certifies that UNRWA staff, partners, and funding have no ties to terrorism and that the organization doesn't use language like 'occupation' or 'settlers.' It also narrows the definition of Palestinian refugee to exclude descendants of those displaced in 1948 and requires the State Department to push other countries to phase out UNRWA by resettling refugees elsewhere.
This bill directly constrains one of the largest sources of aid to Palestinian refugees and redefines who qualifies for refugee status in ways that could shrink UNRWA's beneficiary population. The certification requirements—particularly the ban on certain political speech—set a precedent for conditioning U.S. aid on rhetoric restrictions rather than operational or financial concerns alone.