Share:
Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2017 - 2018
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | November 17, 2017 11:31 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Stewart J. Greenleaf |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Urging President and Congress to enact the Taylor Force Act (S. 1697 or H.R. 1164), legislation aimed at ending Palestinian Authority terror payments |
| I am introducing a resolution that urges the President and the Congress of the United States to enact S.1697 or H.R.1164, legislation aimed at ending the Palestinian Authority’s practice of providing monetary rewards to terrorists and their families who kill Americans and Israeli citizens. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has established laws and decrees that allow terrorist and their family members to receive compensation and services after a violent act is committed. It’s known as “pay for slay” and is an incentive to commit acts of terror. The Hudson Institute reported “The PA pays lump sums and lifetime salaries to terrorist and their families. The size of the payments correlates to the number of their victims and the severity of the harm inflicted on them.” The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs in a report entitled “Incentivizing Terrorism: Palestinian Authority Allocations to Terrorists and their Families”, indicates that in 2016 the PA expended over $300 million on salaries for terrorist and their families, which accounts for seven percent of the total PA budget and nearly 30 percent of the foreign aid it receives. According to The Washington Post, “the United States provides approximately $400 million a year in economic assistance to the Palestinian Authorities, much of it in the form of grants and contracts for specific projects, such as water and sanitation; a portion is dedicated to directly supporting the Palestinian Authority’s annual budget.” These direct payments provided by the U.S. could be intermixed with payments for acts of terrorism. While the State Department has taken action in recent budget cycles, at the request of Congress, to lower U.S. aid to the PA by an amount equivalent to what they spend on terrorist salaries, there remains interest and support to further restrict aid. S. 1697 and H.R. 1164, known as the Taylor Force Act, would make certain foreign assistance for the PA dependent on certifications by the Secretary of State that the PA has ended payments to individuals who commit terrorist acts against Israeli and U.S. citizens and taken other steps to reduce violence. These measures are in honor of the young American student and U.S. Army veteran Taylor Force, who was murdered in 2016 by a Palestinian terrorist. In an outrageous example of glorifying terror, official PA media broadcast the funeral of Force’s murderer and referred to him as a hero and martyr. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, lead sponsor of the Taylor Force Act, stated that “This bill shines a light on the very real problem of ‘Pay to Slay.’ Taylor was an American hero who was brutally murdered at the hands of terrorist. Yet instead of condemning this horrific attack – and so many others like it – the Palestinian Authority rewards terrorists. These rewards for terrorist attacks are inconsistent with American values.” Copies of this resolution will be transmitted to the President of the United States, to the presiding officers of each house of Congress and to each member of Congress from Pennsylvania. |
Introduced as SR249