Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the
Legislative Round-Up was conceived
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Bills, Resolutions, & Letters
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SFOPS season starts - House text/report/markups
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Hearings
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On the Record
NOTE: Congress continues (reportedly) to wrestle with a “fix” for ATCA but related
life goes on - as seen notably this week in 2 distinct developments: (1) As noted in yesterday’s summary of the
House FY2020 SFOPS, House appropriators appear to have come up with an elegant workaround for ATCA, by funding
Palestinian humanitarian needs via accounts not sanctioned under ATCA. Given the insistence of ATCA supporters that
ATCA was never intended to prevent such funding, perhaps this approach will be allowed to go forward. And (2) On
5/17 Grassley (R-IA), who was the moving force behind ATCA, put a hold on the Trump Administration’s nominee for
Ambassador to Turkey, David Satterfield. He explained in a floor speech his reason: “...the State Department's, through Ambassador Satterfield, consistent efforts to protect the
Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization from liability and thereby undermine the rights of
American victims of Palestinian terrorism. This stands in sharp contrast to the intent of
Congress.” Read the full statement to get a full sense of Grassley’s
determination to see ATCA’s core purpose - enabling US citizens to sue the PLO and PA out of existence - be
implemented.