UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration Act of 2025

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2411 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2411

 To restore funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for 
              Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 27, 2025

 Mr. Carson (for himself, Ms. Jayapal, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Balint, Ms. 
 Barragan, Mr. Beyer, Ms. Bonamici, Mr. Carbajal, Mr. Castro of Texas, 
      Mr. Casar, Ms. Chu, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Courtney, Ms. Dean of 
 Pennsylvania, Ms. DeGette, Ms. DeLauro, Mr. DeSaulnier, Mrs. Dingell, 
 Mr. Doggett, Mr. Evans of Pennsylvania, Mrs. Foushee, Mr. Frost, Mr. 
Garamendi, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Mr. Green of Texas, Mrs. Hayes, Mr. 
 Huffman, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Khanna, 
 Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania, Ms. Leger Fernandez, Ms. Lofgren, Mr. Lynch, 
  Ms. McCollum, Mr. Mfume, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Ms. 
   Norton, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Ms. Omar, Ms. Pingree, Mr. Pocan, Ms. 
   Pressley, Mr. Quigley, Mrs. Ramirez, Mr. Raskin, Ms. Sanchez, Ms. 
Simon, Ms. Stansbury, Ms. Tlaib, Ms. Tokuda, Mr. Tonko, Ms. Velazquez, 
  Ms. Waters, and Mrs. Watson Coleman) introduced the following bill; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To restore funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for 
              Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration 
Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

    Congress--
            (1) recognizes that preventing further erosion of civilian 
        conditions in Gaza remains in the strategic and moral interests 
        of the United States;
            (2) supports UNRWA's unique and indispensable contribution 
        to immediately addressing urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza, 
        especially in mitigating and stopping the spread of famine and 
        disease;
            (3) reaffirms the imperative of UNRWA's continued provision 
        of humanitarian and human development services to Palestinian 
        refugees in all its current fields of operation, including 
        Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank (including East 
        Jerusalem);
            (4) urges the Government of Israel to assist UNRWA in its 
        neutrality efforts by providing names, information, and 
        evidence UNRWA can use to aggressively pursue allegations 
        related to staff violations of UNRWA's neutrality policies;
            (5) urges the President--
                    (A) to join United States allies in restoring 
                funding to UNRWA in response to the responsible actions 
                taken by the United Nations and the commitments made by 
                UNRWA toward additional accountability and 
                transparency; and
                    (B) to ensure continued funding to UNRWA is 
                assessed based on UNRWA's ongoing execution of the 
                recommendations of the Independent Review Group, led by 
                Catherine Colonna;
            (6) recognizes the implementation of some of the 
        Independent Review Group's recommendations will require United 
        Nations member state cooperation, including additional funding;
            (7) urges the United States and Israel to assist UNRWA in 
        its implementation efforts of the Independent Review Group's 
        recommendations; and
            (8) supports appropriating critical funds to UNRWA for 
        fiscal year 2025 and beyond.

SEC. 3. RESTORATION OF FUNDING FOR UNRWA.

    (a) In General.--Effective on the date of the enactment of this 
Act--
            (1) title III of division G of the Further Consolidated 
        Appropriations Act, 2024 (Public Law 118-47) is hereby 
        repealed;
            (2) section 308 of the Israel Security Supplemental 
        Appropriations Act, 2024 (division A of Public Law 118-50) is 
        hereby repealed;
            (3) the Secretary of State shall, notwithstanding any other 
        provision of law and as soon as practicable--
                    (A) resume the provision of funding to UNRWA under 
                current authorities of the Department of State; and
                    (B) provide funding to UNRWA consistent with the 
                Secretary's waiver for lifesaving humanitarian aid; and
            (4) the President shall rescind the Executive order 
        entitled ``Withdrawing the United States From and Ending 
        Funding to Certain United Nations Organizations and Reviewing 
        United States Support to All International Organizations'' of 
        February 4, 2025 (90 Fed. Reg. 9275).
    (b) Reports.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, and quarterly thereafter through December 31, 
2028, the Secretary of State shall submit to the appropriate 
congressional committees of jurisdiction a report on the steps UNRWA is 
taking to implement any recommendations made by the independent outside 
review led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.
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