Cotton introduces legislation to eliminate palestinian terror payments

On Dec. 6, Senator Tom Cotton

( R- Arkansas) held a press conference with Senators Steve Daines ( R- Montana), Ted Cruz ( R- Texas), and Lindsey Graham

( R- South Carolina) to introduce the Taylor Force Martyr Payment Prevention Act, which would deter foreign banks from making martyr payments to the families of Palestinian terrorists. They were joined at the press conference by Stuart and Robbi Force, whose son Taylor Force was murdered by Palestinian terrorists during a trip to Israel.

Below are Cotton’s remarks:

Today, my fellow Senators and I are introducing the Taylor Force Martyr Payment Prevention Act.

This bill is named after Taylor Force, who was killed in a Hamas stabbing spree while studying abroad in Tel Aviv in 2016. Taylor was a West Point graduate and Army veteran who was studying for his MBA. Terrorism took this fine young man and his future from our nation.

Instead of condemning this wanton slaughter, the Palestinian Authority sent money to the murderer’s family. This is part of a grotesque trend, in which the Palestinian Authority spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on so- called “martyr payments” to the families of dead or imprisoned terrorists.

In honor of Taylor, Congress passed the Taylor Force Act in 2018, which restricted non- humanitarian U. S. aid to the Palestinian Authority until it ends what should more appropriately be called its “pay to slay” program.

This legislation has made a difference, but our work is not yet finished. Reporting has revealed that foreign banks in the Middle East and the Mediterranean continue to process these socalled “martyr payments.” They have escaped sanctions by avoiding an official U. S. presence while maintaining correspondent accounts in the United States.

That’s why I’m honored to be here today with Taylor Force’s parents as we introduce legislation, along with more than a dozen of my colleagues, that will hold these institutions accountable.

The Taylor Force Martyr Payment Prevention Act would give the Treasury Department the ability to designate these banks as institutions of primary money- laundering concern and forbid them from using correspondent accounts in the United States.

Radical Islamic terrorists like the one who killed Taylor Force will not be rewarded in heaven— and they should not be rewarded on Earth.

In memory of Taylor and so many other Americans who have been killed or wounded by terrorists, I call upon Congress to join my colleagues and I to pass this bill. Thank you.