FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Caroline
Tabler or James
Arnold (202) 224-2353
March 8, 2023
Cotton, Colleagues Introduce Bill Targeting Palestinian Terror
Payments
Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) introduced
the Taylor Force Martyr Payment
Prevention Act, legislation aimed at eliminating Palestinian “martyr payments,” otherwise known as the “pay to slay”
program. The bill would deter
foreign banks from processing these payments for the Palestinian Authority by
cutting off their access to the United States financial system.
Senator
Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Senator Mike Braun (R-Indiana), Senator Kevin
Cramer (R-North Dakota), Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Senate Steve Daines
(R-Montana), Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Senator Chuck Grassley
(R-Iowa), Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), Senator John Hoeven (R-North
Dakota), Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi), Senator James Lankford
(R-Oklahoma), Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Senator Marco Rubio
(R-Florida), Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida), Senator John Thune (R-North
Dakota), Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), and Senator Todd Young
(R-Indiana) are co-sponsors of the legislation. Congressman Doug Lamborn
(CO-05) is leading companion legislation in the House.
“Radical
Islamic terrorists shouldn’t be rewarded for killing innocent people, and banks
should be held responsible for processing any sort of ‘martyr payments.’ Our bill
will build upon the original Taylor
Force Act to ensure Palestinian terrorists don’t benefit financially for
committing these senseless murders,” said
Senator Cotton.
“I am honored to re-introduce the Taylor Force Martyr Payment
Prevention Act today, alongside Senator Cotton. Our bill seeks to prevent any
financial benefit these terrorists are promised for murdering innocent
civilians by penalizing foreign banks that allow these ‘pay to slay’
transactions to occur unimpeded. I am pleased that this bill has already
garnered bipartisan support in the House of Representatives, and I will never
waver in the fight to bring justice to the Force family and all those who have
been victims of these horrific crimes,” said Congressman Lamborn.
“We would like to
thank Senator Cotton, Congressman Lamborn and their co-sponsors for
reintroducing the Taylor Force Martyr Payment Prevention Act. The bill would
provide the U.S. government with an important new tool to incentivize foreign
banks to get out of the martyr payment business and to deny them access to the
U.S. financial system if they do not do so. Speaking from personal experience,
we can say that this is not a theoretical problem. The family of the terrorist
who murdered Taylor, celebrated as a hero by Hamas, has been receiving martyr
payments as a reward for his despicable actions. No foreign bank from any
country, particularly those which claim to be U.S. allies, which participates
in rewarding those who kill innocent Americans should be able to evade
responsibility. We want to say thanks again to the co-sponsors of the bill for
their leadership and for helping us ensure that Taylor did not die in vain,” said Stuart and Robbi Force,
the parents of Taylor Force.
The Republican Jewish Coalition, Christians United for
Israel, and the Zionist Organization of America support
the legislation.
A one-pager
about the bill may be found here. Bill text may be
found here.
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