{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://barletta.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/barletta-applauds-passage-of-taylor-force-act", "Barletta Applauds Passage of Taylor Force Act", "2017-12-05", "2017", "2017-12", "Republican", "House", "PA", "Lou Barletta", "B001269", "barletta.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1164, the Taylor Force Act, by a voice vote.\u00a0 Congressman Lou Barletta (PA-11) cosponsored the legislation, which would prohibit U.S. taxpayer assistance to the Palestinian Authority, who are known to openly pay terrorists and their families.\n\u00a0\n\u201cIt is reprehensible that that the United States would supply any funds to groups who give handouts to terrorists and their families,\u201d Barletta said following the vote.\u00a0 \u201cThe Palestinian Authority has shown zero willingness to address these egregious practices.\u00a0 I will continue to pray for comfort and support of Taylor Force\u2019s family, who was tragically murdered by a Palestinian terrorist.\u00a0 Shamefully, the Palestinian Authority supports these atrocities.\u00a0 America can no longer acknowledge political actors who turn the other way or outright encourage terrorism.\u201d\n\u00a0\nThe bill was named in honor of U.S. Army veteran Taylor Force, who was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in Tel Aviv last year.\u00a0 Force was killed when a Palestinian man carried out a stabbing spree, injuring ten others.\u00a0\n\u00a0\nThe tragedy highlighted the Palestinian Authority\u2019s grotesque practice of the providing salaries to terrorists and their families based on the scale of death resulting from an attack.\u00a0 Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was even quoted saying, \u201cI don\u2019t intend to cease payment for families of prisoner martyrs, even if it costs me my seat, I will continue to pay them until my last day.\u201d\n\u00a0\nIn fact, the payments are even enshrined in Palestinian law, where $315 million were paid out last year, nearly 8% of the Palestinian Authority\u2019s total budget.\u00a0 The Taylor Force Act would cut hundreds of millions in U.S. economic assistance until the Palestinian Authority changes this practice.\n\u00a0\nAmerican citizens have long been seeking justice against the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian Liberation Organization.\u00a0 One tool has been the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1992, which has been under court review in a case titled Sokolow v. Palestinian Liberation Organization, currently before the U.S. Supreme Court.\u00a0 The case centers on seven terror attacks perpetrated between 2001 and 2004.\n\u00a0\nIn one attack, a seventeen-year-old blew himself up at a crowded bus stop in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem; in another, Hamas operatives detonated a bomb in a Hebrew University cafe; and, in a third, a Palestinian security officer opened fire in a crowded Jaffa mall.\u00a0 Together, these and the other attacks killed dozens of civilians and wounded scores more, including a number of American citizens.\n\u00a0\nBenjamin Blutstein, 25, of Susquehanna Township, PA, was killed in the Hebrew University caf\u00e9 attack.\u00a0 Benjamin was in Israel at Pardes Institute, in conjunction with Hebrew University, on a two-year training program to become a teacher of Jewish studies.\u00a0 He had graduated from The Rabbi David L. Silver Yeshiva Academy, Susquehanna High School, and Dickinson College in Carlisle, where he majored both in religion and Judaic studies.\u00a0 His family has fought for justice from the PLO since tragically losing Benjamin to terrorism.\n\u00a0\nIn 2004, the families of eleven American victims sued the Palestinian Authority in the Southern District of New York under the civil remedies provision of the Antiterrorism Act.\u00a0 The provision, passed in 1992, allows \u201c[a]ny national of the United States injured in his or her person, property, or business by reason of an act of international terrorism, or his or her estate, survivors, or heirs\u201d to sue and recover threefold damages in \u201cany appropriate district court of the United States.\u201d\n\u00a0\nThe plaintiffs insisted that the PLO and the Palestinian Authority bore responsibility.\u00a0 In 2015, after a seven-week trial, a jury found the Palestinian Authority liable for six of the attacks and awarded plaintiffs a $218.5 million judgment, which, when tripled, became $655.5 million.\n\u00a0\n\u201cThe United States must cut off all support of terrorism.\u00a0 These entities are detestable and deserve the full weight of American power against them.\u00a0 Measures must be taken immediately to cease support for the PA until they denounce these activities,\u201d Barletta said.\n\u00a0\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://barletta.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/barletta-applauds-passage-of-taylor-force-act"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.4024909362196922, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}