[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 19 (Thursday, February 1, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S341-S342]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGE

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   REPORT RELATIVE TO THE ISSUANCE OF AN EXECUTIVE ORDER DECLARING A 
 NATIONAL EMERGENCY TO DEAL WITH THE THREAT POSED BY THE SITUATION IN 
THE WEST BANK, INCLUDING IN PARTICULAR HIGH LEVELS OF EXTREMIST SETTLER 
  VIOLENCE, FORCED DISPLACEMENT OF PEOPLE AND VILLAGES, AND PROPERTY 
                           DESTRUCTION--PM 36

  The PRESIDING OFFICER laid before the Senate the following message 
from the President of the United States, together with an accompanying 
report; which was referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 
Urban Affairs:

To the Congress of the United States:
  Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 
U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 
1601 et seq.), section 212(f) and section 215(a) of the Immigration and 
Nationality Act of 1952 (8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and 8 U.S.C. 1185(a)), and 
section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby report that I have 
issued an Executive Order declaring a national emergency to deal with 
the threat posed by the situation in the West Bank, including in 
particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced 
displacement of people and villages, and property destruction. Such 
actions constitute a serious threat to the peace, security, and 
stability of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, and the broader Middle 
East region and undermine the foreign policy and national security 
objectives of the United States. I find that these actions constitute 
an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and 
foreign policy of the United States, and I have declared a national 
emergency to deal with that threat.
  The order authorizes the blocking of property and interests in 
property of any foreign person determined by the Secretary of State, in 
consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, or the Secretary of 
the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State:
  (i) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or 
indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in, actions--including 
directing, enacting, implementing, enforcing, or failing to enforce 
policies--that threaten the peace, security, or stability of the West 
Bank;

[[Page S342]]

  (ii) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or 
indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in, planning, ordering, 
otherwise directing, or participating in certain actions--including 
acts of violence or threats of violence targeting civilians, efforts to 
place civilians in reasonable fear of violence, property destruction, 
or seizure or dispossession of property by private actors--affecting 
the West Bank;
  (iii) to be or have been a leader or official of certain entities 
that have engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, such 
activities;
  (iv) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, 
material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in 
support of, any person blocked pursuant to the order; or
  (v) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to 
act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person blocked 
pursuant to the order.
  The order also authorizes the blocking of property and interests in 
property of any foreign person determined by the Secretary of State, in 
consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, to have committed or 
have attempted to commit, to pose a significant risk of committing, or 
to have participated in training to commit acts of terrorism affecting 
the West Bank. In addition, the order suspends the entry into the 
United States of any noncitizen determined to meet one or more of the 
above criteria.
  The order authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation 
with the Secretary of State, to take such actions, including the 
promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted 
to the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out the purposes 
of the order. It directs the Secretary of State, in consultation with 
the Secretary of Homeland Security, to implement the order as it 
applies to visas, and it directs the Secretary of Homeland Security, in 
consultation with the Secretary of State, to implement the order as it 
applies to the entry into the United States of noncitizens. All 
executive departments and agencies of the United States are directed to 
take all appropriate measures within their authority to implement the 
order.
  I am enclosing a copy of the Executive Order I have issued.
                                                 Joseph R. Biden, Jr.  
The White House, February 1, 2024.

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