Congress hands president broad power to expand terrorism sanctions without approval
H.R. 2346 — Accountability for Terrorist Perpetrators of October 7th Act · Filed by Brad Sherman (D-CA) · 24 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 25, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill directs the President to impose economic and immigration sanctions on the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a Palestinian militant group, and affiliated entities within 90 days of enactment. The sanctions block their U.S. assets, bar their members from entering the U.S., and revoke existing visas. The bill also requires the State Department to report within 90 days on whether the PRC and a newer group called Lion's Den meet criteria for formal terrorist designation, with ongoing biennial reviews thereafter.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to authorize and mandate executive-branch sanctions against a designated terrorist organization and its affiliates, using existing statutory authorities (IEEPA, INA) as the enforcement mechanism. This is a straightforward national-security measure, not a tax, appropriations, or commemorative bill.
What the text implies
- The phrase 'any current or future armed organization the President determines is operating under the umbrella of the Popular Resistance Committees' grants the President unilateral authority to expand sanctions to new entities without explicit congressional approval, subject only to a 180-day renewable waiver mechanism that requires only a national-security certification.
- The bill mandates State Department reporting on Lion's Den and ongoing biennial reviews of PRC successors, but does not require congressional action or approval before sanctions are imposed on newly identified entities—the President may act unilaterally under the delegated authority in Section 2.
- The visa revocation provision operates automatically and immediately upon designation, potentially stranding individuals in the U.S. or abroad without due-process review, though exceptions exist for UN headquarters agreement compliance and authorized intelligence/law-enforcement activities.
- The 180-day renewable waiver mechanism allows the President to indefinitely suspend sanctions through repeated certifications of national-security interest, effectively nullifying the mandatory sanctions requirement if the administration chooses to do so.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill imposes sanctions on a group credibly linked to attacks killing Americans and Israelis, which serves a legitimate national security interest. However, the bill's broad language—permitting sanctions on any entity the President determines operates "under the umbrella" of the PRC—creates potential for executive overreach without clear definitional boundaries, and the waiver mechanism (renewable 180-day periods) allows indefinite suspension of sanctions with minimal congressional oversight.
Named in the bill
Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), Lion's Den, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), Executive Order 13224, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on the Judiciary — and 2 more
Where it stands
24 cosponsors: 15 Democrats, 9 Republicans.
- Mar 25, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 25, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary and House Committee on Foreign Affairs · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $590,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 42 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Brad Sherman, the sponsor, reported $777,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Anti-defamation League — $590,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (9,505 characters) on Aug 18, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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