Congress accelerates terrorism victim payouts with $9B Treasury loan
H.R. 9795 — Never Forget the Victims of Terrorism: Joseph D. Mistrulli and Alan Kleinberg USVSST Fund Solvency Act · Filed by Laura Gillen (D-NY) · 13 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 21, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill authorizes the Treasury Department to loan $3 billion per year (2027–2029) to the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, with those borrowed amounts mandatorily distributed to victims each year. The loans bear interest at Treasury rates and must be repaid from future criminal and civil fines collected from state sponsors of terrorism. The bill names the fund after two victims: Joseph D. Mistrulli and Alan Kleinberg.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a mandatory Treasury loan to accelerate payments to terrorism victims. The naming after two specific victims is commemorative but does not alter the bill's functional purpose—funding victim compensation.
What the text implies
- Repayment depends entirely on future fines from state sponsors of terrorism; if such fines do not materialize, the $9B loan becomes a permanent subsidy to the fund with no offsetting revenue.
- The bill treats borrowed amounts as 'direct spending authority' not subject to appropriations scoring, which may obscure the true fiscal impact in budget accounting.
The full analysis lists 3 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund beneficiaries (individual victims and their