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92–610PDF 2004

DESIGNATION OF FOREIGN TERRORIST

ORGANIZATIONS REFORM ACT

MARKUP

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON 

INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM, NONPROLIFERATION 

AND HUMAN RIGHTS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON 

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

ON

H.R 3978

MARCH 17, 2004

Serial No. 108–85

Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations 

(II)

COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 

HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman 

JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa 

DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, 

Vice Chairman 

DAN BURTON, Indiana 

ELTON GALLEGLY, California 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California 

PETER T. KING, New York 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

AMO HOUGHTON, New York 

JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York 

ROY BLUNT, Missouri 

THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado 

RON PAUL, Texas 

NICK SMITH, Michigan 

JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania 

JEFF FLAKE, Arizona 

JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia 

MARK GREEN, Wisconsin 

JERRY WELLER, Illinois 

MIKE PENCE, Indiana 

THADDEUS G. MCCOTTER, Michigan 

KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida 

TOM LANTOS, California 

HOWARD L. BERMAN, California 

GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey 

ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey 

SHERROD BROWN, Ohio 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

ROBERT WEXLER, Florida 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

BARBARA LEE, California 

JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York 

JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania 

EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon 

SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada 

GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California 

ADAM B. SCHIFF, California 

DIANE E. WATSON, California 

ADAM SMITH, Washington 

BETTY MCCOLLUM, Minnesota 

CHRIS BELL, Texas 

THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel 

ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM, NONPROLIFERATION

AND HUMAN RIGHTS

ELTON GALLEGLY, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

PETER T. KING, New York 

JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania 

MARK GREEN, Wisconsin 

CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina 

THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado 

NICK SMITH, Michigan 

MIKE PENCE, Indiana 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York 

SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada 

GRACE NAPOLITANO, California 

ADAM B. SCHIFF, California 

DIANE E. WATSON, California 

CHRIS BELL, Texas 

BETTY MCCOLLUM, Minnesota 

RICHARD MEREU, Subcommittee Staff Director 

DONALD MACDONALD, Democratic Professional Staff Member 

RENEE AUSTELL, Professional Staff Member 

JOSEPH WINDREM, Staff Associate 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

MARKUP OF: 

H.R. 3978, To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to modify provisions relating to designation of foreign terrorist organizations, to amend 

the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989, to 

include in annual Department of State country reports on terrorism information on terrorist groups that seek weapons of mass destruction and 

groups that have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations, and 

for other purposes ................................................................................................ 2

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD 

The Honorable Elton Gallegly, a Representative in Congress from the State 

of California, and Chairman, Subcommittee on International Terrorism, 

Nonproliferation and Human Rights: Prepared statement .............................. 14

(1)

DESIGNATION OF FOREIGN TERRORIST 

ORGANIZATIONS REFORM ACT 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2004

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM, 

NONPROLIFERATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS, 

COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, 

Washington, DC. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 1:12 p.m. in Room 

2200, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Elton Gallegly (Chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. GALLEGLY. Pursuant to notice, I call up bill H.R. 3978, the 

Designation of Foreign Terrorist Organizations Reform Act, for purposes of markup. Without objection, the bill will be considered as 

read and open for amendment at any time. 

[H.R. 3978 follows:]

2

1

I

108TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 3978

To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to modify provisions relating

to designation of foreign terrorist organizations, to amend the Foreign

Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989, to include

in annual Department of State country reports on terrorism information

on terrorist groups that seek weapons of mass destruction and groups

that have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations, and for

other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 16, 2004

Mr. GALLEGLY (for himself and Mr. PITTS) introduced the following bill;

which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition

to the Committee on International Relations, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such

provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to modify

provisions relating to designation of foreign terrorist organizations, to amend the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989, to include in

annual Department of State country reports on terrorism

information on terrorist groups that seek weapons of

mass destruction and groups that have been designated

as foreign terrorist organizations, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,


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•HR 3978 IH

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Designation of Foreign

3 Terrorist Organizations Reform Act’’.

4 SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZA5 TIONS.

6 (a) PERIOD OF DESIGNATION.—Section 219(a)(4) of

7 the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.

8 1189(a)(4)) is amended—

9 (1) in subparagraph (A)—

10 (A) by striking ‘‘Subject to paragraphs (5)

11 and (6), a’’ and inserting ‘‘A’’; and

12 (B) by striking ‘‘for a period of 2 years be13 ginning on the effective date of the designation

14 under paragraph (2)(B)’’ and inserting ‘‘until

15 revoked under paragraph (5) or (6) or set aside

16 pursuant to subsection (c)’’;

17 (2) by striking subparagraph (B) and inserting

18 the following:

19 ‘‘(B) REVIEW OF DESIGNATION UPON PE20 TITION.—

21 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary

22 shall review the designation of a foreign

23 terrorist organization under the procedures

24 set forth in clauses (iii) and (iv) if the des25 ignated organization files a petition for


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•HR 3978 IH

1 revocation within the petition period de2 scribed in clause (ii).

3 ‘‘(ii) PETITION PERIOD.—For pur4 poses of clause (i)—

5 ‘‘(I) if the designated organiza6 tion has not previously filed a petition

7 for revocation under this subpara8 graph, the petition period begins 2

9 years after the date on which the des10 ignation was made; or

11 ‘‘(II) if the designated organiza12 tion has previously filed a petition for

13 revocation under this subparagraph,

14 the petition period begins 2 years

15 after the date of the determination

16 made under clause (iv) on that peti17 tion.

18 ‘‘(iii) PROCEDURES.—Any foreign ter19 rorist organization that submits a petition

20 for revocation under this subparagraph

21 must provide evidence in that petition that

22 the relevant circumstances described in

23 paragraph (1) have changed in such a

24 manner as to warrant revocation with re25 spect to the organization.


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•HR 3978 IH

1 ‘‘(iv) DETERMINATION.—

2 ‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—Not later

3 than 180 days after receiving a peti4 tion for revocation submitted under

5 this subparagraph, the Secretary shall

6 make a determination as to such rev7 ocation.

8 ‘‘(II) CLASSIFIED INFORMA9 TION.—The Secretary may consider

10 classified information in making a de11 termination in response to a petition

12 for revocation. Classified information

13 shall not be subject to disclosure for

14 such time as it remains classified, ex15 cept that such information may be

16 disclosed to a court ex parte and in

17 camera for purposes of judicial review

18 under subsection (c).

19 ‘‘(III) PUBLICATION OF DETER20 MINATION.—A determination made by

21 the Secretary under this clause shall

22 be published in the Federal Register.

23 ‘‘(IV) PROCEDURES.—Any rev24 ocation by the Secretary shall be


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•HR 3978 IH

1 made in accordance with paragraph

2 (6).’’; and

3 (3) by adding at the end the following:

4 ‘‘(C) OTHER REVIEW OF DESIGNATION.—

5 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—If in a 4-year pe6 riod no review has taken place under sub7 paragraph (B), the Secretary shall review

8 the designation of the foreign terrorist or9 ganization in order to determine whether

10 such designation should be revoked pursu11 ant to paragraph (6).

12 ‘‘(ii) PROCEDURES.—If a review does

13 not take place pursuant to subparagraph

14 (B) in response to a petition for revocation

15 that is filed in accordance with that sub16 paragraph, then the review shall be con17 ducted pursuant to procedures established

18 by the Secretary. The results of such re19 view and the applicable procedures shall

20 not be reviewable in any court.

21 ‘‘(iii) PUBLICATION OF RESULTS OF

22 REVIEW.—The Secretary shall publish any

23 determination made pursuant to this sub24 paragraph in the Federal Register.’’.


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•HR 3978 IH

1 (b) ALIASES.—Section 219 of the Immigration and

2 Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189) is amended—

3 (1) by redesignating subsections (b) and (c) as

4 subsections (c) and (d), respectively; and

5 (2) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol6 lowing new subsection (b):

7 ‘‘(b) AMENDMENTS TO A DESIGNATION.—

8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may amend

9 a designation under this subsection if the Secretary

10 finds that the organization has changed its name,

11 adopted a new alias, dissolved and then reconsti12 tuted itself under a different name or names, or

13 merged with another organization.

14 ‘‘(2) PROCEDURE.—Amendments made to a

15 designation in accordance with paragraph (1) shall

16 be effective upon publication in the Federal Register.

17 Subparagraphs (B) and (C) of subsection (a)(2)

18 shall apply to an amended designation upon such

19 publication. Paragraphs (2)(A)(i), (4), (5), (6), (7),

20 and (8) of subsection (a) shall also apply to an

21 amended designation.

22 ‘‘(3) ADMINISTRATIVE RECORD.—The adminis23 trative record shall be corrected to include the

24 amendments as well as any additional relevant infor25 mation that supports those amendments.


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•HR 3978 IH

1 ‘‘(4) CLASSIFIED INFORMATION.—The Sec2 retary may consider classified information in amend3 ing a designation in accordance with this subsection.

4 Classified information shall not be subject to disclo5 sure for such time as it remains classified, except

6 that such information may be disclosed to a court ex

7 parte and in camera for purposes of judicial review

8 under subsection (c).’’.

9 (c) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—

10 Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8

11 U.S.C. 1189) is amended—

12 (1) in subsection (a)—

13 (A) in paragraph (3)(B), by striking ‘‘sub14 section (b)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsection (c)’’;

15 (B) in paragraph (6)(A)—

16 (i) in the matter preceding clause (i),

17 by striking ‘‘or a redesignation made under

18 paragraph (4)(B)’’ and inserting ‘‘at any

19 time, and shall revoke a designation upon

20 completion of a review conducted pursuant

21 to subparagraphs (B) and (C) of para22 graph (4)’’; and

23 (ii) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘or redes24 ignation’’;


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•HR 3978 IH

1 (C) in paragraph (7), by striking ‘‘, or the

2 revocation of a redesignation under paragraph

3 (6),’’; and

4 (D) in paragraph (8)—

5 (i) by striking ‘‘, or if a redesignation

6 under this subsection has become effective

7 under paragraph (4)(B),’’; and

8 (ii) by striking ‘‘or redesignation’’;

9 and

10 (2) in subsection (c), as so redesignated—

11 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘of the

12 designation in the Federal Register,’’ and all

13 that follows through ‘‘review of the designa14 tion’’ and inserting ‘‘in the Federal Register of

15 a designation, an amended designation, or a de16 termination in response to a petition for revoca17 tion, the designated organization may seek judi18 cial review’’;

19 (B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘,

20 amended designation, or determination in re21 sponse to a petition for revocation’’ after ‘‘des22 ignation’’;

23 (C) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘,

24 amended designation, or determination in reVerDate Mar 21 2002 09:55 May 20, 2004 Jkt 092610 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\ITHR\M031704\92610 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL

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•HR 3978 IH

1 sponse to a petition for revocation’’ after ‘‘des2 ignation’’; and

3 (D) in paragraph (4), by inserting ‘‘,

4 amended designation, or determination in re5 sponse to a petition for revocation’’ after ‘‘des6 ignation’’ each place that term appears.

7 (d) SAVINGS PROVISION.—For purposes of applying

8 section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act on

9 or after the date of enactment of this Act, the term ‘‘des10 ignation’’, as used in that section, includes all redesigna11 tions made pursuant to section 219(a)(4)(B) of the Immi12 gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189(a)(4)(B))

13 prior to the date of enactment of this Act, and such redes14 ignations shall continue to be effective until revoked as

15 provided in paragraph (5) or (6) of section 219(a) of the

16 Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189(a)).

17 SEC. 3. INCLUSION IN ANNUAL DEPARTMENT OF STATE

18 COUNTRY REPORTS ON TERRORISM OF IN19 FORMATION ON TERRORIST GROUPS THAT

20 SEEK WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION AND

21 GROUPS THAT HAVE BEEN DESIGNATED AS

22 FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS.

23 (a) INCLUSION IN REPORTS.—Section 140 of the

24 Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988

25 and 1989 (22 U.S.C. 2656f) is amended—


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•HR 3978 IH

1 (1) in subsection (a)(2)—

2 (A) by inserting ‘‘any terrorist group

3 known to have obtained or developed, or to have

4 attempted to obtain or develop, weapons of

5 mass destruction,’’ after ‘‘during the preceding

6 five years,’’; and

7 (B) by inserting ‘‘any group designated by

8 the Secretary as a foreign terrorist organization

9 under section 219 of the Immigration and Na10 tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189),’’ after ‘‘Export

11 Administration Act of 1979,’’;

12 (2) in subsection (b)(1)(C)(iii), by striking

13 ‘‘and’’ at the end;

14 (3) in subsection (b)(1)(C)—

15 (A) by redesignating clause (iv) as clause

16 (v); and

17 (B) by inserting after clause (iii) the fol18 lowing new clause:

19 ‘‘(iv) providing weapons of mass de20 struction, or assistance in obtaining or de21 veloping such weapons, to terrorists or ter22 rorist groups; and’’; and

23 (4) in subsection (b)(2)—


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•HR 3978 IH

1 (A) by redesignating subparagraphs (C),

2 (D), and (E) as (D), (E), and (F), respectively;

3 and

4 (B) by inserting after subparagraph (B)

5 the following new subparagraph:

6 ‘‘(C) efforts by those groups to obtain or

7 develop weapons of mass destruction;’’.

8 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by

9 subsection (a) shall apply beginning with the first report

10 under section 140 of the Foreign Relations Authorization

11 Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989 (22 U.S.C. 2656f), sub12 mitted more than one year after the date of the enactment

13 of this Act.

Æ


92610a.AAL
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Mr. GALLEGLY. Are there opening statements? I have a brief one, 

then I will yield to my friend from California. 

Today the Subcommittee on International Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Human Rights will consider H.R. 3978, the Designation of Foreign Terrorist Organizations Reform Act. H.R. 3978 

would streamline the procedure for redesignating a group as a foreign terrorist organization, thereby allowing the State Department, 

Treasury Department, FBI and our intelligence agencies to better 

concentrate their efforts on actually fighting terrorism and preventing new attacks. 

Currently one of the U.S. Government’s most effective tools in 

the fight against international terrorism is the provision enacted as 

part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 

that makes it illegal to provide funds and other forms of material 

support to foreign terrorist organizations. The law authorizes the 

Secretary of State to designate foreign terrorist organizations, 

makes it illegal for persons to knowingly contribute material support to such groups, and requires U.S. banks to freeze their assets. 

This statute also makes members of such groups inadmissible to 

the U.S. 

The Justice Department has used the law to investigate and obtain convictions of persons providing material support to terrorist 

groups, and it has helped curb the flow of terrorist funding. 

However, experience with the law over the past 7 years shows 

the need to refine it and make it more effective in the fight against 

global terrorism. Under existing law, the U.S. Government must 

devote significant amounts of its counterterrorism resources to the 

FTO redesignation effort. This bureaucratic process must take 

place every 2 years, even though the vast majority of these groups 

do not even dispute their designation as terrorists. And, as we all 

know, some of the groups, such as al Qaeda, openly boast of their 

terrorist activities. 

H.R. 3978 would make two principal changes in the law regarding the designation of foreign terrorist organizations. First, it 

would replace the requirement to formally redesignate terrorist organizations every 2 years with a procedure allowing groups to request a review at 2-year intervals, as well as a simplified procedural requirement to review each group every 4 years. This change 

would allow the State Department and other agencies to focus 

more of their scarce resources on responding to the new terrorist 

threats or tracking and analyzing newer groups that emerge on the 

horizon. 

For example, last year 29 of the 36 organizations on the U.S. 

Government’s foreign terrorist list were due for redesignation. As 

a result, State, Justice, Treasury and the intelligence community 

expended thousands of hours in preparing a detailed administrative record for each of these groups. There are at least 20 steps in 

the process. Each case requires clearance from 10 different offices 

in the State Department and similar clearance processes at Justice 

and Treasury. Over a dozen lawyers at Justice are taking time 

from their other counterterrorism and law enforcement responsibilities to review each one of these voluminous administrative records 

so they can be used in court cases, if necessary. The administrative 

process has been repeated without exception every 2 years. 

14

The modified redesignation requirement proposed by H.R. 3978 

will still provide designated terrorist groups with plenty of procedural safeguards. Under the legislation, a group can still request 

a court review of a designation within 30 days after it is first designated. In addition, the bill allows all designated organizations to 

petition the Secretary every 2 years to revoke its designation. The 

Secretary of State has to respond within 180 days. If that review 

is not to the group’s satisfaction, the designation can also be challenged in court. Furthermore, even if a group has not requested a 

review, the Secretary of State will have to formally review its designation every 4 years. 

The legislation would also establish a new procedure for handling 

the situation in which a terrorist organization changes its name 

and uses new aliases. The new provision allows the government to 

amend the underlying administrative record instead of re-creating 

a voluminous document every time a group takes on a new alias. 

A group will be able to appeal these additional designations. 

Under H.R. 3978, a group’s ability to challenge a designation or 

redesignation are essentially unchanged. The main difference is 

that the U.S. Government does not have to spend scarce resources 

formally redesignating groups every 2 years when there is no doubt 

or challenge to the redesignations. 

The language on foreign terrorist organizations is identical to the 

provisions contained in an en bloc amendment to H.R. 1950, the 

Department of State Authorization bill that was passed by voice 

vote on the House Floor. The same language was also included in 

two separate versions of the State Department Authorization bill 

approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, S. 925, 

passed on April 24th of last year, and S. 2144, passed on March 

4th of this year. However, the State Department Authorization bill 

has not yet passed the Senate and may not pass during this Congress. Given the importance of this measure, we are marking up 

this provision as a separate bill. I will urge the Full Committee and 

the leadership of the House to take action on this bill at the earliest possible date, hopefully next week. 

In addition, this provision has the support of both the State Department and the Justice Department. 

Lastly, section 3 of the bill requires that the State Department’s 

annual report on terrorism include information on countries and 

terrorist groups that are seeking to obtain weapons of mass destruction. Experts on terrorism both within and outside the government agree that the nexus between terrorism and weapons of mass 

destruction is the most dangerous security threat faced by the 

United States and our allies. Therefore, it makes absolute sense to 

have the State Department’s main report on terrorism discuss this 

linkage. 

I urge passage of this important legislation, and I would now 

yield to the gentleman from California Mr. Sherman. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Gallegly follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ELTON GALLEGLY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN

CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, AND CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON

INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM, NONPROLIFERATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Today, the Subcommittee on International Terrorism, Nonproliferation and 

Human Rights will consider H.R. 3978, the Designation of Foreign Terrorist OrganiVerDate Mar 21 2002 09:55 May 20, 2004 Jkt 092610 PO 00000 Frm 00018 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\ITHR\M031704\92610 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL
15

zations Reform Act. H.R. 3978 would streamline the procedure for redesignating a 

group as a foreign terrorist organization, thereby allowing the State Department, 

Treasury Department, FBI and our intelligence agencies to better concentrate their 

efforts on actually fighting terrorism and preventing new attacks. 

Currently, one of the U.S. government’s most effective tools in the fight against 

international terrorism is the provision enacted as part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 that makes it illegal to provide funds and other 

forms of material support to foreign terrorist organizations (‘‘FTOs’’). 

This law authorizes the Secretary of State to designate foreign terrorist organizations, makes it illegal for persons to knowingly contribute material support to such 

groups and requires U.S. banks to freeze their assets. This statute also makes members of such groups inadmissible to the U.S. 

The Justice Department has used the law to investigate and obtain convictions 

of persons providing material support to terrorist groups, and it has helped curbed 

the flow of terrorist funding. 

However, experience with the law over the past seven years shows the need to 

refine it to make it more even more effective in the fight against global terrorism. 

Under existing law, the U.S. government must devote significant amounts of its 

counterterrorist resources to the FTO redesignation effort. This bureaucratic process 

must take place every two years, even though the vast majority of these groups do 

not even dispute their designation as terrorists. And as we all know, some groups 

such as Al Qaeda openly boast of their terrorist activity. 

H.R. 3978 would make two principal changes to the current law regarding the 

designation of foreign terrorist organizations: 

First, it would replace the requirement to formally redesignate terrorist organizations every two years with a procedure allowing groups to request a review at twoyear intervals, as well as a simplified procedural requirement to review each group 

every four years. 

This change would allow the State Department and other government agencies to 

focus more of their scarce resources on responding to new terrorist threats or tracking and analyzing newer groups that emerge on the horizon. 

For example, last year 29 of the 36 organizations on the U.S. Government’s foreign terrorist list were due for redesignation. As a result, State, Justice, Treasury, 

and the intelligence community expended thousands of hours in preparing a detailed administrative record for each of these groups. There are at least 20 steps 

in this process. Each case requires clearance from 10 different offices in the State 

Department, and similar clearance processes at Justice and Treasury. Over a dozen 

lawyers at Justice are taking time from their other counterterrorism and law enforcement responsibilities to review each one of these voluminous administrative 

records so they can be used in court cases if necessary. This administrative process 

has to be repeated, without exception, every two years. 

The modified redesignation requirement proposed by H.R. 3978 will still provide 

designated terrorist groups with plenty of procedural safeguards. Under the legislation, a group can still request a court review of a designation within 30 days after 

it is first designated. In addition, the billallows all designated organizations to petition the Secretary every two years to revoke its designation. The Secretary of State 

has to respond within 180 days. If that review is not to the group’s satisfaction, the 

designation can also be challenged in court. 

Furthermore, even if a group has not requested a review, the Secretary of State 

will have to formally review each designation every four years. 

The legislation would also establish a new procedure for handling the situation 

in which a terrorist organization changes its name or uses new aliases. The new 

provision allows the government to amend the underlying administrative record instead of re-creating a voluminous document every time a group takes on a new 

alias. A group will be able to appeal these additional designations. 

Under H.R. 3978, a group’s ability to challenge a designation or redesignation are 

essentially unchanged. The main difference is that the U.S. government does not 

have to spend scarce resources formally redesignating groups every two years when 

there is no doubt or challenge to the redesignations. 

The language on foreign terrorist organizations is identical to provisions contained 

in an en bloc amendment to H.R. 1950, the Department of State Authorization bill 

that was passed by voice vote on the House floor. The same language was included 

in two separate versions of the State Department Authorization bill approved by the 

Senate Foreign Relations Committee—S. 925 passed on April 24, 2003, and S. 2144 

passed on March 4 of this year. However, the State Department Authorization bill 

has not yet passed the Senate and may not pass during this Congress. Given the 

importance of this measure, we are marking up this provision as a separate bill. 

16

I will urge the full committee and the leadership of the House to take action on this 

bill at the earliest possible date. 

In addition, this provision has the support of both the State Department and the 

Justice Department. 

Lastly, section 3 of the bill requires that the State Department’s annual report 

on terrorism include information on countries and terrorist groups that are seeking 

to obtain weapons of mass destruction. Experts on terrorism both within and outside of government agree that the nexus between terrorism and weapons of mass 

destruction is the most dangerous security threat faced by the United States and 

our allies. Therefore, it makes absolute sense to have the State Department’s main 

report on terrorism discuss this linkage. 

I urge passage of this important legislation and I yield back the balance of my 

time.

Mr. SHERMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for bringing up this critical legislation. I look forward to other markups 

here in the Subcommittee where we can deal with other important 

legislation, and I want to commend you and our Committee Chairman for moving to the Full Committee the legislation on Iran and 

its nuclear proliferation program. 

This bill would reduce the workload of the State Department. 

Currently staff who could be conducting counterterrorism activities 

must instead spend their time going through an arduous administrative process every 2 years to redesignate an organization on the 

foreign terrorist organization list, the FTO list. You and I know 

that during that 2-year period nothing has happened that would 

cause most of these organizations to even assert that they should 

be taken off the list. 

Hamas is a terrorist organization yesterday and today, and they 

plan to be tomorrow. Nonetheless, every designation expires under 

the current law every 2 years, and the Department must go 

through the process of affirmatively redesignating the same groups 

that will earn their terrorist designation. They have to create an 

administrative record, spend hours upon hours justifying what we 

already know is true, what they already justified just 2 years earlier. Last year some 29 groups had to go through this redesignation 

process, and as a result of this distraction, a number of other 

groups that deserve to be on the list may not get there simply because of this misdirection of administrative resources. 

There are currently 37 organizations on the list. Obviously there 

are more than 37 terrorist organizations worldwide. Additional organizations should have been added to this list, and I note that 

Ansar al-Islam, an organization operating in Iraq and known to us 

to be a terrorist organization, is only now being so designated. I 

think we can do better, and I think this bill will help. 

This bill will leave a group on the FTO list indefinitely. The organization may petition the Secretary after 2 years. And I should 

point out that they can in effect send a letter to the Secretary at 

any time, and the Secretary can at any time, or upon the receipt 

of this 2-year petition, conduct an independent review if there has 

been none after 4 years. It leaves in place existing judicial review 

provisions, allowing the group to take a designation to the DC 

Court of Appeals. 

The bill will also allow the Department to easily amend designations to add aliases without having to conduct a full investigation. 

Many of these terrorist groups make up a new name every day. We 

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need to be able to designate those new names as aliases and as terrorist organizations just as quickly as they can be made up. 

And I should point out that it is my understanding of this bill 

that the word ‘‘alias’’ would apply even if there is some slight difference in the board or makeup or organization, so that if you have 

a terrorist organization controlled by six individuals, and then five 

of those individuals walk into the next room and say, we will leave 

one guy in the other room, now we are a different organization, 

that is still a mere alias, an organization under the same control 

dedicated to the same purposes. 

This bill would provide the State Department’s Global Pattern 

Terrorism Report will include information on WMD activities of 

terrorist organizations and state sponsors of terrorism. This is also 

a desirable change. Similar legislation to this bill has been included 

in the State Department Authorization bill, which, of course, remains in legislative limbo. I would hope that the leadership of both 

Houses would move forward with that bill, but in the absence of 

that, we need to move these provisions as a separate bill. 

Again, I thank Chairman Gallegly for his work on this important 

legislation and look forward to passing this bill through the Full 

Committee and to the House. 

Mr. GALLEGLY. Thank the gentleman from California. 

Are there any amendments? Hearing no requests, the Chair 

would now entertain a motion that the bill be reported favorably 

to the full House. 

Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Chairman, I wonder if there are others with 

brief opening statements? And it appears not. Good. 

Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Chairman, I would just move to strike the last 

word. 

Mr. GALLEGLY. There is a pending motion. So, would you like to 

withdraw your pending motion? 

Mrs. NAPOLITANO. I withdraw. 

Mr. SCHIFF. I was going to move to strike the last word on the 

pending motion. But, Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to thank you for 

bringing this bill up expeditiously and add my voice of support to 

it. To the degree that we can streamline the process in identifying 

terrorist organizations, those that fund them, and accelerate the investigation and prosecution of these organizations and the funders, 

it is extremely beneficial, and just want to add my voice of support. 

And I yield back the balance of my time. 

Mr. GALLEGLY. I thank the gentleman from California, and I 

would now reentertain the motion. 

Mrs. NAPOLITANO. So moved. 

Mr. GALLEGLY. The gentlelady from California has moved that 

the bill be reported favorably to the Full Committee. All in favor, 

say aye. 

Any opposed? 

That will be the order. The motion is approved, and the bill is 

reported favorably to the House. 

Thank you very much for attending the markup, and the meeting 

is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 1:25 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

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