I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 401
To create an office within the Department of Justice to undertake certain 
specific steps to ensure that all American citizens harmed by terrorism 
overseas receive equal treatment by the United States government regard-
less of the terrorists’ country of origin or residence, and to ensure 
that all terrorists involved in such attacks are pursued, prosecuted, 
and punished with equal vigor, regardless of the terrorists’ country of 
origin or residence. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 28, 2003
Mr. ANDREWS (for himself, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. SOUDER, 
Mr. SCHROCK, Mr. SAXTON, and Mr. WILSON of South Carolina) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Ju-
diciary 
A BILL 
To create an office within the Department of Justice to 
undertake certain specific steps to ensure that all Amer-
ican citizens harmed by terrorism overseas receive equal 
treatment by the United States government regardless 
of the terrorists’ country of origin or residence, and 
to ensure that all terrorists involved in such attacks 
are pursued, prosecuted, and punished with equal vigor, 
regardless of the terrorists’ country of origin or resi-
dence.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Koby Mandell Act of 
2003’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
(1) Numerous American citizens have been 
murdered or maimed by terrorists around the world, 
including more than one hundred murdered since 
1968 in terrorist attacks occurring in Israel or in 
territories administered by Israel or in territories ad-
ministered by the Palestinian Authority. 
(2) Some American citizens who have been vic-
tims of terrorism overseas, especially those harmed 
by terrorists operating from areas administered by 
the Palestinian Authority, have not received from 
the United States Government services equal to 
those received by other such victims of overseas ter-
rorism. 
(3) The United States Government has not de-
voted adequate efforts or resources to the apprehen-
sion of terrorists who have harmed American citi-
zens overseas, particularly in cases involving terror-
ists operating from areas administered by the Pales-
tinian Authority. Monetary rewards for information 
leading to the capture of terrorists overseas, which 
the government advertises in regions where the ter-
rorists are believed to be hiding, have not been ad-
vertised in areas administered by the Palestinian 
Authority. 
(4) This situation is especially grave in the 
areas administered by the Palestinian Authority, be-
cause many terrorists involved in the murders of 
Americans are walking free there; some of these ter-
rorists have been given positions in the Palestinian 
Authority security forces or other official Palestinian 
Authority agencies; and a number of schools, streets, 
and other public sites have been named in honor of 
terrorists who were involved in the murder of Ameri-
cans. 
(5) To remedy these and related problems, an 
office should be established within the Department 
of Justice for the purpose of ensuring equally vig-
orous efforts to capture all terrorists who have 
harmed American citizens overseas and equal treat-
ment for all American victims of overseas terrorism.
SEC. 3. ETABLISHMENT OF AN OFFICE IN THE DEPART-
MENT OF JUSTICE TO UNDERTAKE SPECIFIC 
STEPS TO FACILITATE THE CAPTURE OF TER-
RORISTS WHO HAVE HARMED AMERICAN 
CITIZENS OVERSEAS AND TO ENSURE THAT 
ALL AMERICAN VICTIMS OF OVERSEAS TER-
RORISM ARE TREATED EQUALLY. 
The President shall establish within the Department 
of Justice an office (hereafter the ‘‘Office’’) to carry out 
the following activities: 
(1) The Office shall assume responsibility for 
administration of the Rewards for Justice program 
and its web site, www.rewardsforjustice.com, and in 
so doing will ensure that—
(A) rewards are offered to capture all ter-
rorists involved in harming American citizens 
overseas, regardless of the terrorists’ country of 
origin or residence; 
(B) such rewards are prominently adver-
tised in the mass media and public sites in all 
countries or regions where such terrorists re-
side; 
(C) the names and photographs and sus-
pects in all such cases are included on the web 
site; and
(D) the names of the specific organizations 
claiming responsibility for terrorist attacks 
mentioned on the site are included in the de-
scriptions of those attacks. 
(2) The Office shall establish and administer a 
program which will provide notification for American 
victims of overseas terrorism or their immediate 
family to update them on the status of efforts to 
capture the terrorists who harmed them. 
(3) The Office shall assume responsibility for 
providing twice-annual reports to Congress as de-
fined by section 805 of the Admiral James W. 
Nance and Meg Donovan Foreign Relations Author-
ization Act, Fiscal Years 2000 and 2001. 
(4) The Office shall work with the other United 
States government agencies to expand legal restric-
tions on the ability of murderers to reap profits from 
books or movies concerning their crimes—the ‘‘Son 
of Sam’’ laws that currently exist in many States, so 
as to ensure that terrorists who harm American citi-
zens overseas are unable to profit from book or 
movie sales in the United States. 
(5) The Office shall endeavor to determine if 
terrorists who have harmed American citizens over-
seas are serving in their local police or security
forces. Whenever it is found that terrorists who have 
harmed American citizens overseas are serving in 
their local police or security forces, the Office shall 
alert those United States Government agencies in-
volved in providing assistance, directly or indirectly, 
to those forces, and shall request of those agencies 
that all such assistance be halted until the aforemen-
tioned terrorists are removed from their positions. 
(6) The Office shall undertake a comprehensive 
assessment of the pattern of United States indict-
ments and prosecution of terrorists who have 
harmed American citizens overseas, in order to de-
termine the reasons for the absence of indictments 
of terrorists residing in some regions, such as the 
territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority. 
The Office’s assessment shall then be provided to 
the Attorney General, together with its recommenda-
tions. 
(7) The Office shall endeavor to monitor public 
actions by governments and regimes overseas per-
taining to terrorists who have harmed American citi-
zens, such as naming of schools, streets, or other 
public institutions or sites after such terrorists. In 
such instances, the Office shall encourage other 
United States Government agencies to halt their
provision of assistance, directly or indirectly, to 
those institutions. 
(8) In instances in which specific organizations 
that claimed responsibility for acts of terrorism 
against Americans overseas subsequently became 
part of a governing regime with which the United 
States Government maintains diplomatic or other of-
ficial contacts, such as the Palestinian Authority, 
the Office will initiate negotiations to secure appro-
priate financial compensation for American citizens, 
or the families of such citizens, who were harmed by 
those organizations’ terrorism. 
(9) In cases where terrorists who have harmed 
Americans overseas, and are subsequently released 
from incarceration abroad, are eligible for further 
prosecution in the United States, the Office shall co-
ordinate with other government agencies to seek the 
transfer of those terrorists to the United States for 
further prosecution. 
(10) The Office shall strive to ensure that all 
terrorists who have harmed Americans overseas are 
treated by the United States Government as persona 
non grata, including, but not limited to, steps such 
as denying those individuals visas for entry to the 
United States; urging United States Government
agencies to refrain from political and diplomatic con-
tacts with those individuals; and instructing United 
States embassies and consulates to urge American 
visitors in those countries to refrain from patron-
izing businesses that are owned or operated by such 
individuals. 
SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be appro-
priated for fiscal year 2003 and subsequent fiscal years 
such sums as may be necessary to carry out this Act. 
(b) AVAILABILITY.—Amounts appropriated under 
subsection (a) are authorized to remain available until ex-
pended.
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