2026 State Dept. funding bill leverages U.S. funding to combat antisemitism, anti-Israel bias in U.N.

"The finalized 2026 funding package for the State Department, released Sunday, leverages a portion of the U.S.’ contributions to the United Nations and its agencies to push for changes in what the U.S. has said is the institution’s anti-Israel bias and antisemitism.

The bill withholds 10% of the U.S. contribution for the U.N. or any U.N. agency until the State Department confirms to Congress that the agency is ‘taking credible steps to combat anti-Israel bias,’ putting measures in place to inform donors of when funds have been diverted or destroyed, ‘effectively vet[ting]’ staff for ties to terrorism and taking steps to address antisemitism, among a variety of other anticorruption and accountability measures.

The moves put new financial teeth behind longstanding U.S. efforts to combat antisemitism at the U.N., as well as to ensure stronger oversight following revelations that members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel.

However, the provisions relating to the U.N. in the final bill are significantly scaled back from the House’s draft of the legislation — which would have cut all U.S. funding for the U.N. regular budget and withheld funding for the U.N. secretariat pending a series of specific accountability steps relating to UNRWA personnel.

The explanatory report accompanying the bill includes a new requirement for relevant investigators general to provide a plan to Congress to conduct ‘risk-based investigations and related oversight of United States-funded implementing partners’ of any aid provided in Gaza and the West Bank. It directs the administration to focus on reports of staff or contractors for such aid providers who have ties to or involvement in terrorism, and provide recommendations for addressing and preventing these issues.

The legislation maintains longstanding mechanisms governing U.S. aid to Gaza and the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority and new accountability measures implemented following the Oct. 7 attacks, as well as a ban on U.S. funding for UNRWA and a ban on funding for the U.N. Human Rights Council and its Commission of Inquiry investigating Israel.

It provisions limiting U.S. assistance to U.N. bodies if the Palestinians receive status equivalent to that of a state in any U.N. body...

Several other provisions related to the Middle East that were included in the original House draft of the bill, including restrictions related to the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, preventing the establishment of additional diplomatic facilities in Jerusalem other than the U.S. Embassy and a directive to treat the West Bank and Gaza as separate entities for budgeting purposes have not been included in the final version of the bill..."