Middle East Legislation in Congress
Selection Rule and Stages
249 measures qualify under the title rule below and a hand reading of each title.
Sources
- Congress.gov API, version 3 (Library of Congress): bill listings, titles, sponsors, cosponsors, committees and every recorded action for the 119th Congress.
- Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate roll-call votes: vote totals for each recorded vote that Congress.gov attaches to a bill action.
- MEF Policy Notes: a note is listed on a bill page when its text cites that bill number.
Coverage
249 measures of the 119th Congress (January 3, 2025, to January 3, 2027) introduced from January 3, 2025 onward: House and Senate bills, joint resolutions, concurrent resolutions and simple resolutions. Last action October 9, 2026; refreshed from Congress.gov October 13, 2026. Congress refers nearly every measure to committee on the day of introduction, so the Introduced stage is normally empty.
Selection Rule
A measure enters the candidate list when its Congress.gov title matches at least one topic pattern below. Patterns are case-insensitive regular expressions with word boundaries (\b), so a pattern matches whole words only ("Oman" would not match "woman"). Patterns joined by AND must all match the same title. Each candidate is then read by hand to confirm the title uses the word in the sense of the topic (the country Turkey, not the bird; the country Lebanon, not a U.S. town of that name). A measure can carry several topics.
| Topic | Pattern | Measures |
|---|---|---|
| Iran | \biran(ian|ians|'s)?\b OR \bIRGC\b OR \bislamic revolutionary guard OR \bkhamenei\b | 92 |
| Qatar | \bqatar(i|is|'s)?\b | 3 |
| Turkey | \bturkey\b OR \bt[uü]rkiye\b OR \bturkish\b OR \berdo[gğ]an\b | 7 |
| Hamas and Gaza | \bhamas\b OR \bgaza\b OR \boctober 7(th)?\b | 27 |
| Hezbollah | \bh[ie]zb[aou]llah\b | 3 |
| Houthis | \bhouthis?\b OR \bansar ?allah\b OR \byemen(i)?\b | 11 |
| Muslim Brotherhood | \bmuslim brotherhood\b | 3 |
| Syria | \bsyria(n|ns|'s)?\b OR \bassad\b OR \bcaesar\b | 10 |
| Lebanon | \blebanon\b OR \blebanese\b | 7 |
| UNRWA | \bUNRWA\b OR \brelief and works agency\b | 6 |
| Israel Security Assistance | \bisrael(i|is|'s)?\b AND \b(security|defense|defence|military|missile|iron dome|arms|weapons?|munitions?|assistance|aid|qualitative|cooperation|deterr\w*|emergency|supplemental|counter[- ]?drone|anti[- ]?tunnel|partnership|ally|allies|alliance|support)\b OR \bunited states[-\u2013\u2014 ]israel\b | 40 |
| Antisemitism (Including Campus) | \banti-?semit\w*\b OR \bjew(s|ish)?\b.*\b(campus|universit\w*|college|school|student) OR \b(campus|universit\w*|college|school|student)\b.*\bjew(s|ish)?\b | 39 |
| Section 117 Foreign Gifts | \bsection 117\b OR \bDETERRENT\b OR \bforeign gift transparency\b OR \bcontributions to education\b OR \bforeign\b.*\b(gifts?|contracts?|funding|funds|source|donations?|money)\b AND \b(universit\w*|colleges?|higher education|institutions? of higher|schools?|academic|campus\w*)\b | 4 |
| FARA Reform | \bforeign agents? registration\b OR \bFARA\b OR \bforeign agents?\b | 3 |
Stage Definitions
- Introduced
- Introduced, with no committee referral recorded.
- In Committee
- Referred to at least one committee, with no passage recorded in either chamber.
- Passed One Chamber
- Congress.gov records "Passed/agreed to" in the House or the Senate (action codes 8000 or 17000), not both. For a simple resolution (H.Res. or S.Res.) this is final action and is labelled as such on the bill page.
- Passed Both
- Passed or agreed to in both chambers, not yet a public law.
- Became Law
- Congress.gov records "Became Public Law" (action code 36000).
Cosponsor counts include only current cosponsors. Party is as recorded by Congress.gov at the time of cosponsorship. Recorded votes are the roll calls Congress.gov attaches to the bill's actions; voice votes and unanimous consent appear only in the timeline.
Update Cadence
Updated daily. Each update asks Congress.gov for measures changed since the previous update, re-reads every listed measure that changed, and loads new roll-call totals. Newly introduced measures that match the rule are read by hand before they appear here.
Download
bills.csv: one row per listed measure (bill number, title, topics, chamber, sponsor, party, state, introduced date, stage, cosponsors by party, latest action, Congress.gov URL).
Citation
Middle East Forum, Middle East Legislation in Congress, accessed October 13, 2026, https://bills.meforum.org/.
Other MEF Sources
- MEF Policy Notes: the source of the Policy Note links on bill pages.
- The Iran Ledger: the regime finances many of the Iran measures here target.