Protect US Passport Holders from Political Retribution

Rep. Bill Mast (R-FL), the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has added a provision to H.R. 5300, the State Department reauthorization bill, that seeks to silence and punish political dissent. While this bill as a whole is a larger bipartisan package of policy updates for the State Department, Section 226 will give new power to the department to revoke passports from U.S. citizens based on vague designations of “support” for terrorist organizations.

The provision expands current law by allowing the Secretary of State to take action against citizens without due process or a criminal conviction. The language is similar to that of the so-called “nonprofit killer” bill that House Republicans tried to include in the One Big Beautiful Bill; it gave the Treasury Secretary unilateral control to revoke the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit it deemed a “terrorist supporting organization.”

The State Department has repeatedly punished immigrants for their speech. They detained and attempted to deport students like Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk without due process, claiming their statements in support of Palestine equated them to terrorism supporters. Now, this provision will allow the State Department to make similar, unjustified accusations of U.S. citizens for any belief or speech they oppose. It will pave the way for widespread political oppression and retribution.

The House Foreign Affairs committee will meet to mark up and amend the bill on September 17th. It must then pass both the full House and Senate. Demand your representatives remove this unnecessary and unconstitutional attack on free speech from the bill.