§2735a Presidential Envoy for the Abraham Accords, Negev Forum, and Related Integration and Normalization Fora and Agreements

Summary

Creates a new office in the State Department called the Regional Integration Office to lead U.S. diplomacy around the Abraham Accords and the Negev Forum. The office is led by a Special Presidential Envoy who the President must pick with the Senate’s approval, who reports to the Secretary of State and has the rank of ambassador. The Envoy must focus on growing and strengthening normalization with Israel and regional cooperation, pushing integration within the Middle East and North Africa and between that region and places like sub‑Saharan Africa and the Indo‑Pacific. The Envoy must work to deliver real economic and security benefits, act as the U.S. ministerial contact to the Negev Forum and similar groups, coordinate across federal agencies, keep Congress informed, and start talks on economic and security partnership frameworks. Those talks must include supply chain security, aligning regulatory and financial rules, attracting investment, diversifying energy including renewables and related technologies, and issues of the digital economy and cybersecurity. The Envoy must also push for anti‑money‑laundering and counter‑terrorist financing standards in the economic plan and promote targeted investment in regional infrastructure to boost connectivity, growth, resilience, and U.S. interests. The Envoy cannot hold other jobs in the State Department or the executive branch. Congress also says the whole government should support this work. The Envoy must send a report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee within 180 days after December 22, 2023, and every year after that; the report must be unclassified but may include a classified annex. The Secretary of State must give an interagency economic strategy by the same 180‑day deadline. This office and these rules end 6 years after December 22, 2023. If someone already held the Envoy job on December 22, 2023 and met the rules, no new appointment is required until they leave. Definitions (one line each): Abraham Accords — the named agreements made in 2020 between Israel and several countries; Expand — increase the number of countries normalizing with Israel; Key partners in regional integration — includes Abraham Accords countries, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and other active supportive countries; Negev Forum — the regional cooperation group set on November 10, 2022, or its successor; Observer — a nonmember country or entity that supports and may join certain projects; Other regional actors — the Palestinian Authority or a future credible Palestinian interlocutor; Strengthen — improve diplomatic ties and broaden cooperation among Accords and Negev Forum countries.