To provide for the International Security Affairs authorities of the Department of State.

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Bill ID: 119/hr/5247
Last Updated: December 14, 2025

Sponsored by

Rep. Self, Keith [R-TX-3]

ID: S001224

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The bill

To provide for the International Security Affairs authorities of the Department of State.

HR. 5247, 119th Congress — read as touching Defense Contractors.

The sponsor

Rep. Self, Keith [R-TX-3]

Every bill has someone who introduced it. That name is where the paper trail starts.

The money

$105,700 raised

21 itemised contributions to this sponsor, pulled from FEC filings.

The alignment

60% match to Project 2025

This bill's text tracks the "Introduction" section, p. 581-583 of the Mandate for Leadership.

Bill's Journey to Becoming a Law

Track this bill's progress through the legislative process

Latest Action

Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 28 - 19.

September 17, 2025

Introduced

📍 Current Status

Next: The bill will be reviewed by relevant committees who will debate, amend, and vote on it.

🏛️

Committee Review

🗳️

Floor Action

Passed House

🏛️

Senate Review

🎉

Passed Congress

🖊️

Presidential Action

⚖️

Became Law

📚 How does a bill become a law?

1. Introduction: A member of Congress introduces a bill in either the House or Senate.

2. Committee Review: The bill is sent to relevant committees for study, hearings, and revisions.

3. Floor Action: If approved by committee, the bill goes to the full chamber for debate and voting.

4. Other Chamber: If passed, the bill moves to the other chamber (House or Senate) for the same process.

5. Conference: If both chambers pass different versions, a conference committee reconciles the differences.

6. Presidential Action: The President can sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action.

7. Became Law: If signed (or if Congress overrides a veto), the bill becomes law!

Bill Summary

Another masterpiece of bureaucratic doublespeak, crafted by the finest minds in Congress (I use that term loosely). Let's dissect this monstrosity and expose its true intentions.

**Main Purpose & Objectives:** The bill's primary objective is to reorganize the Department of State's International Security Affairs authorities. In other words, it's a game of musical chairs, where politicians get to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic while pretending to address actual problems.

**Key Provisions & Changes to Existing Law:**

1. The Under Secretary for International Security Affairs will now oversee a plethora of new responsibilities, including nonproliferation, arms control, and counterterrorism. Because what could possibly go wrong with giving one person that much power? 2. The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking is established, complete with a Director who'll have the authority to take evidence in public hearings. How quaint. As if this will magically solve the complex issue of human trafficking. 3. Various Assistant Secretaries are authorized, including those for Political-Military Affairs and International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. Because we clearly need more bureaucrats to "coordinate" with other agencies.

**Affected Parties & Stakeholders:**

1. The Department of State, which will now have even more layers of bureaucracy to navigate. 2. Various government agencies, such as the Department of Defense, which will be forced to "coordinate" with these new Assistant Secretaries. 3. Nongovernmental organizations and multilateral organizations, which will likely be consulted but ultimately ignored. 4. Trafficking victims or affected persons, who might get a few crumbs from this bureaucratic behemoth.

**Potential Impact & Implications:**

1. More red tape and inefficiency within the Department of State. 2. Increased opportunities for corruption and cronyism, as these new Assistant Secretaries will have significant power to allocate funds and resources. 3. A continued lack of meaningful action on human trafficking, as this bill focuses more on bureaucratic reshuffling than actual solutions. 4. Further erosion of accountability, as these new offices and positions will create even more layers of bureaucracy to obscure responsibility.

In conclusion, HR 5247 is a textbook example of legislative theater, designed to create the illusion of progress while actually accomplishing nothing. It's a symptom of a deeper disease: the chronic inability of politicians to address real problems, instead opting for superficial fixes that benefit their own interests and egos.

Related Topics

Foreign Aid & DiplomacyNational Security & IntelligenceGovernment Operations & Accountability
Generated using Llama 3.1 70B (Dr. Haus personality)

💰 Campaign Finance Network

Rep. Self, Keith [R-TX-3]

Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle

Total Contributions
$105,700
20 donors
PACs
$0
Organizations
$300
Committees
$0
Individuals
$105,400

No PAC contributions found

1
TUCKER HILL HOA
1 transaction
$300

No committee contributions found

1
CHALIN, THOMAS
2 transactions
$11,600
2
MULLIGI, GINO
1 transaction
$9,000
3
FRITCHER, SAMMY
1 transaction
$6,600
4
LOBB, PAT
1 transaction
$6,600
5
MYERS, ROBERT
1 transaction
$6,600
6
HUFFINES, RAY
1 transaction
$6,600
7
MOSES, FRED
1 transaction
$6,600
8
LI, QINGSONG
1 transaction
$6,000
9
UIHLEIN, RICHARD
1 transaction
$5,800
10
HILTON, W.D.
1 transaction
$5,000
11
KORCA, YLBER
1 transaction
$5,000
12
SMAJLI, MARIO
1 transaction
$5,000
13
KRASNIQI, BLERINA
1 transaction
$4,500
14
QUILLIN, GEORGE
1 transaction
$4,000
15
ADAMS, CAROL A
1 transaction
$3,300
16
DEASON, DARWIN
1 transaction
$3,300
17
MCCLELLAND, MARK
1 transaction
$3,300
18
KELLOGG, DAVID H
1 transaction
$3,300
19
HILTON, MARY JEAN
1 transaction
$3,300

Donor Network - Rep. Self, Keith [R-TX-3]

PACs
Organizations
Individuals
Politicians

Hub layout: Politicians in center, donors arranged by type in rings around them.

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Showing 34 nodes and 21 connections (31 secondary connections hidden)

Total contributions: $105,700

Top Donors - Rep. Self, Keith [R-TX-3]

Showing top 20 donors by contribution amount

1 Org19 Individuals

Industry Impact

Which industries are materially affected by specific provisions in this bill. 3 helped.

  • +Defense Contractorsconfidence 0.80

    Section 404 establishes an Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs, which may lead to increased coordination with the Department of Defense, potentially benefiting defense contractors.

  • +Cybersecurityconfidence 0.60

    Section 412 mentions emerging security threats, including military applications of cyberspace operations, which may lead to increased funding for cybersecurity measures, benefiting the industry.

  • Section 412 mentions emerging security threats, including lethal autonomous systems and artificial intelligence, which may lead to increased investment in AI research and development, benefiting the industry.

Who funds the sponsor on these industries

For each industry this bill affects, here's what the sponsor (Rep. Self, Keith [R-TX-3])received from donors associated with that industry during the 2022–present cycles. Donations are not proof of intent — they are a record of who funds the people writing the law.

Industries this bill HELPS

Project 2025 Policy Matches

This bill shows semantic similarity to the following sections of the Project 2025 policy document.

Introduction

Moderate60.2%
Pages: 581-583

— 548 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise PRIORITIZING THE PROTECTION OF PUBLIC SAFETY Ordered liberty is at risk when our citizens lack physical safety, when career criminals do not fear the law, when foreign cartels move narcotics and illegal aliens into our nation at will, and when political leaders call citizens “domestic terrorists” for exercising their constitutional rights. The Department of Justice—in partnership with state and local partners—must recommit in both word and deed to protecting public safety. The overwhelming majority of crimes in the United States are properly handled at the state and local levels,19 but the DOJ can provide critical technical support for local law enforcement and play a critical agenda-setting role. With respect to the Department’s core responsibilities—enforcing our immigration laws, combating domestic and international criminal enterprises, protecting federal civil rights, and combating foreign espionage—the federal government has primary authority and, accordingly, accountability. The evidence shows that the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice has failed to protect law-abiding citizens and has ignored its most basic obligations. It has become at once utterly unserious and dangerously politicized. Prosecution and charging decisions are infused with racial and partisan political double standards.20 Immigration laws are ignored.21 The FBI harasses protesting parents (branded “domestic terrorists” by some partisans) while working diligently to shut down politically disfavored speech on the pretext of its being “misinformation” or “disin- formation.”22 A department that prosecutes FACE Act cases while ignoring dozens of violent attacks on pregnancy care centers and/or the coordinated violation of laws that prohibit attempts to intimidate Supreme Court Justices by parading out- side of their homes23 has clearly lost its way. A department that has twice engaged in covert domestic election interference and propaganda operations—the Russian collusion hoax in 2016 and the Hunter Biden laptop suppression in 2020—is a threat to the Republic.24 l Restoring the department’s focus on public safety and a culture of respect for the rule of law is a gargantuan task that will involve at minimum four overriding actions: l Restoring the FBI’s integrity. l Renewing the DOJ’s focus on violent crime. l Dismantling domestic and international criminal enterprises. l Pursuing a national security agenda aimed at external state and non-state actors, not U.S. citizens exercising their constitutional rights. — 549 — Department of Justice RESTORING THE FBI’S INTEGRITY The FBI was founded in 1908 to “tackle national crime and security issues” when “there was hardly any systematic way of enforcing the law across this now broad landscape of America.”25 It best serves the American people when it dedicates its resources and energies to attacking violent crime,26 criminal organizations,27 child predators,28 cyber-crime, and other uniquely federal interests.29 Revelations regarding the FBI’s role in the Russia hoax of 2016, Big Tech collu- sion, and suppression of Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020 strongly suggest that the FBI is completely out of control. To protect the Constitution, fight crime effectively, and protect the nation from foreign adversaries, the next conservative Adminis- tration should begin to restore the FBI’s domestic reputation and integrity and enhance its effectiveness in meeting actual foreign threats. To do so, the next con- servative Administration should: l Conduct an immediate, comprehensive review of all major active FBI investigations and activities and terminate any that are unlawful or contrary to the national interest.30 This is an enormous task, but it is necessary to re-earn the American people’s trust in the FBI and its work. To conduct this review, the department should detail attorney appointees with criminal, national security, or homeland security backgrounds to catalogue any questionable activities and elevate them to appropriate DOJ leadership consistent with the new chain of command (discussed below). The department should also consider issuing a public report of the findings from this review as appropriate. l Align the FBI’s placement within the department and the federal government with its law enforcement and national security purposes. DOJ veterans often opine that the FBI views itself as an independent agency—accountable to no one and on par with the Attorney General in terms of stature—but the fact remains that “[t]he Federal Bureau of Investigation is located in the Department of Justice.”31 It is not independent from the department (just as Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not independent from the Department of Homeland Security) and does not deserve to be treated as if it were. The next conservative Administration should direct the Attorney General to remove the FBI from the Deputy Attorney General’s direct supervision within the department’s organizational chart and instead place it under the general supervision of the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division and the supervision of the Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division, as applicable.32 This can be accomplished

Introduction

Moderate60.2%
Pages: 581-583

— 548 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise PRIORITIZING THE PROTECTION OF PUBLIC SAFETY Ordered liberty is at risk when our citizens lack physical safety, when career criminals do not fear the law, when foreign cartels move narcotics and illegal aliens into our nation at will, and when political leaders call citizens “domestic terrorists” for exercising their constitutional rights. The Department of Justice—in partnership with state and local partners—must recommit in both word and deed to protecting public safety. The overwhelming majority of crimes in the United States are properly handled at the state and local levels,19 but the DOJ can provide critical technical support for local law enforcement and play a critical agenda-setting role. With respect to the Department’s core responsibilities—enforcing our immigration laws, combating domestic and international criminal enterprises, protecting federal civil rights, and combating foreign espionage—the federal government has primary authority and, accordingly, accountability. The evidence shows that the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice has failed to protect law-abiding citizens and has ignored its most basic obligations. It has become at once utterly unserious and dangerously politicized. Prosecution and charging decisions are infused with racial and partisan political double standards.20 Immigration laws are ignored.21 The FBI harasses protesting parents (branded “domestic terrorists” by some partisans) while working diligently to shut down politically disfavored speech on the pretext of its being “misinformation” or “disin- formation.”22 A department that prosecutes FACE Act cases while ignoring dozens of violent attacks on pregnancy care centers and/or the coordinated violation of laws that prohibit attempts to intimidate Supreme Court Justices by parading out- side of their homes23 has clearly lost its way. A department that has twice engaged in covert domestic election interference and propaganda operations—the Russian collusion hoax in 2016 and the Hunter Biden laptop suppression in 2020—is a threat to the Republic.24 l Restoring the department’s focus on public safety and a culture of respect for the rule of law is a gargantuan task that will involve at minimum four overriding actions: l Restoring the FBI’s integrity. l Renewing the DOJ’s focus on violent crime. l Dismantling domestic and international criminal enterprises. l Pursuing a national security agenda aimed at external state and non-state actors, not U.S. citizens exercising their constitutional rights.

About These Correlations

Policy matches are calculated using semantic similarity between bill summaries and Project 2025 policy text. A score of 60% or higher indicates meaningful thematic overlap. This does not imply direct causation or intent, but highlights areas where legislation aligns with Project 2025 policy objectives.

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