A new bill that is being pushed through the House has made a simple yet essential request of the Trump Administration: label the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization once and for all. While the 63 congress members that support the bill are hopeful that the group overall will be labeled as being tied to terrorism, there are many who at the very least assume that country-specific parts of the group will be banned. This would include the groups in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Although it might make sense to most people to designate the overall Muslim Brotherhood as being a terrorist organization based on the fact that even some of their chapters have ties to terror, there are some with a more liberal agenda that want to stop this from happening to the whole group. They may argue that there are some groups within the organization in places like the United States without direct ties to terrorism, but even a connection once removed is dangerous.

For those who fail to see the value of designating the group as such even though it has already been banned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, there is a compromise. The idea is that the new House bill would allow the United States to selectively name each “country-specific” organization separately. Instead of saying the entire Muslim Brotherhood was a terrorist group, they could start with banning the chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood in places like Egypt.

There are legal precedents to taking steps to start by naming region specific branches of a larger organization. This practice has already been applied to other agencies like the Ansar al-Shari’a branches in Libya and Tunisia. According to a recent report about the push to hold the Muslim Brotherhood accountable to illegal activities in some of the chapters:

“There might be a debate over labeling the entire Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, but there’s no debate about these three branches. Our Egyptian, Saudi, and UAE allies already did the legwork uncovering all the bad behavior, and they concluded these branches support terrorism, and they are looking to us for support. Designating these branches is good politics, good policy, and – especially – good diplomacy.”

The Trump administration has been considering action against the Muslim Brotherhood since February, but are still dealing with some push back as far as labeling the entire organization. The idea that the group chapters could be named on their own as a terror support offers a first step in addressing the bigger issue.

Back in January, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson discussed the group during his confirmation hearing. He maintained that the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda are both “agents of radical Islam.” The House bill has also been addressed explicitly to Tillerson as lawmakers call on him to address the concerns about the organization.

The fact that this new House bill allows the United States to first name single chapters as terrorist organizations may signal a move towards real progress is cracking down on groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.

The ongoing argument over the designation for the general group is all but shut down when they start to list each chapter on its own. One would be hard-pressed to explain that the chapter in Egypt that has already been banned them for their direct ties to terrorism within Egypt is not a threat to national security.

It suddenly becomes less about arguing if the overall group is a threat and more about the real efforts of each chapter to support local terrorist groups. There are some within the House who are still pushing for the broader designation.

Diaz-Balart is one of the co-sponsors of the House Bill. As he explains:

“You have leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood who are designated terrorists, you have organizations under the Muslim Brotherhood, like Hamas, who are designated as terrorist organizations, so I think it’s pretty much a no-brainer that this is a terrorist organization.”

Even if it seems to be a “no-brainer” that any tie to terrorism should be enough to label the entire group as being a group that supports it, that does not seem to be the case for all the members of the House. There are still those who do not want to mark the overall Muslim Brotherhood as being a terrorist organization.

For the chapters that may end up being named as a terrorist organization by the United States, there are several consequences of the label. This can include both travel and financial restrictions that are meant to isolate the groups.