Abbas accepted a French offer to host peace talks by July 2011.[107] A few days later, US Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced plans to introduce legislation that would withhold US contributions to any UN entity that recognizes a Palestinian state or upgrades the status of the PLO observer mission.[108] She claimed that this was in order to "oppose efforts by the Palestinian leadership to evade a negotiated settlement with Israel."[108]