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“TIME FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT IN AMERICA'S FOREIGN POLICY” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H2900-H2903 on April 3, 2014.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TIME FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT IN AMERICA'S FOREIGN POLICY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho) for 30 minutes.
Mr. YOHO. Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues for joining me tonight to talk about foreign aid and saving hard-earned American taxpayers' dollars.
With April 15 fast approaching, Americans will be filling out their tax returns and sending a portion of their hard-earned tax money to the Federal Treasury. It is up to us as Members of Congress to be good stewards of these funds, making sure that they are used to the best ability that we can to get the results desired. Time and again, we hear of wasteful spending in Washington, D.C., and it is long overdue that we commit ourselves to giving proper oversight to how we spend the people's money.
I have made it a priority of mine since having the honor of joining the people's House to commit myself to doing the proper oversight of government. There are numerous examples of domestic programs that are a questionable use of taxpayers' dollars, and many of them should be eliminated. However, there is a United States foreign aid program that caught my eye and the eyes of my colleagues on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
On March 5, 2014, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade held a hearing: ``Threats to Israel: Terrorist Funding and Trade Boycotts.'' Through that hearing, it was brought to our attention that United States' foreign aid given to the Palestinian Authority has the potential to be funneled into a fund that pays monthly salaries to Israeli-convicted Palestinian terrorists.
Back in April 2011, the Palestinian Authority Registry published the PA Government Resolution of 2010, resolution Nos. 21 and 23, which formalized the long-held practice of the PA's paying a monthly salary to all Palestinians imprisoned in Israel for security- and terror-
related offenses. The salaries are paid from the PA's general budget to the prisoners on a sliding scale based on quality, which in this world means, the more vicious the act of terrorism, the more that is paid out. The payments can range from 2,400 to 12,000 shekels per month, roughly $680 to $3,400 per month.
It doesn't take a genius to know that money is interchangeable and that, once out of the hands of the American foreign aid, the dollars can easily be used to pay these salaries. It is reported, as of December 2012, salaries have gone to more than 4,500 prisoners who have committed acts of terror, acts of terror that have killed at least 54 U.S. citizens since 1993 and have injured another 83 Americans.
This is totally unacceptable. It is absurd that the United States remains one of the largest donors to the Palestinian Authority while these heinous practices remain on the books.
It is for this reason that my colleagues and I introduced a resolution in Congress that simply says that, until the Palestinian Authority repeals the resolution supporting convicted terrorists, all U.S. foreign aid to the PA should be halted. Representatives Weber, Perry, Poe, Westmoreland, Collins, Johnson, King, and Franks all feel the same way I do--cut off the funding. I believe this is only fair and should have been done a long time ago. The American taxpayers should not be funding anyone who wishes death upon them or conspires to inflict harm on us or our allies.
According to Palestinian definition, again, more than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners who are serving time for terror-related offenses are recipients of the PA salaries. This means that Palestinians convicted of crimes, such as theft, do not receive a salary, but Hamas and Fatah prisoners receive hefty payments for acts of terrorism.
Madam Speaker, take a moment to think about this. Steal a loaf of bread, and you don't get a check. Blow up a building and commit murder, and you receive a nice stipend from the Palestinian Authority which is funded by the hardworking American taxpayers. The thought of this angers me, and I know it angers the American taxpayers.
Since 2011, Palestinian Media Watch has been documenting international donors' aid money to the Palestinian Authority that is given for salaries and the general budget but that ends up paying the salaries of Palestinian terrorists imprisoned in Israel. These monthly payments to prisoners are paid from the Palestinian general budget fund. According to the language of the Palestinian regulation as well as Palestinian economic reports on government salaries, the monthly salaries to prisoners range, again, from 2,400 shekels to 12,000 shekels a month. That is $680 to $3,400 a month. The average income in that region is between $4,000 and $5,000 a year. The Palestinian Authority economic report listed the prisoners' salaries as part of the Palestinian general salary budget, which includes civil servants, military personnel, and others. It was not listed as a social service payment.
Two national bodies exist to process those salaries and other benefits. The Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, established in 1998, is an official bureaucracy of the Palestinian Authority that commands as much priority as the Ministries of Health or Education but with far more gravitas. The Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs works in tandem with the semi-official Prisoners' Club, established in 1994. The ministry dispenses the salary. The club functions as an advocate for the prisoners, and it is quite willing to publicly needle Palestinian leadership generally and the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs specifically into providing ever-greater payments and benefits. The ministry channels certain payments and benefits through the Prisoners' Club.
In May 2009, our own GAO issued a report on this very subject, entitled, ``Measures to Prevent Inadvertent Payments to Terrorists under Palestinian Aid Programs have been Strengthened but Some Weaknesses Remain.'' The report explained:
The U.S. Government is one of the largest donors to the Palestinians. It provided nearly $575 million in assistance in fiscal year 2008.
At least 54 U.S. citizens have been killed in Palestinian terror attacks since 1993, and another 83 have been wounded. The attacks have targeted American tourists, students, and expatriates living in Israel or in areas under Palestinian control.
Ahlam Tamimi helped to mastermind the deadly 2001 bombing of the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, which killed 15 people. Among those murdered was New Jersey schoolteacher Shoshana Greenbaum. Tamimi, who was released in the Shalit deal, now lives in Jordan, and is unrepentant about her actions. It is terrorists like these who receive monthly salaries from the Palestinian Authority.
Madam Speaker, at a time in the world that is becoming more dangerous, when there are individuals and organizations that wish the United States harm, when the administration is proposing cutting our military to pre-World War II levels, and when we as Americans are $17.6 trillion in debt, is it smart to be giving money to people in the name of peace who wish to do Americans and Israeli citizens harm?
Our national security is paramount, and as a Member of Congress, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I intend to stay true to that oath and defend the country I love and all who call it home. It is time that we as Americans in government have a paradigm shift in our foreign policy.
At this time, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber).
Mr. WEBER of Texas. I thank my friend, the gentleman from Florida.
Madam Speaker, I will tell you what the gentleman from Florida is describing is American and Israeli blood on the hands of terrorists who now have American cash in their back pockets. It is unbelievable.
The history is that, since 2003, the Palestinian Authority has provided government salaries to Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails--let me again say--with Israeli blood on their hands. These are prisoners who have actively participated in terrorist activities. According to the Palestinians' language of their own law, ``Anyone imprisoned in the occupation's, or Israel's, prisons as a result of his participation in the struggle against the occupation'' is eligible for a monthly salary.
Let me be clear.
Prisoners may qualify for a government salary if--and only if--they have killed an Israeli and/or participated in terrorist activities. As an extra, dare I call it, ``bonus,'' if their crimes are so extensive as to warrant imprisonment for 5 years or more, the government salaries will continue until 3 years following their release from jail. Salaries are also given to the families of suicide bombers or to those who die
``while participating in the struggle.''
Originally, these salaries were set at a minimum of $250 per month, American dollars. The payments were increased by 300 percent in January of 2011. At present, the PA is paying up to $15 million in government salaries to those convicted of crimes each month. It seems like a pretty good deal to me. Commit a terrorist attack and get yourself caught and imprisoned by the Israelis, and you can win free food, shelter, education, medical care, and a salary that is significantly higher than what you can collect on your own in the outside world.
How are we to believe the sincerity of a government that incentivizes violent acts of terror against the very nation with which they are supposedly negotiating a treaty for peace?
In a meeting with the Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, while in Ramallah, I told him that actions speak louder than words--
that they need to stop glorifying terrorists and, instead, glorify peace and renounce terrorism, that they need to admit that Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state. He was not a happy camper.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority doled out $100 million in salaries to 4,762 prisoners last year. An additional $46 million has already been allocated this year, and we are only 4 months into the year. Let me tell you that that averages out to $2,400 per prisoner per month--all for participating in terrorism. What is worse is that we are helping the Palestinian Government in their efforts. Did I mention they have got Israeli and American blood on their hands and American cash in their back pockets? Approximately 85 percent of all international aid money sent to the West Bank and Gaza goes to government salaries.
In spite of multiple congressional freezes on government aid, President Obama has continued to use his waiver authority to release millions in American taxpayer dollars to that same Palestinian Authority. In fact, since 2008, we have averaged $500 million a year in bilateral assistance. How does that protect our Nation or our very best ally, Israel? Where is the sense in that?
In the words of the Texas revolutionary, Lieutenant William Barret Travis:
I call on you, members, in the name of liberty, patriotism and everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid. We have got to stop this foolishness.
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We require foreign contractors, vendors, and employees to be properly vetted prior to receiving government grant funds to ensure that we are not unintentionally contributing to terror around the world. Why are we allowing it to happen here, for heaven's sake?
You are right, Congressman Yoho, at a time when our constituents are pulling out their receipts, drafting their tax returns, planning their annual budgets, we should be ever more diligent on spending their tax dollars.
The Appropriations Committee must ensure that the language they craft and the authority they give safeguards against us ever contributing to the financial well-being of those who seek the destruction of our allies or our great Nation.
Foreign aid is not a right; it is a gift from the American people. Terrorists with blood on their hands, we don't want to support terrorists with American and Israeli blood on their hands and with American cash in their back pockets. We must not let that happen.
I am Randy Weber, and you know I am right.
Mr. YOHO. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for your passion. I think it is so true, that we see this so many times. You said that foreign aid is not--it's a gift from the American taxpayers.
Mr. WEBER of Texas. It is not a right.
Mr. YOHO. It is a gift, and it is also not constitutional, and it doesn't say in there that we need to do that. So we need to look at all these things that we are doing, and that is why I say this is a time for a paradigm shift in foreign aid.
What we are actually doing--we are doing this in the name of peace, trying to promote peace, but then we turn around with the other hand, and they are giving money to our enemies, so it makes no sense.
At this moment, I yield to the great gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry).
Mr. PERRY. Madam Speaker, many people that each of us meet as Representatives in our home district say that things are wrong with Washington, and they give us a list.
Of course, one of the big things is the misspending of their money, and they are right. They say: Why aren't you doing something about it?
Oftentimes, the answer is: look, it is complicated, we have a House of Representatives, we have a Senate, and we don't always agree, and then we have to get the President to sign something.
On this occasion, something can be done; it is just not being done. In April 2011, the Palestinian Authority registry published a government resolution granting all Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israel for security and terror-related offenses a monthly salary from the authority--a monthly salary, like a job.
Imagine if your job was to blow up people, tear their limbs off, and send hot pieces of metal through their bodies and watch their bloody corpses being dragged through the street.
If that was your job, you would get a salary for that. Who in America pays--we put people in prison for that, we put people to death for that; yet American taxpayers are paying people overseas to do just that. Words mean things. They pay a salary.
The Authority defined eligible beneficiaries as anyone imprisoned in Israel's prison as a result of his participation in the struggle against the occupation, as is already stated, the occupation; again, words mean things.
I wonder, people complain, and they call it an occupation of the Palestinian lands. Let's remember who attacked Israel. I wonder if the war had ended inside of Israel's borders, if the attackers would have given Israel's borders back. I wonder, but I doubt they would have. Words mean things. So if you are involved at all in this struggle, in this fight, in this killing, you get a salary.
Now, according to the Palestinian Authority's definition, as was already stated, more than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners, as of December 2012, serving time for terror-related offenses are recipients of these salaries.
This means that Palestinians convicted of crimes such as theft do not receive a salary. However, Hamas and Fatah prisoners receive hefty payments--hefty.
According to the regulation and economic reports on government salaries, the monthly salaries to these prisoners range from $680 to
$3,400 a month. Who couldn't use $3,400, especially at tax time? Yet we are sending it to people to kill people, literally.
Like many salaries, payments to prisoners follow a sliding scale based on quality--quality of work. If your work is murdering other people, as Mr. Weber from Texas already stated, the more murder, the more mayhem, the higher the salary. It is unfathomable to us as Americans.
This is happening, and there is a few of us on the floor, but where is the rest of the Federal Government, Madam Speaker? Where is the Senate? Where is our President? Where is the Secretary of State? He knows this is happening, but it is us folks on the floor that are talking about it. He is not saying a word.
In this world, the more heinous the act of terrorism, the greater the salary; the more violent the terrorist act, the longer the Israeli prison sentence and, in turn, the higher the monthly compensation--
compensation for killing, so we are hiring hit men. American tax dollars are hiring hit men and hit women, and the policy literally incentivizes terrorism.
In May of 2009, GAO issued a report on this very subject, the Government Accountability Office. This is not Perry's rules; it is not Yoho's statistics. It is the GAO.
The report explained:
The U.S. Government is one of the largest donors to the Palestinians.
One of the largest donors. Yet the GAO found incomplete compliance with even the minimal paperwork requirements for vetting procedures.
So we are giving them a pile of money, and as usual with the Federal Government, we are not checking up on them. We have no idea what they are spending it on. Well, we just found out, right? We just found out.
In many cases, it seems Federal agencies and offices merely went through the motions without proper vetting--so surprising. It is shocking to me that U.S. taxpayer dollars have been indirectly used to pay Palestinian terrorists' salaries.
Let me explain the indirectly part of it because it amounts to this year--this fiscal year--$440 million. $17 trillion in debt. Annual deficits for the last 5-6 years averaging about a trillion dollars; yet we are happy to hand away $440 million and some of which--a great deal of which is used to kill people.
So the Congress allocates that money to the Department of State. The Department of State then allocates a portion of that money to USAID, who then gives it to the Palestinian Authority general budget, which is extremely fungible, which means the first dollar or the last dollar--
the dollars don't care--of the $440 million, we are spending about $60 million--well, someone is--the Palestinian Authority's paying $60 million to these terrorists in salaries. $60 million of that $440 million is going to terrorists' salaries.
Now, I wonder how much we spent tracking down Nidal Hassan and convicting him. How much time did we spend? What about those victims? How much time, energy, and resources did we spend on the Tsarnaev brothers?
Terrorism, people that kill other people, yet while we spend American tax dollars to track them down, imprison them--in the case of Nidal Hassan, his rightful punishment, which is the death sentence--on this occasion, we actually pay people to kill our allies and even other Americans.
State and Federal Government sanction other nations for this kind of behavior. We sanction them. We say we are not going to give you things, we are going restrict you; yet on this occasion, the Palestinian Authority, we actually pay them.
I don't get it. As an American, I don't get it. I wonder too, in this time of executive orders, this is wholly within the purview of the executive branch.
There have been many times when people in this House have objected to the executive orders moved on by this administration, but on this occasion, I can't think of one person in this room that would say: oh, no, Mr. President, please don't stop the State Department from giving
$440 million to the Palestinian Authority, so they can spend $60 million of hard-earned taxpayer money to pay for criminals that kill people.
Yet crickets, Madam Speaker, crickets.
Mr. YOHO. I appreciate the gentleman form Pennsylvania and your passion on that also.
This is the time, like you brought up and we have talked about, $17.5 trillion roughly in debt, if we go back to when we first got here, all being freshman, one of the first things that we had to deal with--it was right before we came in, it was the fiscal cliff, then it was sequester, then it was the furloughing, and then the government shut down.
Why? From a lack of money, right? It wasn't an excess of money; yet we have given over $5 billion since 1988 to the Palestinian Authority, which is not a country. It is a loosely-knit organization.
We have to go back to our taxpayers and to our constituents back home and say: we need more money, we have got to do this. And they look at us, like they say to you: When are you guys going to start fixing it?
This is the time.
At this moment, I yield to the gentleman from the State of Iowa (Mr. King), my friend.
Mr. KING of Iowa. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for yielding and for pulling this Special Order together here and bringing out this case as something that all the American people aren't going to realize what is taking place here, if we don't have this discussion here. It takes leadership in this Congress to do this. I appreciate the strong voice of Mr. Perry and Mr. Weber.
I look back at it this way. On my first trip to Israel some time more than 10 years ago, I looked across at what was taking place from Israel proper and West Bank, the Palestinian area.
I went through the briefings and saw the data of a culture of people that raise their little girls to put on these fake suicide vests in order to make sure that they entrench deeply in them a multigenerational hatred towards Israelis and Jewish people. Now, why?
It is not a rational thing for a culture and a civilization to be so full of hate; yet all they really need to do is accept the existence of Israel, and a lot of us, this resistance we have within us would start to dissipate.
It wouldn't be gone because you don't just accept somebody's word who has such a history of doing what they have done. The hatred goes deep.
I think of Congressman Gohmert of Texas, if he were standing here tonight, he would say: you don't have to pay people to hate you, they'll hate you for free.
So all these billions of dollars--$5 billion since 1988, as Mr. Yoho just said, the idea of trying to trade off land for peace, and what you get back is a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, in a more violent and a bloody and a brutal way.
You see that there is a fundraising mechanism worldwide that pours dollars into the Palestinian Authority, and they then use it to pay the payroll of people that are sitting in a prison for crimes against--let me say it this way, crimes against humanity, not necessarily the technical definition of the convictions that they have--who get a payroll check for demonstrating hatred, acting on it, in a kinetic fashion, being locked up to protect the rest of society, and then being paid in reward for that.
This is an appalling circumstance, tapping into the United States of America where--we have to think about this--if we want to pay people that hate Israel, who are prisoners for committing crimes, and we grant that over to the Palestinian Authority in our foreign aid package or whatever particular line item it might be, so we have to go to China: Will you loan us some money, so that we can run it through our Treasury, so we can funnel it in to go in to pay people that have been--in any measure of decency, what they are committing is wrong?
They need to have their hearts softened. They need to raise their children to love their neighbor as they love themselves. They need to understand that there is a good functional government going on in Israel proper and still likely the only place in the Middle East where an Arab can get a fair trial is in Israel, where Arabs serve in the Knesset, where they serve in the supreme court, where they have the rights of land ownership.
That is the way you run a country that has a multidimensional ethnicity and religion in it.
Mr. PERRY. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. KING of Iowa. I would yield.
Mr. PERRY. So based on this, how should our great ally Israel--how should the people of Israel view us, knowing that this is happening and knowing that no one outside these four walls right now is talking about this? How should they view us?
Mr. KING of Iowa. Well, I think they will view us as a foolish country that doesn't understand our priorities and doesn't understand where the money is coming from or where it goes.
I would say this call out: Mr. Netanyahu, why don't you just ask us to take that money and give it to Israel instead? Give it to the people that are promoting peace, the people that are surrounded by enemies throughout, the people that had to stand there and face the all-out attacks over and over again.
They are a democracy in the Middle East, a stabilizing force in the Middle East; and if we allow them to be weakened--sometimes by the willful actions of this administration--if we allow them to be weakened, if they collapse, so does a lot of freedom in the Middle Eastern part of world.
It threatens Europe, and in the end, it threatens us. So our safety and our security is tied together. We need to protect our brethren who believe in freedom, who believe in a form of democracy, and we need to encourage that everywhere in the world.
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There are good people in the Palestinian lands. They need to have good leadership, and if we give them the right incentive, they are going to perhaps produce good leadership.
But if we pay them to hate people, there are going to be more people hating people. I think we should turn that money back around and reward the people that don't, those who need to be defended.
Mr. YOHO. I appreciate your participation in this and your leadership on so many other things that you have done. Thank you for being here.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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