Jon Kyl

Mr. KYL

Mr. KYL. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Johanns).

Mr. KYL. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Johanns).

Mr. KYL. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Johanns).

Mr. KYL. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Johanns).

Mr. KYL. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Johanns).

Mr. KYL

Mr. KYL. Madam President, while my colleague from Massachusetts is still here, let me advise him of two things with respect to amendment No. 629. First of all, it was certainly not my intention that we deal individually with political asylees, but the amendment could have been read that way and I appreciate the point. Secondly, it was a response to a news story which gained a great deal of attention from my constituents related to the January 30 order by the President, ordering $20 million for urgent relief efforts to provide migration assistance to Palestinian refugees. That has gotten a lot of attention from folks. They wanted to know what we were doing. We have talked to the State Department, and while I haven't withdrawn the amendment yet, we have received assurances from them orally that-- and I believe and hope we will receive assurances in writing--that was not the intention of that order. Assuming that is the case, there would be no need for the amendment, and it would be my intention tomorrow to withdraw it. I hope they will have something to us in writing. If not, if they have a spokesman of high enough authority to provide the assurance orally, that will suffice as well, but we will want to get that. I will speak to the other amendment, but I wished to respond to my colleague.

Mr. KYL. Madam President, if my colleague would like to hear a brief comment with regard to amendment No. 630, although I don't need to hold him here, it will be my intention to get a vote on that amendment. Let me explain why, even though I certainly recognize the validity of some of the points made by the Senator from Massachusetts. This amendment deals with a problem that was violently brought to our attention again when the cease-fire between Hamas and Israel was broken and hundreds of rockets were again rained down on Israel, most of which had been smuggled across the Sinai and into the Gaza Strip; many of the weapons having come from Iran, or at least groups sponsored by Iran. We have partially, as a result--in fact, significantly, as a result of the assistance that I know the Senator from Massachusetts has supported, and we have all supported, to Egypt--gotten a lot of cooperation from Egypt in helping to bring this smuggling to a much lower level than it otherwise would have been. I am very cognizant of that. I have thanked the Egyptian Government for its efforts, and we want to continue to thank them for those efforts. The problem is smuggling does continue. All this amendment does is to ask for a report about what other uses this money could be put to, to help the Egyptians, the Israelis, the United States, and others who engaged in the effort to stop the smuggling from the Sinai through primarily tunnels but by other means as well into Gaza so Israel can no longer be threatened. The amendment is not to denigrate these efforts of the Egyptians in any way. I understand there is some sensitivity by folks at the State Department, for example, that the amendment may look like we are not grateful for those efforts. Quite to the contrary. But I do think--and I will be happy to read some news reports--that illustrates it is the view of the Israeli Government that this smuggling is continuing and will continue unless more is done, including by the Egyptians. So the purpose of the amendment is simply to keep track of what else we might do to try to stop the smuggling. If my colleague would like to intercede at this point, I would be happy to hear his comments.

Mr. KYL. Madam President, I certainly acknowledge what my colleague has said. Let me quote from one news article which illustrates the reason why I think we need to do this. This is from March 3--very recent--from the Jerusalem Post. The authors of the article talk about Hamas's ongoing smuggling into Gaza--ongoing. They talk about the persistence of Hamas arms smuggling which almost ensures a resumption of hostilities in Gaza. That is the point of this: to try to prevent more hostilities. If those weapons are not smuggled into Gaza, they are not going to rain them down on the people of Israel and there won't be a need for Israel to engage in any hostilities. I am afraid that if it continues, they would have no choice but to try to defend itself. I will conclude with these two paragraphs in this one article: In most cases, following the exposure of a tunnel, Egyptian forces have either placed a guard at the mouth of the tunnel or blocked the tunnel's entrance rather than taking steps to demolish the tunnel completely. As such, smugglers have been able to employ these tunnels again after a short interval. When a tunnel entrance has been blocked, diggers typically cut a new access channel nearby and connect it with the existing tunnel closer to the border. In addition, there is no evidence that Egyptian forces are taking steps to arrest and punish smugglers. These rings are rarely broken up, and in the absence of lengthy jail terms, there is little deterrence. I ask unanimous consent that three of these similar reports be printed in the Record at this point.

Mr. KYL. Madam President, again, I wish to compliment the Egyptian Government and others who have insisted on trying to stop this smuggling. My amendment asks for a study by the Secretary of State and the DNI about whether additional taxpayer support out of the annual appropriation for Egypt would aid in stopping this smuggling activity. That is one of the two amendments--amendment No. 630--that will be voted on this evening. The other amendment is amendment No. 631; that is to say, if the unanimous consent agreement goes into effect, which includes the four amendments we are likely to vote on, two of those would be my amendments, No. 630 and 631. Amendment No. 631 Let me briefly describe amendment 631. It deals with the $300 million for Gaza reconstruction that Secretary Clinton offered at the Sharm el- Sheikh Donors Conference last Monday. We don't have details from the administration on its plans to keep the $300 million out of Hamas's hands. Clearly, obviously, we want to do that. What we do have is a general acknowledgment by the State Department of its concern that this is important to do. Obviously, we are all aware that Hamas controls nearly every means of power and leverage in the Gaza Strip. So I don't think we can be too careful in ensuring that none of our taxpayer dollars get into the hands of a terrorist group such as Hamas. Section 7040(f) of the bill addresses this problem partly. It provides limitations on the disbursements of the main types of assistance funds--these are the bilateral economic assistance, international security assistance and multilateral assistance and export investment assistance--to the Palestinian Authority. So there are limitations on the funds going to the Palestinian Authority. The problem is, some of this money goes through the United Nations and through nongovernmental organizations--the so-called NGOs. So what my amendment does is to close this loophole to ensure that none of our money goes to them and then Hamas as well. It adds the crucial step of making explicit that no funds from the omnibus shall be made available for reconstruction in Gaza until the Secretary of State certifies that no such funds will be diverted to Hamas or entities controlled by Hamas. As I said, the reason is because some of the money is going to these other organizations. There is a recent op-ed in Forbes magazine--and I will ask for its inclusion in a moment--by Claudia Rosett, the same intrepid reporter, incidentally, who first revealed the United Nations oil-for-food scandal. In it she wrote: On the matter of how exactly the ``safeguards'' will work, the State Department has been stunningly vague. At a State Department press briefing on Monday, while Clinton was in Egypt making her pledge, a spokesman said that up to $300 million would go for Gaza's ``urgent humanitarian needs'' as identified by the U.N. and the Palestinian Authority. Those funds, he said, would flow via the United States Agency for International Development ``in coordination with U.N. agencies, international organizations, and USAID grantees'' and ``through the State Department for the U.N. agencies, including the international committee of the Red Cross, and other humanitarian organizations.'' Then she further notes that one of the institutions that the U.N. uses to funnel aid to the Palestinian Authority is the Commercial Bank of Syria. Here is what she says about that: Under Secretary Stuart Levey alleged that the bank had been used by terrorists to move money, ``and as a state-owned entity with inadequate money laundering and terrorist financing controls, the Commercial Bank in Syria poses a significant risk of being used to further the Syrian Government's continuing support for international terrorist groups.'' Among the terrorist groups cited as examples of such clients were Hezbollah in Lebanon, and such denizens of Gaza as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Hamas. I ask unanimous consent that this article be printed in the Record.

Mr. KYL. Madam President, I also ask that a press release from the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and members of the House Republican leadership also be printed in the Record.

Mr. KYL. Madam President, what these all point out is that in addition to ensuring that money that goes to the Palestinian Authority doesn't get into the hands of Hamas, which is assured by the legislation, we need to make sure that other funds that go to the United Nations or the NGOs also are not diverted to Hamas. That is what we have provided by this amendment. Incidentally, I would say this: One of my colleagues said: Well, isn't a secretarial certification a little bit much? My response is: Well, if the Secretary can't certify it, we probably shouldn't be sending taxpayer money. But I had also suggested language such as the following: That all possible steps have been taken to ensure that no such funds have been diverted by Hamas or entities controlled by Hamas. If there is any objection to the exact language of my amendment, I would be happy to amend the language to include the language I indicated. So I hope my colleagues, when we vote at 5:30 this afternoon, will consider the arguments I have made with respect to these two amendments: to make sure that, first of all, our Egyptian friends have all the support they need to ensure that smuggling does not occur in the future and threaten the people of Israel; secondly, that no American taxpayer money is spent either through the Palestinian Authority or--and this is not controlled in the bill--through the United Nations or other NGOs to provide support to any terrorist groups, including Hamas, and my amendment would prevent that from happening.

Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Utah (Mr. Bennett), the Senator from Texas (Mrs. Hutchison), and the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Johanns).

Mr. KYL. Colleagues, this amendment is very simple. It simply calls for a study by the Secretary of State and the DNI about whether additional U.S. taxpayer support out of the annual appropriation for Egypt would aid in stopping smuggling activity from the Sinai into Gaza. Egypt has been helpful to the United States but much more could be done. I put in the Record during my earlier remarks articles that demonstrate the degree to which Egypt is not helping. I think, therefore, those who argue this is a slap in the face at Egypt miss the point. Egypt has been recognized for its support, but it can do much more, and a mere study asking to identify what else it could do would be very appropriate when we are talking about spending U.S. taxpayer dollars.

Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Utah (Mr. Bennett), the Senator from Texas (Mrs. Hutchison), and the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Johanns).

Mr. KYL. Mr. President, this amendment deals with $300 million in this bill that Secretary of State Clinton announced at the donors conference at Sharm el-Sheikh would go to support efforts of the Palestinians in Gaza. The point of the amendment is to keep the money out of the hands of Hamas. Recognizing that this was important, there is a section of the bill that explicitly puts limitations on the money that flows to the Palestinian Authority to make sure it goes to the Palestinian Authority and not to Hamas or other terrorists. The problem is, according to a State Department spokesman, other parts of the money are going to go to NGOs and through the U.N. including potentially to a bank in Syria, which launders money to get to Hamas. The point of this amendment is to provide that the Secretary certify that none of this money goes to Hamas, whether it is through the Palestinian Authority or the U.N. or these NGOs. This amendment is necessary to protect American taxpayer money from getting to terrorist organizations such as Hamas.

Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Utah (Mr. Bennett), the Senator from Texas (Mrs. Hutchison), and the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Johanns).

Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Utah (Mr. Bennett), the Senator from Texas (Mrs. Hutchison), and the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Johanns).

Mr. KYL

Mr. KYL. I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to lay aside the pending amendment for the purpose of calling up three amendments.

Mr. KYL. Mr. President, the first Kyl amendment is numbered 631.

Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. KYL. Mr. President, the next amendment I would like to call up is amendment No. 629.

Mr. KYL. Mr. President, the third amendment is numbered 630.

Mr. KYL. I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with.