Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. STEUBE. Mr. Chair, I encourage my colleagues to answer the question: How can we justify appropriating America's hard-earned taxpayer dollars to a foreign military that emboldens Hezbollah in their reign of terror and hate for America?

Hezbollah's influence runs rampant throughout the Lebanese Government. Even advocates of aid to the Lebanese military concede that Hezbollah's influence runs rampant throughout the Lebanese Government.

What matters is not the addressee. It is the address--Hezbollah's house.

Money is fungible, and we are pumping cash and hard currency into a terror haven infested with terror finance and corruption.

Even those advocating to aid the Lebanese military say that this is an entity unwilling and unable to counter Hezbollah. Then why are we wasting our money?

My amendment ensures that none of Americans' taxpayer dollars may be made available for the Lebanese Armed Forces.

Funding to the Lebanese Armed Forces is a policy that has been in place since 2006, essentially on autopilot. Since then, the U.S. has provided more than $3 billion to the Lebanese military, supposedly to build up state institutions as a counterweight to Hezbollah, but with little to show in return.

In fact, Lebanon has come more under the sway of Hezbollah and Iran today than when the U.S. began funding Lebanon's military. Hezbollah's chief Christian ally, the Free Patriotic Movement, is the political party literally in control of Lebanon's defense ministry.

This is a policy on autopilot that gets renewed every year without Congress really having a chance to review this funding and ask whether this is a good place to spend taxpayer dollars and is in our national interests.

We are funding an army that just yesterday shot smoke bombs at Israeli troops, which it called enemy troops. This should not be a partisan issue.

Anyone who takes a look at this issue objectively, I think, will have serious questions about why we continue to fund the Lebanese Armed Forces, one of the most corrupt and bloated armies in the world. Most of Lebanon's military expenditures go to personnel salaries and benefits, a whopping 93 percent compared to 29 percent in the United States. These benefits include healthcare, maternity leave, compensation in the event of death, as well as domestic workers and drivers for high-ranking officers.

For example, the Lebanese military, which consists of 80,000 soldiers, has 400 generals that are extremely highly paid, while the U.S. Army has a force of half a million but just 295 generals.

This did not stop the Biden administration from notifying Congress last year that it was repurposing $67 million in aid to the Lebanese military in order to provide them with livelihood support, which just funds their salaries even more.

Rather than funding armed Mercedes and other luxury goods for Lebanese generals, we should be funding our southern border.

Lebanon's financial system is soaked in Hezbollah money laundering and financial crimes, and the terrorist group touches almost every facet of life in that country.

It is impossible that any administration could vet all the recipients of these taxpayer dollars and their families because there are no controls. There is no way to know how these individuals use this money. Some of it could flow through Hezbollah exchange houses or possibly be spent in Hezbollah-run businesses.

Mr. Chair, by safeguarding the actions of Hezbollah and other terror groups, the Lebanese Armed Forces fuels Iran's mission to kill American troops and wipe Israel off the map. I can't justify funding such horrific activity.

Mr. Chair, I encourage my colleagues to recognize the dangers of funding the Lebanese Armed Forces by voting for my amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. STEUBE. Mr. Chairman, it was described on the other side as ``a full-blown crisis in Lebanon.''

Why in the world would we send money to a country that is recognized by the opposition to be in a full-blown crisis?

Another speaker said that this money goes to pay the salaries of Lebanese soldiers, and if they don't receive this money, some of these soldiers won't be able to pay for their gas.

Since when is it the American taxpayer's responsibility to pay the salaries of Lebanese soldiers and ensure that they can get from one place to another?

Mr. Chair, I watched the debate on this floor for the last week or so, and we are giving money to the Palestinians, we are giving money to Lebanon. We are going to give $500 million to Jordan for their border wall while we are not securing our border.

The American people are sick and tired of giving foreign governments money and not putting America first.

We have a $33 trillion deficit and we are more concerned in this body about giving money to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Ukraine, you name it.

Mr. Chair, it is time to put America first. The American people have asked us to do that and that is why they put us in charge of the House.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. STEUBE. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.
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Mr. STEUBE. Mr. Chairman, as stewards of America's hard-earned taxpayer dollars we must ensure such funds only go to measures that advance our American interests, not undermine them.

We have provided billions of dollars to Iraq and lost thousands of lives in that country. Yet in 2023, we continue to provide a blank check to Iraq, despite this country going more and more against American interests and essentially having transformed into a proxy of Iran.

My amendment ensures that none of Americans' taxpayer dollars may be used to provide assistance to Iraq.

I served in Iraq, and while protecting American interests in the region remains critical, Mr. Chairman, we cannot justify sending our taxpayer dollars to a nation while being unable to safeguard those dollars from exploitation by Iran, ISIS, and other terror groups.

Iran's influence over Iraq is so emboldened that Iraq essentially serves as a proxy state and haven for Iranian terror activity. Iraq has a literal arrest warrant out for President Trump for killing terrorist Soleimani.

The Pentagon has disclosed that large portions of Iraq's security forces are overrun by Iranian-backed militants and IRGC terrorists, the same ones who continue to target American troops in the Middle East and the same ones who attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in 2019--and we want to send them money.

This money is not countering terrorism. On the contrary, throwing millions of dollars at a country which uses its resources to put Iranian-backed terrorists on the payroll, terrorists which have attacked U.S. forces and the U.S. Embassy is insane.

This does not give us leverage. It is unacceptable to appropriate American dollars for these purposes with the likelihood that some of the money could fall into the hands of the terrorists. This bill should support our diplomats and servicemembers serving overseas, not threaten them.

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Mr. STEUBE. Mr. Chair, may I ask how much time I have remaining.

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Mr. STEUBE. Mr. Chair, I had the opportunity to serve our country in Iraq and had the opportunity to work with the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi police, and it all sounds well and good if we are going to send money and it is going to go to these Christian organizations, it is going to go to these different individuals that we want to help; however, that is not the reality of what is happening based on the things that I originally said in my opening. You don't have control over that, and having had the experience of actually serving there and working with these individuals and the clans that are there and the groups that are there, the money isn't distributed the way that we want it to be distributed. You are seeing that in Lebanon, and you are seeing that in all these foreign entities.

It is very interesting to me to stand up here and listen to my colleagues who talk about cutting spending and that we have a deficit and that we have a spending problem in Washington, and they would rather prioritize moneys to Iraq, to Lebanon, to Palestine, to Ukraine over the needs that we have in this country.

The people in my district don't understand it. When I talk to people in my district, they don't get it. They don't understand why we would prioritize sending our hard-earned tax dollars to countries that are completely corrupt and hate us with no assurances that it is going in the places that it is going.

Why would we do that? I just don't understand why we would stand here in the current economic situation that we have in this country and send money to foreign governments that hate us and try to kill us.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. STEUBE. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

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