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

Floor Speech

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, let me say from the outset that I certainly appreciate that the bill's drafters prohibit assessed contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, also known as UNRWA.

Now, that is a nice-sounding name. Unfortunately, what the organization does is not so nice. This amendment applies a bill-wide prohibition on making any ``funds appropriated to otherwise made available by this act'' for UNRWA.

The issues with UNRWA have been well established and well known in this town and around the globe. They effectively turned a blind eye to terrorists storing weapons at their facilities in 2014 and hired staff with ties to terrorist organizations.

Further, and almost maybe even more disturbing, the curriculum of UNRWA's schools, which uses the textbooks of the host government or authorities, has long contained materials that are anti-American, anti- Israel, anti-Semitic, and supportive of violence--direct violence. It just can't be understated, and that is not histrionic. That is not hyperbole. That is what it is.

As recently as 2022, watchdog organizations found that UNRWA educational material still contains anti-Semitic and otherwise objectionable material even though it has been brought up time and time again. Yet we keep paying for it, and they keep doing it because they don't care. Why would they care? We keep paying for it.

Not one more dime of our taxpayer money should go toward an agency that has continuously promoted hatred toward this country, toward our taxpayers, toward the things we believe in, and toward our allies--in particular Israel.

I absolutely urge support of this amendment. I don't quite honestly understand why we have to do this.

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, oversight. I am sure there is always oversight. There is going to be oversight again with this bill and the next bill and with the authorization, the State Department authorization. The oversight and accountability haven't gleaned any results.

I have been in the hearings. I have seen the textbooks. I am sure the gentlewoman from the other side has seen them, as well.

As long as we keep paying, they are going to keep doing it. We can provide all the oversight we want to, but no one is going to be held accountable. You know how I know that? Because they have been doing it, and no one has been held accountable.

I am sure they are grateful. I am sure the students are grateful to receive the textbooks. I am sure the population is grateful to receive our money as they thumb their nose at us and do things that are antithetical to every single person in this country that is paying the bill.

It is long past time that we say enough. If you are not going to respect and appreciate what we give you appropriately, then we are not going to give it to you until you can get your act together and stop espousing violence to the very people--biting the hand that feeds you. That is what it is. It is biting the hand that feeds you, Mr. Chair.

Until they are willing to do that, there is only one way to send a message--and that is to quit funding our own demise.

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, let me just tell you what I think is damaging to our leadership: having our allies see us pay with our hard-earned tax dollars for their adversaries to promote violence toward them. I think that is damaging. If I were those allies, I would be questioning how that is helpful.

Now, I am glad that my colleague brought up the fact that the textbooks are checked and that we should know what is in them and there are constant reviews and so on and so forth. Mr. Chair, we can't trust the textbooks in our schools in our own towns in this country. You think we know what is going on in the Middle East with the money we are paying for theirs? I suggest we don't.

As far as consistency and educational appropriateness, let me remind everybody, this is the same organization that pays stipends for people that go kill Jews and Americans. They pay stipends for that. So, of course, it is culturally appropriate. It is educationally appropriate. It is consistent. It is consistent with their message of hatred, and we are paying for it, and that is why we should end this now.

Mr. Chair, I urge adoption of the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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