[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1670 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1670

To prohibit United States military assistance for Egypt and to express 
the sense of Congress that the amount of military assistance that would 
 have been provided for Egypt for a fiscal year should be provided in 
             the form of economic support fund assistance.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 14, 2005

 Mr. Weiner (for himself, Mr. Crowley, and Mr. Blumenauer) introduced 
      the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                        International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To prohibit United States military assistance for Egypt and to express 
the sense of Congress that the amount of military assistance that would 
 have been provided for Egypt for a fiscal year should be provided in 
             the form of economic support fund assistance.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Egyptian Counterterrorism and 
Political Reform Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, 
        two weeks before the September 11, 2001, attacks, the Egyptian 
        Government daily newspaper Al-Akhbar published a column that 
        stated: ``The Statue of Liberty, in New York Harbor, must be 
        destroyed because of following the idiotic American policy that 
        goes from disgrace to disgrace in the swamp of bias and blind 
        fanaticism.''.
            (2) Since forging a ``cold peace'' with Israel in 1978, the 
        Government of Egypt has placed severe trade restrictions on 
        Israeli goods and Egyptian Government officials have allowed 
        anti-Semitic articles and cartoons to flood the semi-official 
        Egyptian press.
            (3) In violation of the 1979 peace agreement between Egypt 
        and Israel, Egypt continues to promote a boycott of Israeli 
        products.
            (4) The Israeli Defense Forces have repeatedly found arms 
        smuggling tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. More than 
        40 tunnels were discovered in 2003. Some of these tunnels 
        originate in Egyptian army and police outposts.
            (5) Despite facing no major regional external threat, Egypt 
        has used military assistance from the United States to purchase 
        combat aircraft, advanced missile systems, tanks, and naval 
        vessels that undermine Israel's security.
            (6) The Coptic Christian minority of between 6 and 10 
        million in Egypt is victimized regularly, and remains without 
        protection. The Government of Egypt has never taken 
        responsibility for the arrest and torture of more than 1,200 
        Copts in late 1998 in the wake of sectarian violence.
            (7) Egypt regularly tortures its citizens. According to the 
        Egyptian Organization for Human Rights approximately 13,000 to 
        16,000 people are detained without charge on suspicion of 
        security or political offenses in Egypt each year. Amnesty 
        International published a report in 2003 stating that 
        ``everyone taken into detention in Egypt is at risk of 
        torture''.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON UNITED STATES MILITARY ASSISTANCE FOR EGYPT.

    (a) Prohibition.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for 
fiscal year 2006 and subsequent fiscal years, United States military 
assistance may not be provided for Egypt.
    (b) Waiver.--The President may waive the application of subsection 
(a) for a fiscal year if the President determines and certifies to 
Congress that it is in the national security interests of the United 
States to do so.

SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the amount of United States military assistance that 
        would have been provided for Egypt for a fiscal year but for 
        the application of section 3(a) should be provided for Egypt 
        for such fiscal year in the form of economic support fund 
        assistance under chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance 
        Act of 1961 and further that such assistance should be in 
        addition to economic support fund assistance already proposed 
        to be provided for Egypt for such fiscal year;
            (2) funds for economic support fund assistance for Egypt 
        should not be used by the armed forces of Egypt;
            (3) 30 days prior to the initial obligation of funds for 
        economic support fund assistance for Egypt for a fiscal year, 
        the President should certify to Congress that procedures have 
        been established to ensure that the Comptroller General will 
        have access to appropriate United States financial information 
        in order to review the uses of such funds; and
            (4) the agreement among the United States, Egypt, and 
        Israel to decrease the overall amount of United States foreign 
        assistance for both countries should continue.

SEC. 5. DEFINITION.

    In this Act, the term ``United States military assistance'' means--
            (1) assistance for nonproliferation, anti-terrorism, 
        demining and related programs and activities, including 
        assistance under chapter 8 of part II of the Foreign Assistance 
        Act of 1961 (relating to anti-terrorism assistance) and 
        assistance under chapter 9 of part II of such Act, section 504 
        of the FREEDOM Support Act, section 23 of the Arms Export 
        Control Act, or the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 for demining 
        activities, the clearance of unexploded ordnance, the 
        destruction of small arms, and related activities;
            (2) assistance under section 541 of the Foreign Assistance 
        Act of 1961 (relating to international military education and 
        training); and
            (3) assistance under section 23 of the Arms Export Control 
        Act (relating to the ``Foreign Military Finance'' program).
                                 <all>