[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1349 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1349

   To authorize assistance to Israel to establish an anti-tunneling 
                defense system, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 10, 2015

  Ms. Graham introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
   Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committee on 
  Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To authorize assistance to Israel to establish an anti-tunneling 
                defense system, and for other purposes.

    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 ``United States-Israel Anti-Tunnel 
Defense Cooperation Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad are 
        United States-designated terrorist organizations.
            (2) Designated Palestinian terrorist organizations have 
        killed hundreds of Israelis and dozens of Americans in rocket 
        attacks and suicide bombings.
            (3) Hamas has used underground tunnels to Israel and Egypt 
        to smuggle weapons, money, and supplies into Gaza and to send 
        members of Hamas out of Gaza for training and to bring trainers 
        in to Gaza to teach Hamas how to manufacture rockets and build 
        better tunnels. Tunnels in Gaza have also been used as 
        underground rocket launching sites, weapons caches, bunkers, 
        transportation networks and command and control centers.
            (4) In 2006, Hamas kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit 
        through a tunnel and held him for five years.
            (5) The Israel Defense Forces discovered 32 tunnels during 
        the conflict with Hamas in the summer of 2014, 14 of which 
        crossed into Israel.
            (6) Hamas intentionally uses civilians as human shields by 
        placing its underground tunnel network in densely populated 
        areas and schools, hospitals, and mosques.
            (7) Hamas's placement of explosive material in its vast 
        network of tunnels in Gaza has caused civilian casualties 
        through secondary and tertiary explosions.
            (8) While the unemployment rate in Gaza is at 38 percent, 
        it is estimated that Hamas spends $3,000,000 per tunnel.
            (9) United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he 
        was ``shocked by the tunnels used for the infiltration of 
        terrorists''.
            (10) Hamas has claimed to be rebuilding tunnels in Gaza 
        after the war with Israel in the summer of 2014.
            (11) Hezbollah has used underground tunnels in southern 
        Lebanon to move Hezbollah fighters and to launch attacks.
            (12) The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claims to be digging new 
        tunnels on the Gaza border. Israel has a right to defend itself 
        from the violence of Palestinian terrorist groups, including 
        the violence that is facilitated through terrorist tunnel 
        networks.
            (13) The United States is working cooperatively with the 
        Government of Israel to develop technologies to detect and 
        destroy tunnels penetrating the territory of Israel.

SEC. 3. ASSISTANCE TO ISRAEL TO ESTABLISH AN ANTI-TUNNELING DEFENSE 
              SYSTEM.

    (a) In General.--The President, upon request of the Government of 
Israel and acting through the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of 
State, is authorized to carry out research, development, and test 
activities on a joint basis with Israel to establish an anti-tunneling 
defense system to detect, map, and destroy underground tunnels from 
Gaza to the territory of Israel or other countries that share a border 
with Gaza.
    (b) Certification.--None of the funds authorized to be appropriated 
to carry out this Act may be obligated or expended to carry out 
subsection (a) until the President, acting through the Secretary of 
Defense and the Secretary of State, certifies to Congress the 
following:
            (1) The President has finalized a memorandum of 
        understanding or other formal agreement between the United 
        States and Israel regarding sharing of research and development 
        costs for the system described in subsection (a).
            (2) The understanding or agreement--
                    (A) requires sharing of costs of projects, 
                including the cost of claims, between the United States 
                and Israel on an equitable basis unless the President 
                determines, on a case-by-case basis, the Government of 
                Israel is unable to contribute on an equitable basis;
                    (B) requires the designation of payment of non-
                recurring engineering costs in connection with the 
                establishment of a capacity for co-production in the 
                United States;
                    (C) establishes a framework to negotiate the rights 
                to any intellectual property developed under the 
                cooperative research and development projects; and
                    (D) requires the Department of Defense to receive 
                quarterly reports on expenditure of funds by the 
                Government of Israel, including a description of what 
                the funds have been used for, when funds were expended, 
                and an identification of entities that expended the 
                funds.
    (c) Assistance.--The President, upon request of the Government of 
Israel and acting through the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of 
State, is authorized to provide assistance to Israel for the 
procurement, maintenance, and sustainment of an anti-tunneling system 
described in subsection (a).

SEC. 4. REPORTS.

    (a) Initial Report.--The President shall submit to Congress a 
report that contains a copy of the memorandum of understanding or other 
formal agreement between the United States and Israel as described in 
section 3(b)(1).
    (b) Quarterly Reports.--The President, acting through the Secretary 
of Defense and the Secretary of State, shall submit to Congress a 
quarterly report that contains a copy of the most-recent quarterly 
report provided by the Government of Israel to the Department of 
Defense pursuant to section 3(b)(2)(D).

SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    Of the funds authorized to be appropriated for fiscal year 2016 for 
procurement, defense-wide activities and for research, development, 
test, and evaluation of the Department of Defense, $200,000,000 is 
authorized to be appropriated to the President to carry out this Act.
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