[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1666 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1666

  To prohibit the availability of funds for activities in the Islamic 
            Republic of Afghanistan, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 22, 2017

  Mr. Jones (for himself, Mr. Duncan of Tennessee, Mr. Garamendi, Mr. 
  Young of Alaska, Ms. Lee, Mr. Massie, Ms. Speier, and Mr. Cleaver) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
   Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on Rules, 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 prohibit the availability of funds for activities in the Islamic 
            Republic of Afghanistan, 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. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The United States has been involved militarily, and 
        with nation building and reconstruction, in the Islamic 
        Republic of Afghanistan since 2001.
            (2) The United States military engagement in Afghanistan 
        began in 2001 under a congressional authorization for the use 
        of military force against ``those nations, organizations, or 
        persons [the President] determines planned, authorized, 
        committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on 
        September 11, 2001.''.
            (3) On October 2, 2011, United States Navy Seals killed 
        Osama Bin Laden, the head of Al-Qaeda, the terrorist 
        organization responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks on 
        the United States.
            (4) Since 2001, the United States military and its 
        coalition partners have killed or captured tens of thousands of 
        Al Qaeda, Taliban, and other insurgents in Afghanistan.
            (5) In 2014, the United States announced the end of 13 
        years of combat operations in Afghanistan.
            (6) The war in Afghanistan is the longest war in American 
        history.
            (7) According to the Department of Defense, since 2001, 
        2,216 United States service members have been killed in 
        Afghanistan, and over 20,049 service members have been wounded.
            (8) Since 2001, 150 coalition personnel, including United 
        States service members, have been killed by the Afghan security 
        forces personnel that American taxpayers are paying to train. 
        Another 189 service members have been wounded.
            (9) Over the past 15 years, nearly $800 billion of United 
        States taxpayers' money has been spent on Afghanistan.
            (10) The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan 
        Reconstruction (SIGAR), John Sopko, has documented billions of 
        dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse of American taxpayers hard-
        earned money in Afghanistan, which continues to this day. For 
        example:
                    (A) According to a 2016 USA Today article entitled 
                ``Report cites wasted Pentagon money in Afghanistan'', 
                among the more egregious examples of boondoggles Sopko 
                cited included ``importing rare blond Italian goats to 
                boost the cashmere industry''. The $6 million program 
                included shipping nine male goats to western 
                Afghanistan from Italy, setting up a farm, lab, and 
                staff to certify their wool.
                    (B) An ongoing SIGAR investigation found that 
                American taxpayers are paying as many as 200,000 
                fictitious Afghan ``ghost'' soldiers, potentially 
                costing hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
            (11) On May 1, 2012, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and 
        United States President Barack Obama signed the ``Enduring 
        Strategic Partnership Agreement between the Islamic Republic of 
        Afghanistan and the United States of America'', which committed 
        the United States to supporting the social and economic 
        development, and security, of Afghanistan for at least 10 
        years. The agreement was submitted to the Afghan Parliament, 
        which approved it. However, the agreement was never submitted 
        to, voted on, or approved by the Congress of the United States.
            (12) The United States continues to maintain a military 
        presence of 8,400 troops in Afghanistan, and continues to 
        annually spend roughly $43 billion of American taxpayers' money 
        there. That money funds, among other things, America's 15-year-
        long effort to train and equip Afghan military and police 
        forces, as well as a variety of reconstruction and foreign aid 
        programs.
            (13) General Charles Krulak, 31st Commandant of the United 
        States Marine Corps, has stated, ``Attempting to find a true 
        military and political answer to the problems in Afghanistan 
        would take decades, not years, and drain our nation of precious 
        resources . . . with the most precious being our sons and 
        daughters. Simply put, the U.S. cannot solve the Afghan problem 
        . . . no matter how brave and determined our troops are.''.
            (14) In a January 2017 article in the Wall Street Journal, 
        Hamid Karzai, former President of the Islamic Republic of 
        Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014, stated, ``The fact is that the 
        U.S. presence in Afghanistan has not brought security to us. It 
        has caused more extremism.''.
            (15) There has never been a full debate in Congress on 
        whether to continue the United States engagement in 
        Afghanistan.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS FOR ACTIVITIES IN 
              AFGHANISTAN.

    (a) In General.--No funds may be made available for activities in 
Afghanistan after the date that is one year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act.
    (b) Exceptions.--The prohibition in subsection (a) shall not apply 
with respect to--
            (1) operations of the United States Embassy in Afghanistan; 
        or
            (2) intelligence gathering activities.
    (c) Waiver.--The prohibition in subsection (a) may be waived on a 
case-by-case basis if--
            (1) the President submits to Congress a certification that 
        the availability of funds for the activities described in 
        subsection (a) is in the national interests of the United 
        States; and
            (2) Congress, within 30 days after receipt of a 
        certification under paragraph (1), enacts a joint resolution 
        authorizing the availability of funds for the activities 
        described in subsection (a).
    (d) Expedited Procedures.--A joint resolution described in 
subsection (c)(2) and introduced within the appropriate 30-day period 
shall be considered in the Senate and House of Representatives in 
accordance with paragraphs (3) through (7) of section 8066(c) of the 
Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 1985 (as contained in Public 
Law 98-473; 98 Stat. 1935), except that in applying and administering 
such paragraphs--
            (1) references in such paragraphs to the Committees on 
        Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate 
        shall be deemed to be references to the Committee on Foreign 
        Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 
        Foreign Relations of the Senate, respectively; and
            (2) paragraph (5)(B) of such section 8066(c) shall be 
        applied and administered by substituting ``not less than eight 
        hours but not more than ten hours'' for ``not more than ten 
        hours''.
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