Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

The House in Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4870) making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015, and for other purposes:

Mr. CARNEY. Madam Chair, let me be clear that I do not support giving any funding to terrorist organizations, including Hamas and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). However, I voted against Mr. Gosar's amendment because it would have prevented funding for the Palestinian Authority, which is a vital source of humanitarian aid and aid to help resolve the Iraeli-Palestinian conflict. This money also goes toward providing security within the Palestinian territory, which remains in the best interest of our national security.

The amendment also would have barred the use of funds for the ongoing dismantling of chemical weapons in Syria. This effort remains a top priority for American national security and it would have been irresponsible to vote in favor of an amendment that would jeopardize this mission.

While on its surface this amendment may have appeared to implement policy goals I support, I ultimately opposed it because I believe its consequences would have negatively impacted American national security interests.

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