Congressman Poe on the Passage of NDAA

Statement

House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Ted Poe (TX-02) issued the following statement today after the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, which included his amendments to sanction Russia for violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, additional conditions on foreign aid to Pakistan, and provide more oversight and accountability to security assistance:

"In 2008, Russia violated the INF treaty and eight years later have suffered few consequences for it. My amendment prohibits the US government from contracting with any entities that have contributed to Russia's violation of the treaty. It is an important first step that begins to show there will be meaningful repercussions for such blatant violations of arms control agreements with the United States.

"The Haqqani Network has killed more Americans in Afghanistan than any other terrorist group, but the government of Pakistan has done little to go after it, despite taking some $33 billion of United States' money since 9/11. My bipartisan amendment limits foreign aid to Pakistan until the Administration certifies that Pakistan has shown progress in arresting and prosecuting Haqqani Network senior leaders and mid-level operatives. If Pakistan is not willing to publicly arrest and prosecute members of the Haqqani Network instead of actively supporting them, then it does not deserve a single dollar of American taxpayer money.

"We need to be evaluating how all American foreign aid is spent. A big part of making sure quality evaluations are being done is by having an evaluation policy that lays out the standards. It is a basic, common sense idea, but the Department of Defense has yet to institute such a policy. My bipartisan amendment encourages such a policy because Americans have the right to know what bang for the buck every taxpayer dollar is getting."

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