No Funds for Iranian Terrorism Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOODEN of Texas. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the spirit of this amendment. I appreciate my colleague. I appreciate this bill, which I am supporting. I agree that Hamas is a terrorist organization, and I want nothing more than for them to be taken down.

What I have not heard from my colleague within my party is all the good that has happened thanks to Qatar's efforts in the last few weeks.

There is a whole lot of bad to talk about, but I didn't hear anything about the hostage negotiations that would not be happening without the people of Qatar, without the leadership there. I thank the Qatari leadership for helping us get those hostages out.

A couple weeks ago, I had a family member of a 12-year-old boy in my office that said, Congressman, will you do anything you can? We are trying to get these hostages out. The people of Israel want them out, and we are not making any progress. What can you do?

You know what I did? I went down to the Qatari Embassy. I sent someone down and said, I want to speak to you guys. We need some action. We need more efforts. We need more results.

In the last week, what we have seen are hostages coming out of the Gaza strip.

Now, there are those that say we shouldn't negotiate with terrorists. The people of Israel--and I defer to the Israelis on this matter because they are the ones living among these folks. They are saying they want these hostages back. They are saying they want to work with the Qataris in bringing them back. They have thanked them for their efforts.

The other thing I haven't heard from my colleague within my party-- and frankly, I am disappointed some of my colleagues within my party have not spoken up against this amendment in particular--is about the great, fantastic United States Air Force base that we have in Qatar.

If they are such accomplices to terror, if they are such bad folks over there running the Qatari Government, why do we have an Air Force base there?

This amendment is badly timed.

I agree with the concepts in this amendment. I agree that I would love everyone on Earth to condemn Hamas.

This amendment right now does not help us achieve our goal, and that is to bring these hostages back. That is what our friends in Israel want. They want these hostages back.

If you don't want these hostages back, if you don't want a United States Air Force presence over in the Middle East, then go ahead and vote for this amendment.

What you are saying to the Qataris is we want you to cease efforts. We want you to turn over whoever it is that you have that you are negotiating with.

By the way, the American Government, we are the ones that asked them to keep this channel open with Hamas. We are the ones, the United States, that said Hamas needs to be close and able to be accessible.

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Mr. GOODEN of Texas. Mr. Chair, I ask colleagues and staffers that are watching this amendment debate back in the office to go back to your boss, especially if you are Republican, and say, you know what? We have a Member from our own party saying this is a bad idea because we have hostage negotiations that are happening right now that will not be helped if this amendment is passed.

Everyone in this Chamber knows this amendment is going nowhere if it gets on the bill, but that doesn't matter.

The concept of giving the middle finger to the one group in the Middle East that is actually helping us achieve some hostage releases, and that is the Qataris, I think is a bad policy, and I urge opposition to this amendment.

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