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Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, last week, the Biden administration proposed a spending package that included funding meant for humanitarian relief--$3.5 billion for migration and refugee assistance in Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza; $5.7 billion for the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Biden administration says that our money will pay for ``life-saving humanitarian programming in Israel and areas impacted by the situation in the West Bank and Gaza.''

We have two problems to address. First, the U.S. Government is scared to call the terrorist attack a terrorist attack. Second, this is just one more embarrassing example of the Biden administration's two-faced approach to the people of Israel.

I have spoken at length about the money pipeline between Iran and Hamas, but there is a similar pipeline that appears to be running between Hamas and the U.S. taxpayer. Every dollar we send that is earmarked for Gaza or the West Bank is another dollar Hamas can put into their pocket.

Last week, I spoke about the U.N. Relief and Works Agency and how this false humanitarian mission has been corrupted by Hamas and terrorist sympathizers. This has been confirmed by multiple NGOs, the media, Joe Biden's own advisers, and whoever published and then deleted this post from the UNRWA Twitter account.

Hamas stole those supplies and UNRWA covered it up. Remember, this is a U.N. body that pulls 93 percent of its funding from global government. In 2021 alone, UNRWA took $338 million from the United States, $118 million from the European Commission, and hundreds of millions of dollars from individual European nations.

Since 2021, Biden has sent UNRWA a billion dollars. A billion dollars. USAID funds more than $21 billion worth of UN programming, and they sent millions of dollars to UNRWA. And now the President is ready to send them billions more. If the American people knew what their tax dollars were actually being used for, they would be outraged. And I believe it is time for them to know.

We know that Hamas steals UNRWA money and supplies and stores their weapons in UNRWA facilities. We also know that they fill those facilities with human shields. But something that hasn't gotten nearly enough attention is how our tax dollars are radicalizing the next generation of Hamas extremists.

UN Watch published a report in March exposing UNRWA-affiliated schools for what they are: indoctrination centers. Bear in mind, this is UN Watch that published this report and exposed the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees for what they were doing. One employee shared an Instagram post calling a teenage Palestine Islamic Jihad fighter who was killed in a shootout a ``little cub who fights like a thousand lions.'' That was an employee of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency who shared that Instagram post calling a teenage Jihadi fighter a ``little cub who fights like a thousand lions.''

A teacher posted a picture of Hitler with the caption:

Hitler, are you sleeping? Wake up, honey, there are still some people you need to burn.

UN Watch also found official curriculum from last year celebrating Dalal Mughrabi. In 1978, she led a band of PLO terrorists in a massacre that left 38 Israeli civilians dead. Thirteen of her victims were children. Another piece of propaganda written for ninth graders described the firebombing of a U.S. bus as a ``barbecue party.'' One UNRWA teacher assigned seventh grade boys anti-Semitic poetry that urged the students to expel Israelis ``with blood and flesh'' from Palestine. All of this was subsidized by the American taxpayer.

Hamas is responsible for the October 7 massacre in Israel. But anyone who believes that Hamas is a solo actor is willfully ignorant. They have support. And right now, Biden's foreign policy is providing much of that support, not only through the money pipeline but through his absolute refusal to keep Iran in check. This isn't just a U.S. problem. It is a worldwide problem that we will not solve until the money stops flowing and Hamas is eradicated.

Fortunately, at least when it comes to UNRWA, accountability is built in. Global governments provide that funding, which means we can take it away. The United States needs to step up and lead.

I have introduced legislation to halt that funding until Iran is expelled from the U.N. and investigated for violations. We have to get this job done. Our legislation would accomplish two goals. It will destroy that pipeline of taxpayer dollars from the United States to Hamas and disrupt the Biden administration's policy of appeasement toward Iran.

Everything President Biden has done has made this world more dangerous. But nothing has had more immediate and catastrophic consequences for our allies than his refusal to treat the Iranian regime like the dangerous adversary that it actually is. He sent Robert Malley, Ariane Tabatabai, and other Iranian assets to renegotiate the failed nuclear deal. Administration officials allowed Ms. Tabatabai's security clearance to stand even after it became clear she was operating under the advice of Iranian officials. He agreed to hand over a $6 billion ransom payment and then insisted that the world's most prolific state sponsor of terror would dedicate every penny to humanitarian aid.

And in the hours following the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, he insisted that there was no connection between Iran and Hamas and their terrorist acts. Never mind that a week later, Hamas leadership met with the Iranian foreign minister in Qatar.

Biden's foreign policy is fatally flawed; that has become evident. And if we don't force him to reverse course, he will further endanger the American people and our allies and our safety and security.

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