The Stop Arming Terrorists Act is a proposed Act of Congress that was originally sponsored by

United States Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together the ...

for

Hawaii's 2nd congressional district Hawaii's 2nd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It is currently represented by Kai Kahele, who succeeded Tulsi Gabbard following the 2020 election. The district encompasses all rural and most suburba ...

Tulsi Gabbard Tulsi Gabbard (; born April 12, 1981) is an American politician, United States Army Reserve officer and political commentator who served as the U.S. representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021. Gabbard was the fi ...

and

United States Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and p ...

for

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...

Rand Paul Randal Howard Paul (born January 7, 1963) is an American physician and politician serving as the junior U.S. senator from Kentucky since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he is a son of former three-time presidential candidate and 12 ...

in early 2017 to prohibit the use of United States Government funds to provide assistance to

Al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح ال ...

, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and to countries supporting those organizations, and for other purposes."https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/608/all-info" As of November 2017, 14 other lawmakers out of 435

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together the ...

have co-sponsored Gabbard's House bill. Paul's Senate version of the bill, on the other hand, has zero cosponsors. On December 20, 2019, the Senate passed S. 1790, the

National Defense Authorization Act The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is the name for each of a series of United States federal laws specifying the annual budget and expenditures of the U.S. Department of Defense. The first NDAA was passed in 1961. The U.S. Congress o ...

for Fiscal Year 2020 became law with § 1228 stating:

PROHIBITION ON PROVISION OF WEAPONS AND OTHER FORMS OF SUPPORT TO CERTAIN ORGANIZATIONS. None of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or otherwise made available for the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2020 may be used to knowingly provide weapons or any other form of support to
Al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...
, the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
(ISIS), Jabhat Fateh al Sham,
Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
,
Hizballah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's paramil ...
,
Palestine Islamic Jihad The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine ( ar, حركة الجهاد الإسلامي في فلسطين, ''Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn''), known in the West simply as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a Palestinian Islamist pa ...
, al-Shabaab,
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...
, or any individual or group affiliated with any such organization.

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H.R.608 - Stop Arming Terrorists Act

On January 23, 2017, Tulsi Gabbard sponsored the House version of the bill: "To prohibit the use of United States Government funds to provide assistance to Al Qaeda, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and to countries supporting those organizations, and for other purposes." There were six original co-sponsors including North Carolina Republican

Walter B. Jones Jr. Walter Beaman Jones Jr. (February 10, 1943 – February 10, 2019) was an American politician who served twelve terms in the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Republican Party for from 1995 until his death in 2019. The d ...

and Virginia Republican and Army veteran

Thomas Garrett Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas th ...

. Six days prior, Gabbard had tweeted: "The practice of spending taxpayer dollars to fund counterproductive regime change wars must end. It is long overdue we pass the Stop Arming Terrorists Act to prevent terrorist groups like al-Qaeda or state sponsors like

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries by area, fifth-largest country in Asia ...

from receiving cash, weapons, or intelligence."

Cosponsors

S.532 - Stop Arming Terrorists Act

On March 6, 2017, Rand Paul introduced the Senate version of the bill. It did not gather any co-sponsors.

Incorporation into the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020

On June 13, 2019, Gabbard secured inclusion of a provision into the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) "to prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to provide weapons or any form of support to al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jabhat Fateh al Sham, any individual or group associated with these organizations, or any entity the Secretary of Defense determines may trade or sell arms to terrorist organizations." Gabbard commented: “Unfortunately, in their dogged pursuit of regime change war, leaders in Washington have used taxpayer dollars to fund programs that directly and indirectly support terrorist groups like al-Qaeda in places like Syria. This continues in

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast an ...

where US-support for Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war in Yemen has resulted in the Saudis delivering US-weapons to terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, as reported by

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the ...

earlier this year. This is not only wrong, it’s illegal for any American to provide money or assistance to terrorist groups like these. The provision I passed today would make these same rules apply to the U.S. government.”

Gottheimer amendment

On July 11, 2019,

Josh Gottheimer Joshua S. Gottheimer ( ; born March 8, 1975) is an American attorney, writer, and public policy adviser who has served as the U.S. representative for since 2017. The district stretches along the northern border of the state from New York City' ...

(D-NJ-5) offered an amendment to add ‘‘Hamas, Hizballah, Palestine Islamic Jihad, al-Shabaab, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’’ after ‘‘al Sham,’’.

Senate passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020

On December 20, 2019, S. 1790 became law with § 1228 stating:

PROHIBITION ON PROVISION OF WEAPONS AND OTHER FORMS OF SUPPORT TO CERTAIN ORGANIZATIONS. None of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or otherwise made available for the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2020 may be used to knowingly provide weapons or any other form of support to Al Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Jabhat Fateh al Sham, Hamas, Hizballah, Palestine Islamic Jihad, al-Shabaab, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or any individual or group affiliated with any such organization.

References

Proposed legislation of the 115th United States Congress Tulsi Gabbard {{US-law-stub