The Acting CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 1423, the gentlewoman
from New York (Ms. Tenney) and a Member opposed each will control 5
minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from New York.
  Ms. TENNEY. Madam Chair, the Temple Mount, or Har HaBayit, as it is
called, is the holiest site in the world to the Jewish people. During
the periods of the First and Second Temples, Jews from across the land
of Israel would travel to the Temple during the three annual
pilgrimages. These pilgrims included figures like King Solomon, King
Herod, and Jesus of Nazareth, our Lord and Savior.
  However, whereas Christians and Muslims enjoy broad access and
religious prayer rights at their holiest sites, Jews are severely
discriminated against upon the Temple Mount.
  Muslims can currently enter the Temple Mount at 11 different gates,
but Jews can only enter from 1 gate. Muslims can visit the Temple Mount
any day of the week, but Jews cannot ascend the Temple Mount on Friday
or Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. Muslims have broad access to the
Temple Mount and can pray openly upon the Temple Mount. Jews are
severely restricted in their visits and do not enjoy the freedom to
worship or the ability to wear their tallit and tefillin upon the
Temple Mount.
  And for the Jews that ascend in spite of all these restrictions, they
still face harassment from Muslims upon the Temple Mount.
  In fact, Muslim leaders have actively desecrated the site, including
the planting and cultivating of trees at the inner courts of the
Temple, expressly prohibited by Jewish law. Muslim children play
soccer, practice boxing, and have picnics upon the Temple Mount,
desecrating its holiness, while Jews cannot even freely worship upon
the Temple Mount.
  You don't have to take my word for it, Madam Chair. There is photo
and video evidence of all this freely available. Individuals like Dr.
Melissa Jane Kronfeld have spent extensive time documenting all of
this. I thank her for her efforts to draw attention to this critical
issue.
  Further, when one of my staffers ascended the Temple Mount last year,
he was harassed by Muslim onlookers, restricted from visiting most of
the site, and was only allowed to be upon the Temple Mount for a very
short duration of time.
  Madam Chair, it is unconscionable that Jews do not enjoy the same
access rights to visit and pray at their holiest site that other
religions do. This is a basic tenet and principle of religious freedom,
and the U.S. must do more on this issue.
  That is why my amendment would emphasize the need for the U.S.
Commission on International Religious Freedom to work to ensure
religious freedom and equal access for all with respect to the Temple
Mount.
  I urge all my colleagues to vote for this commonsense amendment and
to support religious freedom for all and support the rights of the
Jewish people to freely worship at their very holiest site, the Temple
Mount.
  Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida. Madam Chair, I claim the time in
opposition to this amendment.
  The Acting CHAIR. The gentlewoman is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida. Madam Chair, while this amendment may be
well-intentioned, it risks inflaming tensions at one of the most
sensitive religious sites in the world.
  The Temple Mount is sacred to both Jews and Muslims. It is at the
center of competing historical, political, and religious claims.
  History has shown that even small changes to access or worship
arrangements can spark violence far beyond Jerusalem. For decades,
Israel, Jordan, and the international community have worked to preserve
the longstanding status quo, not because it is perfect but because it
helps prevent broader conflict while difficult issues remain unsolved.
  The appropriations bill is not the place to insert the United States
into one of the world's most delicate religious disputes.
  Religious freedom is a fundamental American value, but lasting
progress at the Temple Mount will come through careful diplomacy and
respectful, longstanding efforts that preserve peace and stability, not
through an appropriation amendment with 10 minutes of debate.
  Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to reject this amendment, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. TENNEY. Madam Chair, I respect the opinion of my colleague across
the aisle, but it was also said that moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel
Aviv to Jerusalem was going to be too inflammatory and too dangerous.
Many Presidents said they would do it. President Donald Trump did it,
and it hasn't proven to be overly inflammatory. In fact, it proved to
be the right place and the right thing to do.
  I think this is common sense. Why should Jewish people not be able to
worship at their holiest site in equal measure that all other religions
get to worship at their holiest sites? I think this is a commonsense
amendment. I don't think it would be inflammatory. I think it makes
sense. It restores dignity, and it also restores fairness to the
international religious freedom tenets that we all stand for,
foundational type of religious freedoms that we actually revere in this
country under our First Amendment.
  I urge my colleagues to vote for this commonsense amendment, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
  The Acting CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the
gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney).
  The amendment was agreed to.
  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Madam Chair, I move that the Committee do now rise.
  The motion was agreed to.
  Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Ms.
Tenney) having assumed the chair, Ms. King-Hinds, Acting Chair of the
Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that
that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 8595)
making appropriations for national security, Department of State, and
related programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2027, and for
other purposes, had come to no resolution thereon.

     NATIONAL SECURITY, DEPARTMENT OF STATE, AND RELATED PROGRAMS
                        APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2027

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 1423 and rule
XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House
on the state of the Union for the further consideration of the bill,
H.R. 8595.
  Will the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Bost) kindly take the chair.

                              {time}  1600

                     In the Committee of the Whole

  Accordingly, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the
Whole House on the state of the Union for the further consideration of
the bill (H.R. 8595) making appropriations for national security,
Department of State, and related programs for the fiscal year ending
September 30, 2027, and for other purposes, with Mr. Bost (Acting
Chair) in the chair.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The Acting CHAIR. When the Committee of the Whole rose earlier today,
amendment No. 28, printed in part A of House Report 119-749, offered by
the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney) had been disposed of.

                    Announcement by the Acting Chair

  The Acting CHAIR. Pursuant to clause 6 of rule XVIII, proceedings
will now resume on those amendments printed in part A of House Report
119-749 on which further proceedings were postponed, in the following
order:
  Amendment No. 1 by Ms. Boebert of Colorado.
  Amendment No. 6 by Mr. Fine of Florida.
  Amendment No. 8 by Mr. Massie of Kentucky.
  Amendment No. 9 by Mr. Massie of Kentucky.
  Amendment No. 20 by Mr. Roy of Texas.
  The Chair will reduce to 2 minutes the minimum time for any
electronic vote after the first vote in this series.