I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1666 

To prohibit the availability of funds for activities in the Islamic Republic 

of Afghanistan, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 22, 2017 

Mr. JONES (for himself, Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. 

YOUNG of Alaska, Ms. LEE, Mr. MASSIE, Ms. SPEIER, and Mr. 

CLEAVER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on Rules, 

for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case 

for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 

committee concerned 

A BILL 

To prohibit the availability of funds for activities in the 

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress finds the following: 

5 (1) The United States has been involved mili6 tarily, and with nation building and reconstruction, 

7 in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan since 2001. 


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1 (2) The United States military engagement in 

2 Afghanistan began in 2001 under a congressional 

3 authorization for the use of military force against 

4 ‘‘those nations, organizations, or persons [the Presi5 dent] determines planned, authorized, committed, or 

6 aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sep7 tember 11, 2001.’’. 

8 (3) On October 2, 2011, United States Navy 

9 Seals killed Osama Bin Laden, the head of Al10 Qaeda, the terrorist organization responsible for the 

11 September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. 

12 (4) Since 2001, the United States military and 

13 its coalition partners have killed or captured tens of 

14 thousands of Al Qaeda, Taliban, and other insur15 gents in Afghanistan. 

16 (5) In 2014, the United States announced the 

17 end of 13 years of combat operations in Afghani18 stan. 

19 (6) The war in Afghanistan is the longest war 

20 in American history. 

21 (7) According to the Department of Defense, 

22 since 2001, 2,216 United States service members 

23 have been killed in Afghanistan, and over 20,049 

24 service members have been wounded. 


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1 (8) Since 2001, 150 coalition personnel, includ2 ing United States service members, have been killed 

3 by the Afghan security forces personnel that Amer4 ican taxpayers are paying to train. Another 189 

5 service members have been wounded. 

6 (9) Over the past 15 years, nearly $800 billion 

7 of United States taxpayers’ money has been spent 

8 on Afghanistan. 

9 (10) The Special Inspector General for Afghani10 stan Reconstruction (SIGAR), John Sopko, has doc11 umented billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and 

12 abuse of American taxpayers hard-earned money in 

13 Afghanistan, which continues to this day. For exam14 ple: 

15 (A) According to a 2016 USA Today arti16 cle entitled ‘‘Report cites wasted Pentagon 

17 money in Afghanistan’’, among the more egre18 gious examples of boondoggles Sopko cited in19 cluded ‘‘importing rare blond Italian goats to 

20 boost the cashmere industry’’. The $6 million 

21 program included shipping nine male goats to 

22 western Afghanistan from Italy, setting up a 

23 farm, lab, and staff to certify their wool. 

24 (B) An ongoing SIGAR investigation found 

25 that American taxpayers are paying as many as 


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1 200,000 fictitious Afghan ‘‘ghost’’ soldiers, po2 tentially costing hundreds of millions of dollars 

3 annually. 

4 (11) On May 1, 2012, Afghan President Hamid 

5 Karzai and United States President Barack Obama 

6 signed the ‘‘Enduring Strategic Partnership Agree7 ment between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan 

8 and the United States of America’’, which com9 mitted the United States to supporting the social 

10 and economic development, and security, of Afghani11 stan for at least 10 years. The agreement was sub12 mitted to the Afghan Parliament, which approved it. 

13 However, the agreement was never submitted to, 

14 voted on, or approved by the Congress of the United 

15 States. 

16 (12) The United States continues to maintain 

17 a military presence of 8,400 troops in Afghanistan, 

18 and continues to annually spend roughly $43 billion 

19 of American taxpayers’ money there. That money 

20 funds, among other things, America’s 15-year-long 

21 effort to train and equip Afghan military and police 

22 forces, as well as a variety of reconstruction and for23 eign aid programs. 

24 (13) General Charles Krulak, 31st Com25 mandant of the United States Marine Corps, has 


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1 stated, ‘‘Attempting to find a true military and po2 litical answer to the problems in Afghanistan would 

3 take decades, not years, and drain our nation of pre4 cious resources . . . with the most precious being 

5 our sons and daughters. Simply put, the U.S. cannot 

6 solve the Afghan problem . . . no matter how brave 

7 and determined our troops are.’’. 

8 (14) In a January 2017 article in the Wall 

9 Street Journal, Hamid Karzai, former President of 

10 the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from 2004 to 

11 2014, stated, ‘‘The fact is that the U.S. presence in 

12 Afghanistan has not brought security to us. It has 

13 caused more extremism.’’. 

14 (15) There has never been a full debate in Con15 gress on whether to continue the United States en16 gagement in Afghanistan. 

17 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS FOR AC18 TIVITIES IN AFGHANISTAN. 

19 (a) IN GENERAL.—No funds may be made available 

20 for activities in Afghanistan after the date that is one year 

21 after the date of the enactment of this Act. 

22 (b) EXCEPTIONS.—The prohibition in subsection (a) 

23 shall not apply with respect to— 

24 (1) operations of the United States Embassy in 

25 Afghanistan; or 


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1 (2) intelligence gathering activities. 

2 (c) WAIVER.—The prohibition in subsection (a) may 

3 be waived on a case-by-case basis if— 

4 (1) the President submits to Congress a certifi5 cation that the availability of funds for the activities 

6 described in subsection (a) is in the national inter7 ests of the United States; and 

8 (2) Congress, within 30 days after receipt of a 

9 certification under paragraph (1), enacts a joint res10 olution authorizing the availability of funds for the 

11 activities described in subsection (a). 

12 (d) EXPEDITED PROCEDURES.—A joint resolution 

13 described in subsection (c)(2) and introduced within the 

14 appropriate 30-day period shall be considered in the Sen15 ate and House of Representatives in accordance with para16 graphs (3) through (7) of section 8066(c) of the Depart17 ment of Defense Appropriations Act, 1985 (as contained 

18 in Public Law 98–473; 98 Stat. 1935), except that in ap19 plying and administering such paragraphs— 

20 (1) references in such paragraphs to the Com21 mittees on Appropriations of the House of Rep22 resentatives and the Senate shall be deemed to be 

23 references to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 

24 the House of Representatives and the Committee on 

25 Foreign Relations of the Senate, respectively; and 


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1 (2) paragraph (5)(B) of such section 8066(c) 

2 shall be applied and administered by substituting 

3 ‘‘not less than eight hours but not more than ten 

4 hours’’ for ‘‘not more than ten hours’’. 

Æ 


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