Title: United States-Israel Anti-Tunnel Defense Cooperation Act
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
United States-Israel Anti-Tunnel Defense Cooperation Act
This bill authorizes the Department of Defense, upon request of the Ministry of Defense of Israel and in consultation with the Department of State and the Director of National Intelligence, to carry out research, development, test, and evaluation, on a joint basis with Israel, to establish anti-tunneling capabilities to detect, map, and neutralize underground tunnels that threaten the United States or Israel.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2914 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2914

   To authorize assistance for anti-tunnel defense capabilities for 
                                Israel.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 15, 2017

 Mr. Schneider (for himself and Mr. Donovan) introduced the following 
  bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and in 
   addition to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 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 authorize assistance for anti-tunnel defense capabilities for 
                                Israel.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``United States-Israel Anti-Tunnel 
Defense Cooperation Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Hamas, Hizballah, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad are 
        United States-designated foreign terrorist organizations.
            (2) Designated Palestinian terrorist organizations have 
        killed hundreds of Israelis and dozens of Americans in rocket 
        attacks and suicide bombings.
            (3) Hamas has used underground tunnels to Israel and Egypt 
        to smuggle weapons, money, and supplies into Gaza and to send 
        members of Hamas out of Gaza for training and to bring trainers 
        into Gaza to teach Hamas how to manufacture rockets and improve 
        construction of tunnels.
            (4) Tunnels in Gaza have also been used as underground 
        rocket launching sites, weapons caches, bunkers, transportation 
        networks, and command and control centers.
            (5) In 2006, Hamas kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit 
        through a tunnel and held him for five years.
            (6) The Israel Defense Forces discovered and destroyed 32 
        tunnels during the conflict with Hamas in the summer of 2014, 
        14 of which crossed into Israel.
            (7) Since 2014, Hamas has spent considerable resources to 
        rebuild its tunnel network.
            (8) Hamas intentionally uses civilians as human shields by 
        placing its underground tunnel network in densely populated 
        areas and schools, hospitals, and mosques.
            (9) Hizballah has used underground tunnels in southern 
        Lebanon to move Hizballah fighters and to launch attacks.
            (10) The Palestinian Islamic Jihad has also dug tunnels 
        from Gaza that penetrate Israel.
            (11) Israel has a right to defend itself from the violence 
        of Palestinian terrorist groups, including the violence that is 
        facilitated through terrorist tunnel networks.
            (12) The United States is working cooperatively with the 
        Government of Israel to develop technologies to detect and 
        destroy tunnels penetrating the territory of Israel.
            (13) This joint United States-Israel cooperation will not 
        only benefit Israel, but will also help the United States and 
        allies across the globe that face similar challenges from 
        subterranean tunnels.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF ASSISTANCE FOR ANTI-TUNNEL DEFENSE 
              CAPABILITIES FOR ISRAEL.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Defense, upon request of the 
Ministry of Defense of Israel and in consultation with the Secretary of 
State and the Director of National Intelligence, is authorized to carry 
out research, development, test, and evaluation, on a joint basis with 
Israel, to establish anti-tunnel capabilities to detect, map, and 
neutralize underground tunnels that threaten the United States or 
Israel.
    (b) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated to the President to carry out this section $47,500,000 for 
fiscal year 2018.
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