U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, filed legislation today to prohibit the U.S. government from suspending anti-terrorism restrictions to send foreign aid to the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. The Terminating Unlawful Negligence and Nullifying Exemptions and Licenses to Sanctions (TUNNELS) Act of 2024, rescinds the licenses employed by the Biden administration to channel U.S. aid through international and non-governmental organizations to Gaza, and prevents these licenses from being reissued.
Upon introducing the TUNNELS Act, Sen. Cruz said, “The Biden administration exempted and continues to exempt itself from American laws prohibiting material support for terrorism to funnel money elsewhere. That aid provided the resources for Hamas to arm itself and create its vast underground terrorist camp, which directly facilitated Hamas’s October 7 atrocities. The TUNNELS Act will prevent this administration or any future administration from using loopholes they gave themselves to fund groups such as UNRWA that support Hamas. If you have to exempt yourself from exactly those sorts of anti-terrorism laws, you should not be sending money there.”
Sen. Cruz was joined by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) in introducing the legislation.
Read the full text of the bill here.
