S.Amdt. 4159

SA 4159. Mr. RUBIO submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 2943, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2017 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

On page 1032, after line 23, add the following:
(c) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) it should be the policy of the United States to
support, within the framework of the Iraq Constitution, the
Kurdish Peshmerga in Iraq, Iraq Security Forces, Sunni tribal
forces, and other local security forces, including ethnic and
religious minority groups such as Iraqi Christian militias,
in the campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant;
(2) recognizing the important role of the Kurdish Peshmerga
in Iraq in the military campaign against the Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant in Iraq, the United States should provide
arms, training, and appropriate equipment directly to the
Kurdistan Regional Government;
(3) efforts should be made to ensure transparency and
oversight mechanisms are in place for oversight of United
States assistance under section 1236 of the Carl Levin and
Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon National Defense Authorization Act
for Fiscal Year 2015 in order to combat waste, fraud, and
abuse; and
(4) securing safe areas, including the Nineveh Plain, for
purposes of resettling and reintegrating ethnic and religious
minorities, including victims of genocide, into their
homelands in Iraq is a critical component toward achieving a
safe, secure, and sovereign Iraq.
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