S.Amdt. 4561

SA 4561. Mr. BARRASSO (for himself, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Boozman, Mrs.
Capito, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Daines, Mr. Enzi, Mr. Inhofe, Mr.
Isakson, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Rounds, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Tillis,
Mr. Vitter, Mr. Wicker, Mr. Lee, Mr. Cornyn, and Mr. Hatch) 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:

At the end of subtitle H of title XII, add the following:

SEC. 1277. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ISRAEL
AND THE PALESTINIANS.

(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The United States Government has a longstanding
position that a peaceful resolution of the conflict between
Israel and the Palestinians can only be achieved through
direct negotiations between the two parties.
(2) The Palestinians have been pursuing a strategy to seek
recognition of a Palestinian state through the United
Nations, the United Nations specialized agencies, and the
United Nations affiliated organizations.
(3) On March 17, 2016, the ``State of Palestine'' became a
party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) as its 197th member.
(4) Section 414 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act,
Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991 (Public Law 101-246; 22 U.S.C.
287e note) states the following: ``No funds authorized to be
appropriated by this Act or any other Act shall be available
for the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof
which accords the Palestine Liberation Organization the same
standing as member states.''
(5) Section 410 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act,
Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995 (Public Law 103-236; 22 U.S.C.
287e note) states the following: ``The United States shall
not make any voluntary or assessed contribution: (1) to any
affiliated organization of the United Nations which grants
full membership as a state to any organization or group that
does not have the internationally recognized attributes of
statehood, or (2) to the United Nations, if the United
Nations grants full membership as a state in the United
Nations to any organization or group that does not have the
internationally recognized attributes of statehood, during
any period in which such membership is effective.''
(6) The provisions described in paragraphs (4) and (5) may
not be waived.
(7) The administration of President Barack Obama has
asserted that those provisions do not apply to the UNFCCC
because, according to Department of State spokesman John
Kirby, ``The UNFCCC is a treaty, and the Palestinians'
purported accession does not involve their becoming members
of any U.N. specialized agency or, indeed, any international
organization.''
(8) Treaties can create international organizations, as
demonstrated by the case of the Charter of the United
Nations, which is a treaty that created the United Nations
organization.
(9) Current United States law often treats entities created
by international treaties as international organizations,
such as the International Organizations Immunity Act (Public
Law 79-291), under which the Executive branch has designated
the International Boundary and Water Commission of the United
States and Mexico, which was created by United States and
Mexico international boundary treaties to assist in their
implementation.
(10) The UNFCCC established an international organization
based in Bonn, Germany that employs approximately 500 people
from over 100 countries and has an annual budget in excess of
$60,000,000.
(11) The operating entities of the UNFCCC constitute an
``affiliated organization of the United Nations'' in that the
UNFCCC Secretariat is connected and linked to the United
Nations in many ways, including the following:
(A) The United Nations Secretary-General appoints the
executive secretary of the UNFCCC secretariat.
(B) At the first Conference of the Parties, the UNFCCC
decided that its secretariat ``shall be institutionally
linked to the United Nations''. According to the UNFCCC
website, it remains ``institutionally linked'' today.
(C) The United Nations serves as Depository for the UNFCCC,
the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement.
(D) The proposed budget of the United Nations for the
biennium 2016-2017 supports the UNFCCC.
(E) The United Nations Campus in Bonn, Germany houses the
UNFCCC secretariat, which the United Nations lists as one of
18 organizations that represent it and that are part of the
``United Nations presence'' in Bonn.
(F) The UNFCCC secretariat is subject to United Nations
rules and regulations regarding procurement and other
matters.
(G) The UNFCCC secretariat supports what it describes as
the ``largest annual United

[[Page S3653]]

Nations conference,'' which is the Conference of Parties.
(b) Sense of Congress.--Congress--
(1) reaffirms its longstanding position that the only true
and lasting path to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict is through direct negotiations between Israel and
the Palestinians;
(2) reiterates its strong opposition to any attempt to
establish or seek recognition of a Palestinian state outside
of an agreement negotiated between leaders in Israel and the
Palestinians;
(3) strongly opposes the unilateral actions of the
Palestinians to seek statehood recognition through the United
Nations, United Nations specialized agencies, United Nations
affiliated organizations, and United Nations treaties,
conventions, and agreements;
(4) calls on the President to hold the Palestinians
accountable for their actions to undermine and circumvent the
peace process;
(5) strongly supports the prohibition on United States
funding going to any United Nations affiliated organization
that grants full membership as a state to any organization or
group that does not have the internationally recognized
attributes of statehood; and
(6) reaffirms that, under United States law, the United
States is prohibited from making any disbursements of United
States funds to the UNFCCC secretariat, the Green Climate
Fund, the Conference of the Parties, and the Conference of
the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the
Kyoto Protocol after the ``State of Palestine'' was allowed
to become a full member of the UNFCCC.
______