S.Amdt. 4585

SA 4585. Mr. CORNYN 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 C of title XII, add the following:

SEC. 1224. SALE OF MULTIROLE FIGHTER AIRCRAFT TO BAHRAIN.

(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Actions taken by the Administration have unduly delayed
the export of multirole fighter aircraft to Bahrain.
(2) Continued defense security cooperation and assistance
with Bahrain are critical to regional security and countering
the terrorist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(ISIS), as well as counterbalancing the influence of Iran and
its proxies in the region.
(3) Bahrain has made several of its military facilities
available for use by the United States military to address
past and current threats from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan,
international terrorism, and piracy and smuggling in the Gulf
and Arabian Sea.
(4) Outdated Bahraini F-16 aircraft lack certain
capabilities, and this limits their utility in coalition
operations.
(5) For several years, Bahrain has expressed interest in
upgrading its existing fleet of 20 F-16 Block 40 aircraft
with advanced capabilities, including Active Electronically
Scanned Array radars.
(6) Bahrain submitted formal Letters of Request for these
upgrades, as well as for the sale of a comparable number of
new F-16 aircraft in November 2015.
(7) The upgrade and sale of F-16 aircraft to Bahrain will
help advance military-to-military cooperation between the
United States and Bahrain.
(8) Recent inroads by European and Russian manufacturers of
competitor aircraft in

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the region have the potential to erode United States
military-to-military relations with Bahrain, and these
potential erosions deepen regional concerns over United
States policy in the Middle East generally and towards Iran
specifically.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) a strong bilateral relationship between the United
States and Bahrain is critical to maintaining stability in
the Middle East, countering the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria, mitigating further terrorist threats, and
counterbalancing Iran and its regional proxies;
(2) Bahrain and the United States share a mutual commitment
to regional security, counterterrorism efforts, and related
coalition operations; and
(3) the Bahraini air force needs additional advanced
multirole fighter aircraft in order to modernize its fleet
and participate in regional security initiatives and counter-
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria campaigns.
(c) Sale of Multirole Fighter Aircraft.--The President
shall carry out the sale of all pending foreign military
sales of F-16 fighter aircraft and related upgrades of
existing F-16 aircraft to Bahrain by not later than 30 days
after the date of the enactment of this Act.
______