Bills
| 3.23.22

Should Funding for U.S. Activities in Afghanistan End in One Year? (H.R. 1666)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 1666?

(Updated August 9, 2019)

This bill would prohibit funds from being made available for activities in Afghanistan one year after the date of this legislation’s enactment except for the operations of the U.S. Embassy and intelligence gathering. The president would be able to waive this prohibition by certifying that making such funds is in the national interest and Congress enacts legislation making funding available.

Argument in favor

The U.S. needs to end the war in Afghanistan, too many lives have been lost or damaged and too much money has been spent on what appears to be an unwinnable conflict. Gains made in Afghanistan have been lost in recent years and are too far gone.

Argument opposed

There has to be a debate about the U.S. war strategy for Afghanistan, but an arbitrary deadline that cuts off funding in one year is unwise. It would signal to the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and ISIS that they just need to wait until America leaves to topple the Afghan government.

Impact

The U.S. military and federal agencies.

Cost of H.R. 1666

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) introduced this bill to prohibit funding for U.S. activities in Afghanistan after one year because he wants Congress to have a debate on continuing the longest war in American history:

“From a political standpoint, and it really is sad for me to say it this way, but maybe members of the House would rather the president have blood on his hands instead of we in the House have blood on our hands. That’s just my feeling. I can’t prove it. But I know one thing: We’re not debating any foreign policy involving our men and women in uniform. And it’s both parties crying for a debate.”

Lead cosponsor Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) added that the U.S. needs to debate the war strategy for Afghanistan:

“Don’t you suppose we really ought to debate this? That we really ought to get into details about how we win this war? We certainly know how we got into it. How do we get out of it?”

This legislation has the support of 13 bipartisan cosponsors in the House, including eight Democrats and five Republicans.


Media:

Summary by Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: U.S. Army - Cpt. Peter Smedberg / Public Domain)