{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-dr-rand-paul-puts-senate-record-arming-bahrain-and-qatar/", "Dr. Rand Paul Puts Senate on Record on Arming Bahrain and Qatar", "2019-06-13", "2019", "2019-06", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:\n\nJune 13, 2019\n\nContact: Press@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator and Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Rand Paul (R-KY) put the U.S. Senate on record on selling U.S. weapons and associated training and support to Bahrain and Qatar through votes on two of his joint resolutions of disapproval to block the sales.\n\nThe Senate first voted on discharging Dr. Paul\u2019s S.J. Res. 20, which would stop an estimated $750 million sale to Bahrain that includes air-to-ground missiles and guided bombs, from the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and bringing it to the Senate floor, with a second vote on discharging S.J. Res. 26, which would block an estimated $3 billion sale to Qatar that includes Apache Attack helicopters and Hellfire missiles.\n\nShortly before the vote, Dr. Paul spoke on the Senate floor against selling American weapons to Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.\n\n\u201cWhat kind of bizarre world do we live in that we are arming people who arm our enemies,\u201d Dr. Paul asked on the Senate floor.\n\nYou can watch his speech HERE.\n\nWhile over 40 senators supported both of Dr. Paul\u2019s resolutions, the majority of senators unfortunately voted to continue fueling an arms race in the Middle East.\n\nYou can read S.J. Res. 20 and S.J. Res. 26 below.\n\nThe Arms Export Control Act of 1976 provides the special procedures whereby a senator can force a vote on an arms sale.\n\nIn November 2018, Dr. Paul forced a procedural vote on his resolution that would have blocked the sale of an estimated $300 million in high-explosive rocket artillery and associated training and support to Bahrain, a member of the Saudi-led coalition waging a devasting war in Yemen that has left millions on the edge of starvation.\n\nDr. Paul has also led multiple bipartisan efforts to block direct arms sales to Saudi Arabia.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:29:15Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-dr-rand-paul-puts-senate-record-arming-bahrain-and-qatar/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6384730115532875, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}