{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-senate-votes-sen-rand-pauls-joint-resolution-disapproval-halt-sale-advanced-military-aircraft/", "Senate Votes on Sen. Rand Paul\u2019s Joint Resolution of Disapproval to Halt Sale of Advanced Military Aircraft to Pakistan", "2016-03-10", "2016", "2016-03", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 By invoking the Arms Export Control Act of 1976, U.S. Senator Rand Paul forced a vote today in the Senate on S.J.Res.31, a joint resolution of disapproval to halt U.S. arms sales to the government of Pakistan. Prior to the vote, Sen. Paul delivered remarks urging his colleagues to support the joint resolution of disapproval, which would have stopped the sale of 8 F-16s and additional technical gear to the Pakistani government.\n\n24-71 voted in support of Pakistan not receiving F-16s.\n\n\u201cThe U.S. and Pakistani relationship has been a troubled one. Though the government of Pakistan has been considered America\u2019s ally in the fight on terrorism, Pakistan\u2019s behavior would suggest otherwise. While we give them billions of dollars in aid, we are simultaneously aware of their intelligence and military apparatus assisting the Afghan Taliban,\u201d said Sen. Paul.\n\n\u201cIn addition to Pakistan\u2019s duplicitous nature, it also has a deplorable human rights record. Pakistan often isolates and unjustly jails religious minorities and Christians to include Pakistani Christian Asa Bibi. Only after an international outcry did Pakistan commutes Asa Bibi\u2019s death sentence. In addition to Pakistan\u2019s support of terrorism and deplorable human rights record, it continues to imprison Dr. Shakil Afridi, who helped the U.S. locate and kill Osama Bin Laden,\u201d Sen. Paul continued.\n\nClick HERE to read the joint resolution of disapproval in its entirety.\n\nThe video and transcript of Sen. Paul\u2019s remarks can be found below.\n\nCLICK HERE TO WATCH SEN. PAUL\u2019S FLOOR SPEECH\n\nTRANSCRIPT\n\nSen. Paul: Pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act of 1976, I move to discharge the Foreign Relations Committee from further consideration of S. J. Resolution 31 relating to the disapproval of the proposed foreign military sale to the government of Pakistan.\n\nPresiding Officer: The motion is debatable for up to one hour.\n\nSen. Paul: Madam President, I rise in opposition to the American taxpayers being forced to pay for fighter jets for Pakistan. Over $300 million from the American taxpayer will be designated to go to Pakistan to pay for eight new F-16s for Pakistan.\n\nWe\u2019ve got a lot of problems here in our country, my friends. We\u2019ve got a lot of things going on in our country that need to be taken care of, and we don\u2019t have enough money to be sending it to Pakistan. I can\u2019t in good conscience look away as America crumbles at home and politicians tax us to send the money to corrupt and duplicitous regimes abroad.\n\nWhen I travel across Kentucky and I see the look of despair in the eyes of out of work coal miners, when I see the anguish in the faces of those who live in constant poverty, I wonder why the establishment of both parties continues to send our money overseas to countries that take our money, take our arms and laugh in our face.\n\nWe\u2019ve given $15 billion to Pakistan, $15 billion over the last decade. And yet their previous president admits that Pakistan armed, aided, and abetted the Taliban. You remember the Taliban in Afghanistan that harbored and hosted bin Laden for a decade? Pakistan helped them. Pakistan was one of only two countries that recognized the Taliban.\n\nWhy in the world would we be taxing the American people to send this money to Pakistan? You remember when bin Laden escaped? We chased him and he escaped. Where did he go? To Pakistan. He lived for a decade in Pakistan. Where? About a mile away from their military academy. Somehow they missed him there in a 15-foot high walled compound, bin Laden stayed in Pakistan while we funnel billions upon billions of dollars to them.\n\nPakistan to this day is said to look away, to not look at the Haqqani network. In fact, it is accused that many members of their government are complicit with the Haqqani network. Who is the Haqqani network? It\u2019s a network of terrorists that kill Americans. We have American soldiers dying at the hands of Pakistani terrorists that the government looks the other way.\n\nGeneral John F. Campbell testified to Congress that the Haqqani network remains the most capable threat to U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, and yet you are asked to send F-16s and good money after bad to a government in Pakistan that looks the other way.\n\nPakistan is at best a frenemy, part friend and a lot enemy. If Pakistan truly wants to be our ally, if Pakistan truly wants to help in the war on radical Islam, it should not require a bribe. It should not require the American taxpayer to subsidize arms sales. They already have 70 F-16s. They\u2019ve got an air force of F-16s. What what would happen if we didn\u2019t send them eight more that we\u2019re being asked to pay for? Maybe they\u2019d listen. Maybe they would help us. Maybe they would be an honest broker in the fight against terrorism.\n\nWe are $19 trillion in debt. We borrow a million dollars a minute. We don\u2019t have any money to send to Pakistan to bribe them to buy planes from us. We don\u2019t have the money. We have problems at home. Our infrastructure crumbles at home. We have longstanding poverty at home. We\u2019ve got problems in America. And we don\u2019t have money to borrow the money from China to send it to Pakistan.\n\nIn my state, in Kentucky, we have a dozen counties with unemployment nearly double the national rate. In Magoffin county, Kentucky, 12.5% of people are out of work. Those who today will vote to send money to Pakistan need to come with me to Kentucky and they need to come to Magoffin county and they need to look people in the face who are out of work in America and explain to them why we should send money to Pakistan.\n\nWe\u2019ve got people hurting here at home. In Harlan county, the President\u2019s war on coal has led to long-standing, double-digit unemployment. In Harlan, Kentucky, people are out of work. People live in poverty, and they don\u2019t understand why Congress is sending money to Pakistan.\n\nIn Leslie county, high unemployment prompts their citizens to ask, \u201cwhy is the government spending billions of dollars for advanced fighter jets for foreigners?\u201d They don\u2019t understand it. They can\u2019t understand, when they live from day to day, why the government is sending money to Pakistan.\n\nAs I travel Kentucky, I ask my constituents, should America send money and arms to a country that persecutes Christians? I\u2019ve yet to meet a single voter who wants their tax dollars going to countries that persecute Christians.\n\nIn Pakistan, it is in their constitution that if you criticize the state religion, you can be put to death. Asia Bibi has been on death row for nearly five years. Asia Bibi is a Christian. Her crime: She went to the well to draw water, and the villagers began to stone her. They beat her with sticks until she was bleeding. They continued to stone her, as they chanted \u201cDeath! Death to the Christian!\u201d The police finally arrived, and she thought she\u2019d been saved, only to be arrested by the Pakistani police, and there she sits on death row for five years.\n\nIs it an ally, is it a civilized nation that puts Christians to death for criticizing the state religion? I defy any member of this body, go home, talk to the first voter, go outside the beltway, leave Congress and drive outside the beltway and stop at the first gas station, stop at the first grocery store and ask anybody, Republican, Democrat, Independent, you ask anybody, should we be sending money to a country that persecutes Christians?\n\nAsia Bibi sits on death row for criticizing the state religion, and your money goes to support her government. What will happen to Pakistan if they don\u2019t get eight more F-16s. They\u2019ll only have 70 F-16s. Most of the politicians here simply don\u2019t care. They don\u2019t care whether Pakistan persecutes Christians. They only know one way. The one way is to open our wallet and bleed us dry and hope that someday Pakistan will change its behavior.\n\nWell, guess what? If you\u2019re not strong enough to vote for this resolution, if you think that some kind of cajoling and flattery and nice talk with empty words is going to change the behavior of Pakistan, you\u2019ve got another thing coming. It\u2019s been going on for decades.\n\nWhen I forced a vote in the Foreign Relations Committee the to say that countries that put Christians to death for criticizing the state religion \u2013 there\u2019s about 34 of these countries, a couple dozen of them who receive money from us, American tax dollars going to countries that persecute Christians \u2013 when I introduced the amendment to say, guess what? Let\u2019s not do it anymore. Any country that has a law that compels a Christian and puts a Christian to death, that country would no longer receive our money.\n\nYou know what the vote was? 18-2 from Washington politicians that keep sending good money after bad, because they say, oh, the moderates there are going to change their minds someday. Well, after they bleed us dry, we\u2019ve given them $15 billion, and I have seen no evidence of a change of behavior.\n\nInsolence, arrogance, and people who laugh as they cash our check. Is Pakistan our ally in the war on terror? Well, not only did they help the Taliban that hosted bin Laden for a decade, when finally got bin Laden, we got him with evidence that was given to us by a doctor in Afghanistan. Where is he now? Pakistan has locked him away in a dark, dank prison from which he will probably never arrive out of, from which he will probably never be released.\n\nShakil Afridi has essentially been given a life sentence by Pakistan for the crime of helping the United States and helping all civilized nations get to bin Laden. He sat under the noses of the Pakistani government for a decade. We finally got him when Shakil Afridi helped us. People aren\u2019t going to continue to help America if we don\u2019t help them, if we don\u2019t protect our human intelligence, if we don\u2019t protect those who are willing to help America. He sits and rots in a prison.\n\nWhat message do we send to Pakistan if we send them eight more F-16s and we tell you, the American taxpayer, you\u2019re paying for it? What message does that send to Pakistan? The message is Pakistan is, we\u2019ll just keep thumbing our nose to America. And we\u2019ve laugh all the way to the bank as we do nothing to release the Christians on death row or to release the doctor who helped us.\n\nShould we give planes to a country that imprisons these heroes, heroes who helped and put their life on the line? Today we will vote on whether the American people should foot the bill. I have yet to meet a voter in my state of Kentucky or across America that thinks it\u2019s a good idea to send more money to Pakistan.\n\nWe have a $19 trillion debt. We borrower $1 million a minute. We have no money. It\u2019s not even a surplus. They say, oh, we\u2019re going to influence Pakistan. Or they may rise up. The revolution won\u2019t stop the money. The heck it won\u2019t. If my resolution becomes law, the eight jets will not go to Pakistan and be subsidized and not one penny of American tax dollars will go to Pakistan.\n\nWe have to borrow money from China to send it to Pakistan. Such a policy is insane and supported by no one outside of Washington. You go anywhere in America and ask them, should we give money, should the taxpayer be forced to give money to Pakistan, a country that persecutes Christians, nobody is for it.\n\nAnd yet the vast and out-of-touch establishment in Washington continues to do it. Is it any wonder people are unhappy with Washington? Is it any wonder that Americans are sick and tired of the status quo? Sick and tired of people not listening to them.\n\nWe have no money in the treasury. We are all out of money. This influences nothing other than to tell the Pakistanis they can continue doing what they want.\n\nI urge my colleagues to vote against subsidized sales of fighter jets to Pakistan, and I reserve the remainder of my time.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T20:47:03Z"]], "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-senate-votes-sen-rand-pauls-joint-resolution-disapproval-halt-sale-advanced-military-aircraft/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9362492710351944, "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"}