U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has introduced the Terminating Unlawful Negligence and Nullifying Exemptions and Licenses to Sanctions (TUNNELS) Act of 2024, a legislation aimed at preventing the U.S. government from suspending anti-terrorism restrictions to send foreign aid to the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. Sen. Cruz emphasized the importance of this act by stating, "The TUNNELS Act will prevent this administration or any future administration from using loopholes they gave themselves to fund groups such as UNRWA that support Hamas. If you have to exempt yourself from exactly those sorts of anti-terrorism laws, you should not be sending money there."
Joining Sen. Cruz in introducing the legislation were Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.). The bill specifically targets the licenses utilized by the Biden administration to direct U.S. aid through international and non-governmental organizations to Gaza, aiming to revoke these licenses and prevent their reissuance.
Sen. Cruz has been at the forefront of efforts in the Senate to hold the Biden administration accountable for U.S.-based non-profit UNRWA's material support for terrorism in the Gaza Strip. He criticized UNRWA for allowing Hamas to build a terrorist intelligence site using facilities maintained by the organization. Furthermore, Sen. Cruz urged the U.S. Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation into UNRWA USA for its alleged support of foreign terrorist organizations, including Hamas.
Eugene Kontorovich, a professor at George Mason University Scalia Law School and a scholar at the Kohelet Policy Forum, highlighted the significance of Sen. Cruz's bill in creating a terrorism exception in laws governing immunity for international organizations. Kontorovich's call for Congress to establish such an exception aligns with the objectives of the TUNNELS Act introduced by Sen. Cruz and his colleagues.
The TUNNELS Act marks a significant step in addressing concerns related to the misuse of anti-terrorism restrictions and ensuring that U.S. aid does not inadvertently support terrorist activities in the Middle East.