Last week, CUFI was proud to welcome Vice President Mike Pence, Ambassador Nikki Haley, and Governor Ron DeSantis, among many others, to speak before the capacity crowd of over 1,200 pro-Israel Zionists. In this week’s edition of the Action Update, we’ll go over the three pieces of legislation that make up the 2023 CUFI Washington Summit legislative agenda. 

Countering Hate Against Israel (CHAI) in Federal Contracting Act

After working with our partners across the country in recent years to advance anti-BDS policies in 36 states, ensuring taxpayers are not unwittingly complicit in this evil movement, we decided to take these efforts to our nation’s capital. 

In the days leading up to our Washington Summit, CUFI-authored legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would require all federal contractors to certify they are not boycotting and would not boycott Israel so long as they’re doing business with our federal government. 

Since the bill’s introduction in the House by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), we have seen several other Members of Congress join the effort to advance the bill, including Reps Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), and Michael Lawler (R-NY). In the Senate, we are working closely with allies to ensure its introduction in a timely manner.  

Taking legislation from a blank piece of paper to the law of the land is no easy hill to climb, but with God’s grace and your support, we can pass this bill and deliver a death blow to the BDS movement in America. 

Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum (SHIP) Act

One of the primary ways in which Iran funds its support for terror and nuclear weapons programs is through illicit oil sales. These sales, totaling around 1.2 billion barrels of oil a day, are largely facilitated by China. The SHIP Act, which saw 25 cosponsors join the bill since the CUFI Washington Summit, would sanction any entity – ports, ships, refineries, and the like – that enables the transport and/or sale of Iranian oil. 

While targeting shipping companies and the like is not the most glamorous piece of legislation to have been introduced in this Congress, it is among the most important. 

As Pastor Hagee recently noted, “China is helping Iran evade sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s oil exports just as Tehran is simultaneously engaged in developing its nuclear program, backing terrorist organizations around the world, and aiding Moscow’s war crimes in Ukraine. We must sanction every entity that aids and abets Iran’s malign activities, and the SHIP Act is an important step forward in that effort.”

Aid to Israel

Recently, two former U.S. Ambassadors to Israel stated that the U.S. should no longer provide aid to Israel lest our country “seem like ‘enablers’ of Israel’s occupation.” Cutting military aid to Israel would, of course, imperil the very existence of the Jewish state. 

While their argument may not be vitriolic or antisemitic – the two former ambassadors should not be lumped in with the likes of Reps Rashida Tlaib or Thomas Massie – it is flat wrong. The maintenance of Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region is in America’s national security interests, and Israel need not cede its sovereign right to make decisions of war and peace simply because the United States is giving the Jewish state the means to fight our shared enemies and protect innocent Israeli civilians. 

We support U.S. aid to Israel with no conditions. If the aforementioned ambassadors – or anyone else for that matter – would like to trim the fat from the foreign aid budget, they might start with the funds the U.S. is sending to UNRWA (which aids and abets Palestinian terrorism), the open-ended and perpetual U.N. Commission of Inquiry against Israeli “human rights violations” or better yet, the funds we provide directly to the Palestinians, as the Palestinian Authority continues its ‘pay-to-slay’ program, in direct contravention of U.S. law.

Over the next few weeks, Congress will be taking its August recess. During this time, your elected officials will be back home, meeting with constituents and holding town halls. If you’re able to join any of these events and wish to ask the elected official about, for example, their position on the CHAI Act, you should. Doing so is both your Constitutional right and your Biblical mandate. 

Sincerely,

The CUFI Action Fund Team