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Will Congress arm Iraqi Kurds?

The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs panel is lining up support for his bid to bypass Baghdad.
Representative Ed Royce (R-CA) leaves a Republican caucus meeting at the Capitol in Washington August 1, 2014. A bill to fund border security blew up in House Speaker John Boehner's face on Thursday, leaving Republicans in disarray and struggling to reconcile Tea Party demands with the need to deal with a humanitarian crisis on the southwestern border with Mexico. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts    (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS SOCIETY IMMIGRATION) - RTR40XQR

The top House Republican in charge of foreign policy is lining up allies in his bid to directly arm the Iraqi Kurds in their fight against the Islamic State (IS).

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., is circulating a Dear Colleague letter asking colleagues of both parties to sign on to legislation that would allow the Obama administration to bypass Baghdad, Al-Monitor has learned. The pending legislation will largely mirror a bill that Royce filed late last year with ranking member Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.

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