House Democrats Eye New Effort to Monitor Arms Exports for Human Rights Abuses
Four Democratic members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s arms sales task force introduced a bill July 17 that would create a State Department program to determine whether U.S. defense exports are used to commit war crimes or harm civilians.
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Existing end-use monitoring programs examine whether weapons have been diverted to third parties but do not evaluate how they are used, according to a press release from Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., the bill’s lead sponsor.
The Silver Shield Operational End Use Monitoring Act is co-sponsored by Reps. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, and Bill Keating, D-Mass. It was referred to the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The arms sales task force is studying ways to improve how the government handles foreign military sales and export controls (see 2503280022).