On July 5, 2022, members of the House introduced amendments to the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which are now viewable online. Out of the 1,172 amendments, 25 deal with restricting U.S. weapons sales abroad. These amendments can be broken down in three ways: creation and enforcement of new reporting requirements; protection and implementation of human rights measures in the U.S. arms sales process; and reducing dispersion of weapons away from the intended recipient.
Reporting requirements are an easy way for Congress to start reform without needing to debate politically charged issues. For example, the 2022 NDAA introduced legislation to require audits of foreign security forces receiving U.S. assistance, force human rights reporting for security aid to Colombia, demand oversight reports on private security contractors receiving U.S. aid, and force reporting on U.S.-funding of United Nations peacekeepers. In essence, this type of legislation is easy to pass in the NDAA, generally enjoys bipartisan support, does not upset the leaders of political parties, and adds bureaucracy to institutions that do not normally affect Americans.
In the 2023 NDAA amendments, there is legislation that would force more reporting on the impact of U.S. arms exports and foreign operations on global human rights, review the Department of Defense’s strategy for deterring misuse of U.S. security assistance, require additional notifications for weapons transfers to Central America’s Northern Triangle and direct commercial sales to all nations, and oversee budget authorizations that the U.S. government uses to fight covert wars.
Overall, the reporting requirements related to arms transfers in the 2023 NDAA will certainly add work for the Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce, but in doing so, they could improve human rights practices in those countries.
In addition to improvements to reporting requirements, the 2023 NDAA includes amendments that restrict arms sales by evaluating the impact of U.S. weapons on global human rights and how to prevent continued abuses. Such amendments are historically difficult to pass because members of Congress receive money from U.S. weapons manufacturers, do not want to restrict President Joe Biden’s authority, or both. The amendments to the 2023 NDAA would restrict specific countries from receiving U.S. weapons, especially Saudi Arabia. Beyond that, other amendments restrict transfer of weapons to unsupervised recipients, require greater vetting on human rights violators and units that will receive U.S. weapons, improve training on proper use of security assistance, and force the U.S. government to assess the potential for war crimes and other human rights violations in the arms transfer process – from notification of sale to delivery of the weapons.
By placing the issue as an amendment in the NDAA, individual congresspersons are at least forcing a discussion on human rights issues in the weapons sales process. However, much of this legislation may not pass.
Finally, the 2023 NDAA proposed amendments would restrict weapons sales by helping the U.S government avoid dispersion of its transferred weapons to unwanted recipients in two ways. First, by authorizing additional funds of up to $20 million for fiscal year 2023 and each year after to improve end‐use monitoring of weapons transfers. This means the U.S. government will continue to track weapons after they are delivered and make sure they are in the hands of the intended recipient. The second way is by removing the Trump‐era rule that placed the Commerce Department in charge of some firearms sales assessments instead of the State Department. This rule led to weapons in Categories I‑III in the U.S. Munitions List being regulated by the Commerce Department instead of the State Department, including the sale of semi‐automatic firearms, small‐arms ammunition, shotguns, non‐lethal grenades and projectiles, optical‐sighting devices, firearm production equipment, and other small arms and light weapons. This leads these weapons to being subject to a less strict review process and increasing potential gun violence in Latin America, less rigorous end‐use monitoring of U.S. weapons in Afghanistan, and rewarding governments that have dispersed weapons to U.S. adversaries. Thus, this amendment would move risk assessment of these firearms back into the State Department’s purview and reduce these negative consequences.
Below is a list of all of the restrictive arms sales legislation proposed by House members in the 2023 NDAA. While there are eleven less amendments restricting sales than last year, if passed, most of these amendments would have a small, but not insignificant impact on assessing risk in weapons sales.
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Sponsor(s) |
Summary |
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Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Connolly (VA) |
Prohibits funds from being used to provide weapons or military aid or military training to Saudi Arabia’s Rapid Intervention Force (RIF), the unit responsible for the murder of U.S. journalist Jamal Khashoggi. |
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Connolly (VA) |
Imposes temporary limits on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and requires various reports and actions related to the death of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi. |
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McGovern (MA), Castro (TX) |
Strengthens monitoring, reporting, oversight, and determinations on arms sales and human rights. |
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Johnson, Hank (GA), Escobar (TX), Watson Coleman (NJ), McClintock (CA), Cohen (TN), Schakowsky (IL), Moore (WI), Carson (IN), Norton (DC), Blumenauer (OR), Tlaib (MI), Jacobs, Sara (CA), Jones, Mondaire (NY), Gallego (AZ), Jayapal (WA), Gomez (CA) |
Revises the DOD’s “1033 program,” by prohibiting the transfer of military-grade weapons and tactical vehicles and aircraft to federal, tribal, state, and local law enforcement agencies across the nation, except under certain exceptions when the Secretary determines a waiver is necessary (such as for disaster or rescue purposes or for another purpose where life and public safety are at risk). Still allows law enforcement agencies to obtain the vast majority of the equipment available for distribution under this program while subjecting the more lethal equipment to more oversight by civilian local authorities and the taxpayers. |
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Khanna (CA), Jacobs, Sara (CA), Malinowski (NJ) |
Adds a sense of Congress commending the Department of Defense for its renewed commitment to preventing and addressing harm to civilians resulting from United States military operations and work to develop an action plan to implement meaningful changes to further prevent and address such harm. |
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Torres, Norma (CA), Sires (NJ) |
Directs the Government Accountability Office to review the Defense Department’s global strategy for deterring misuse or unauthorized use of security assistance. |
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Torres, Norma (CA) |
Requires additional notifications and oversight of Section 333 funding for the governments of the Northern Triangle. |
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Meeks (NY), Jacobs, Sara (CA) |
Requires a report to Congress on processes related to State Department Chief of Mission concurrence for ongoing programs under existing statutory authorities. |
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Jacobs, Sara (CA), Malinowski (NJ), Castro (TX), Titus (NV), Cicilline (RI) |
Requires Leahy human rights vetting on DOD Section 127e and Section 1202 security cooperation programs. |
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Jacobs, Sara (CA), Malinowski (NJ) |
Requires the Department of State to publish notification of certain elements of direct commercial sales certifications on a publicly available website. |
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Jacobs, Sara (CA) |
Amends Section 383 of Title 10 by requiring assessment, monitoring, and evaluation of Section 127e and 1202, submission of a third party evaluation in the annual reporting requirement’s classified annex, and annual briefings on shortcomings found in such assessments. |
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Jacobs, Sara (CA), Malinowski (NJ), Khanna (CA) |
Requires an annual report from the Department of Defense and Department of State on an analysis of civilian harm and mitigation practices in recipient countries of U.S. security assistance and cooperation programs. |
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Jacobs, Sara (CA), Castro (TX) |
Requires the Department of State to establish training curriculum at the Foreign Service Institute to provide employees with specialized training on handling security assistance. |
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Malinowski (NJ), Wild (PA), Jacobs, Sara (CA), Houlahan (PA), Lieu (CA) |
Revises existing requirements on congressional notifications on arms sales to include a notification by the President at least 30 days prior to the first and last shipment of a sale of defense articles pursuant to requirements under the Arms Export Control Act. |
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Malinowski (NJ), Castro (TX), Schiff (CA), Jacobs, Sara (CA), Houlahan (PA), Lieu (CA) |
Makes technical adjustments to DOS/DOD “Leahy Laws” by adding war crimes as a relevant human rights violation for foreign unit vetting purposes and by applying the laws to joint operations with foreign partners. |
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Omar (MN) |
Requires reporting on US security assistance to the governments of Mali, Chad, Guinea, and Burkina Faso. |
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Omar (MN) |
Adds efforts to prevent civilian harm and human rights violations to the annual report created by Section 1201(b). |
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Omar (MN) |
Prohibits funds for entering into new security agreements with Saudi Arabia or the UAE absent Congressional approval. |
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Malinowski (NJ), Phillips (MN), Jayapal (WA), Castro (TX), Porter (CA), Jacobs, Sara (CA), Khanna (CA), Allred (TX), Levin, Andy (MI), Blumenauer (OR), Lieu (CA) |
Authorizes additional funds of up to $20,000,000 for fiscal year 2023 and each year thereafter for the ongoing implementation of statutory due diligence and end-use monitoring requirements. |
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Torres, Norma (CA), Porter (CA) |
Reinstates standard Congressional Notification procedures for the export of certain items to foreign countries. |
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Jacobs, Sara (CA) |
Creates a mechanism, called the Human Rights and Law of War Oversight Board, to assess a country’s risk of violating certain principles of responsible behavior and compliance with human rights and law of war when purchasing U.S. weapons. |
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830* |
Khanna (CA), Jacobs, Sara (CA), Malinowski (NJ) |
Requires that the Center of Excellence in Civilian Harm Mitigation ensures that lessons learned from civilian harm assessments are reflected in updated doctrine, policies, procedures, and practices. Requires that the Center engage with civil society no less than biannually to ensure that U.S. government efforts to improve civilian harm policies and practices are informed by the experiences and needs of civilians affected by military operations of the United States and partner countries. |
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Sherman (CA), Khanna (CA), Titus (NV), Norton (DC), Jacobs, Sara (CA), Tlaib (MI), Gaetz (FL), Lieu (CA), Garcia, Jesús (IL), Grijalva (AZ) |
Prevents the use of funds by the Department of Defense in contravention of the War Powers Resolution. |
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Jacobs, Sara (CA) |
Revised Modifies Department of State reporting requirements on assistance provided under the Peacekeeping Operations Account. |
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Jayapal (WA) |
Revised Requests Defense Department report on distribution and use of U.S. weaponry provided to Ukraine, including compliance with relevant laws and efforts to prevent such arms from being sold on the black market or obtained by extremist groups. |
*Amendment 830 was withdrawn from this legislation after the publication of this post.
