[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 897 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
115th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 897
To protect civilians from cluster munitions, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 7, 2017
Mrs. Feinstein (for herself, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Brown, Mr. Cardin, Mr.
Durbin, Mr. Franken, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Murphy, Mrs. Murray, Mr.
Sanders, Mr. Udall, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Markey, and Mr. Merkley)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To protect civilians from cluster munitions, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Cluster Munitions Civilian
Protection Act of 2017''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The Convention on Cluster Munitions, done at Dublin May
30, 2008, and entered into force August 1, 2010, now has 100
States Parties, including Canada, France, Germany, and the
United Kingdom, and an additional 19 signatories.
(2) The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which
comprehensively bans the use, production, acquisition, export,
or transfer of cluster munitions and requires the destruction
of existing stockpiles, clearance of contaminated land, and
assistance to cluster munition victims, has led to the
destruction of nearly 1,400,000 cluster munitions containing
more than 170,000,000 submunitions.
(3) Under a policy issued in 2008 by Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates, by the end of 2018, the United States will no
longer use cluster munitions anywhere in the world, unless,
after arming, the cluster munitions do not result in more than
1 percent unexploded ordnance across the range of intended
operational environments.
(4) The CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon meets the standard
established by Secretary Gates in 2008.
SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON THE USE OF CLUSTER MUNITIONS.
No funds appropriated or otherwise available to any Federal
department or agency may be obligated or expended to purchase,
transfer, issue a license for the export of, or use any cluster
munitions unless--
(1) the submunitions of the cluster munitions, after
arming, do not result in more than 1 percent unexploded
ordnance across the range of intended operational environments;
and
(2) the policy applicable to the export or transfer of such
cluster munitions specifies that the cluster munitions will
only be used against clearly defined military targets and will
not be used where civilians are known to be present or in areas
normally inhabited by civilians.
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the Secretary of Defense should ensure that the July
2008 Gates policy on cluster munitions is being fully
implemented and that the 2018 deadline referred to in section
2(3) will be met;
(2) the United States Government should adopt a policy and
develop a strategy to phase out, as soon as possible, the
transfer, export, and use of all cluster munitions;
(3) any alternatives that the United States Government
develops to replace cluster munitions should be compliant with
the Convention on Cluster Munitions; and
(4) the United States should take all steps necessary to
enable it to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions as
soon as possible.
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