Warren, Sanders, Lee Call on Departments of Defense and State to Improve Tracking and Monitoring of U.S.-Origin Weapons

Press Release

"We…have serious concerns about how DoD and the State Department track and monitor U.S.-origin weapons. The failure of DoD and State to properly do so stands in contradiction to U.S. values and our nation's efforts to prevent and mitigate civilian harm.

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Despite these clear examples of the misuse of U.S.-origin weapons, DoD and State have not taken necessary action to pause or stop related foreign military sales. In its response to our December letter, DoD indicated that "since 2012, DOS has not notified DoD to pause, reduce, or cancel any FMS (Foreign Military Sale) cases or deliveries as a result of its investigations into reports that a foreign government used U.S.-origin defense articles for purposes other than those for which the items were furnished by the USG- (U.S. government).' This raises serious questions about both the terms of end-user agreements the United States has with these countries, and DoD and DoS's EUM (end-use monitoring) processes.

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(DoD) is unable to monitor operational use of transferred weapons, writing it was "not feasible' due to "the volume of transferred defense articles, the lack of DoD manning to support such a mission, lack of access to areas of hostilities, and the security risk to DoD Personnel.' It is concerning that DoD is failing to properly keep up with the volume of defense articles that the U.S. is sending abroad. This, coupled with the 2022 GAO report on EUM (end-use monitoring) in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, indicates broader patterns of failures of the Golden Sentry Program.

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We request additional clarity on how the Administration plans to implement these important goals. We further expect that the Administration will choose to extend this policy consistently to all recipients of U.S. security assistance, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and beyond, and look forward to working with both the Defense and State Departments to ensure security assistance moving forward meets this higher level of scrutiny."

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