<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><BillSummaries>
    <item congress="117" measure-type="hr" measure-number="7621" measure-id="id117hr7621" originChamber="HOUSE" orig-publish-date="2022-04-28" update-date="2023-08-08">
        <title>Department of Defense Civilian Harm Transparency Act</title>
        <summary summary-id="id117hr7621v00" currentChamber="HOUSE" update-date="2023-08-08">
            <action-date>2022-04-28</action-date>
            <action-desc>Introduced in House</action-desc>
            <summary-text><![CDATA[
     <p><strong>Department of Defense Civilian Harm Transparency Act</strong></p> <p>This bill requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to designate a senior official to serve as the civilian harm investigation coordinator to conduct a review of each investigation of civilian harm and assess whether applicable laws, policies, guidelines, and processes were followed during the investigations. DOD must also appoint a general counsel to assist the coordinator with such duties.</p> <p>The coordinator must annually submit to Congress a report on civilian harm resulting from U.S. military operations during the preceding year.</p> <p>DOD must make publicly available in an electronic format a detailed list of all ex gratia payments (i.e., payments that are not legally required) and other payments in response to civilian harm paid by the United States. Some information may be excluded to ensure safety or privacy of payment recipients. DOD must provide specified information to Congress to certify the need for confidentiality.</p> <p>DOD must provide an easily accessible electronic method by which individuals may request ex gratia or other condolence payments.</p>
  ]]></summary-text>
        </summary>
    </item>
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        <dc:language>EN</dc:language>
        <dc:rights>Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.</dc:rights>
        <dc:contributor>Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress</dc:contributor>
        <dc:description>This file contains bill summaries for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.</dc:description>
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</BillSummaries>
