[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 897 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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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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