[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 145 (Tuesday, September 15, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S4731]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           CLUSTER MUNITIONS

  Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, the Third Review Conference of States 
Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions is underway in Laos, a 
country where millions of U.S. cluster munitions from the Vietnam war 
continue to maim and kill civilians. Large areas of provinces bordering 
Vietnam remain contaminated with these deadly explosives. The U.S. is 
helping clear these munitions, but more resources are needed.
  Cluster munitions continue to be used today in other armed conflicts. 
A provision in U.S. law authored by my predecessor Senator Leahy 
prohibits the sale or transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate 
of more than 1 percent. That was an important step, but further action 
is necessary. Cluster munitions are delivered by artillery or aircraft, 
disbursed by hundreds or thousands over wide areas. If they detonate on 
impact as designed, they threaten the lives and livelihoods of anyone--
combatant or noncombatant--within a large radius. Cluster munitions 
that fail to detonate pose an unacceptable risk to innocent people for 
years or decades, just like landmines.
  I commend the states parties to the Convention and the 
nongovernmental organizations around the world, like Legacies of War in 
the United States, which have worked to rid the world of these 
indiscriminate weapons. The U.S. and the other major powers should join 
both the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Anti-personnel Mine 
Ban Convention and work to end the production, stockpiling, transfer, 
and use of these weapons that have no place in the arsenal of civilized 
nations.

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