Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today with my colleagues Senators Leahy, Brown, Cardin, Durbin, Franken, Klobuchar, Murphy, Murray, Markey, Merkley, Sanders, Udall, and Whitehouse to introduce the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2017. First and foremost, the legislation would limit the use of cluster munitions by the U.S. Armed Forces. In June 2008, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates signed a memo stating that after 2018 the United States will not use cluster munitions with a greater than 1 percent unexploded ordnance rate. The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act would codify the Gates policy by immediately prohibiting the use of cluster munitions with a greater than 1 percent failure rate. Second, this bill would make it clear that the export of U.S.-made cluster munitions must be contingent upon the receiving country not using these weapons inappropriately. Since 2008, the Congress has required that U.S.-made cluster munitions can only be used by the recipient country against clearly defined military targets and will not be used where civilians are known to be present or in areas normally inhabited by civilians. During the 114th Congress, the Defense Department discovered that several export agreements for U.S. cluster munitions--known as letters of offer and acceptance--failed to mirror congressional restrictions on their use.…”