Katie Porter: “Let me start with a few facts. One: The Leahy Law prohibits the United States from giving military assistance to foreign…”

“Let me start with a few facts. One: The Leahy Law prohibits the United States from giving military assistance to foreign security forces that commit gross violations of human rights. Two: The State Department determines whether there have been gross violations of human rights based in part on information from the Department of Defense. Three: That process is only as good as the information coming in. Without that information, we don't cut off funding, and taxpayer dollars can go to foreign military units that commit rape, murder, torture, and other gross violations of human rights. When our servicemembers have information on such abuses, they have an obligation to report it to their chain of command, but that is not technically true for Defense Department contractors. That is a problem. In fact, that is a big problem because contractors are a huge part of our military presence around the world. They make up more than half of DOD personnel in Iraq. At the end of the war in Afghanistan, they outnumbered U.S. troops 17 to 1. And there have been repeated allegations of contractors who failed to report gross violations of human rights, from sexual abuse of young boys in Afghanistan to the torture of prisoners in Yemen. In December 2019, Congress required the Pentagon to update the relevant policies and regulations. Section 888 of that year's Defense bill required specific guidance to Defense contractors on reporting gross violations of human rights.…”