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By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bunch of senior Democratic lawmakers will introduce laws on Wednesday to extra intently make sure that U.S. weapons gross sales to overseas clients don’t find yourself contributing to or facilitating human rights abuses.
The Safeguard Act seeks to codify into legislation a brand new Standard Arms Switch (CAT) coverage launched final month by Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration to extend the emphasis on human rights issues, in keeping with details about the laws seen by Reuters.
The invoice is led by Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee, and Consultant Gregory Meeks, the rating Democrat on the Home of Representatives Overseas Affairs Committee. It has 4 different sponsors within the Senate and 5 within the Home, all Democrats.
“Very like we needs to be requiring common background checks earlier than promoting weapons of struggle domestically, we needs to be prioritizing a authorities’s human rights file earlier than offering them entry to our arms and protection companies,” Menendez stated in a press release.
The CAT coverage covers assessment of safety help, government-to-government weapons transfers and licensed business gross sales of U.S.-origin army gear and companies overseen by the State Division in addition to the Protection Division and Division of Commerce, together with firearms generally accessible in america.
Protection firms and activists scrutinize such insurance policies for perception into the administration’s posture because it balances business pursuits of exporters like Lockheed Martin (NYSE:) Co and Raytheon Applied sciences (NYSE:) in opposition to the nation’s said dedication to human rights.
Underneath U.S. legislation, the chair and rating member of the Overseas Relations and Overseas Affairs committees assessment main weapons transfers. They typically take human rights into consideration and at instances search to delay or block deliberate gross sales.
For instance, Menendez opposes the sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 plane to Turkey for causes together with its file on human rights.