Silver Shield Act of 2025

In order to improve accountability with respect to defense articles and defense services sold, leased, transferred, or exported under the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2751 et seq.) or the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.), not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall establish a program, to be known as the Silver Shield program, to provide for operational end-use monitoring of such articles and services.

The Silver Shield program shall—

(A) be designed to monitor whether there is credible information that a recipient used defense articles or defense services from the United States to inflict civilian harm, violate international humanitarian law, or violate international human rights law;

(B) determine through operational end-use monitoring whether defense articles or defense services from the United States were used to commit—

(i) genocide;

(ii) crimes against humanity;

(iii) grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949; or

(iv) other serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law;

(C) require a determination of ineligibility, pursuant to section 3 of the Arms Export Control Act, should a determination described in subparagraph (B) be affirmative, including a timeline of 180 days to complete such determinations on such allegations of violation;

(D) incorporate data, best practices, and lessons learned from the implementation of—

(i) the Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance;

(ii) programs to carry out the requirements of section 362 of title 10, United States Code and section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2378d) (collectively referred to as the Leahy Laws);

(iii) National Security Memorandum 20;

(iv) the Golden Sentry End-Use Monitoring Program; and

(v) the Blue Lantern program; and

(E) incorporates sources of information for monitoring including—

(i) reports submitted by United States Government personnel, including United States embassy, Defense Security Cooperation Agency, or combatant command personnel;

(ii) eyewitness interviews;

(iii) publicly available photographic and video evidence;

(iv) satellite imagery;

(v) credible reports by non-governmental organizations and media;

(vi) intelligence information;

(vii) information submitted through a publicly available online portal to be integrated with the Human Rights Reporting Gateway;

(viii) relevant forensic investigations;

(ix) site visits by United States Government personnel; and

(x) any other credible sources of information regarding the use of United States origin defense articles or defense services in inflicting civilian harm or to commit a violation of international humanitarian law or international human rights law.

The Silver Shield program shall be established in the Department of State and shall be implemented through coordination between the following:

(A) The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, which shall in coordination with the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs of the Department of State be responsible for directing and managing the implementation of the program.

(B) The Office of the Secretary, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, and the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence of the Department of Defense.

(C) Any other Federal department or agency the President determines relevant to the establishment or implementation of the Silver Shield program.

The Silver Shield program shall take such steps as may be necessary to consult as appropriate with relevant experts affiliated with federally funded research and development corporations, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions.

The President shall establish an external advisory board comprising recognized academic and non-governmental experts in investigations regarding the monitoring of the usage of defense articles or services in civilian harm or violations of international law. The heads of the agencies listed in subsection (a)(3) shall periodically consult with the external advisory board with respect to—

(1) research methodology;

(2) information sources;

(3) investigative best practices; and

(4) any other such information within the expertise of the advisory board and relevant to implementation of this Act.

Section 3 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2753) is amended by adding at the end of the section the following—

In addition to any other requirements under this Act, the President shall take such steps as may be necessary to ensure that—

(1) prior to authorizing or licensing the sale, export, or transfer of any defense article or defense service to a foreign country or international organization, the Secretary of State shall enter into a written agreement with the appropriate counterparts providing that the government of such country or that such international organization will not use any defense article or defense service of United States origin—

(A) to commit or facilitate a violation of international humanitarian law or international human rights law; or

(B) in an action that would render the government or organization ineligible to receive United States assistance or arms transfers as a matter of United States law; and

(2) if defense articles are sold, exported, or transferred to a foreign country pursuant to an agreement otherwise in accordance with the requirements of this Act in which the intended end-user has not been identified at the unit level for purposes of the vetting required by section 362 of title 10, United States Code or section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2378d), the written agreement required by paragraph (1) for such sale, export, or transfer shall instead include a list of units ineligible to receive such articles, consistent with applicable provisions of United States law.

Section 3(a) of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2753(a)) is amended—

(A) in paragraph (1), by striking and promote world peace and inserting, will promote world peace and the safety of civilians,;

(B) in paragraph (3), by striking; and and inserting a semicolon;

(C) by redesignating paragraph (4) as paragraph (5); and

(D) by inserting after paragraph (3) the following new paragraph:

(4) the country or international organization shall have agreed not to use such article or service to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law or international human rights law; and

Section 505 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2314) is amended—

(A) in subsection (a)—

(i) by striking (a) Conditions of eligibility and all that follows through the matter preceding paragraph (1) and inserting the following:

In addition to such other provisions as the President may require, no defense articles or related training or other defense service shall be furnished to any country or international organization on a grant basis unless it shall have agreed that—

(ii) in paragraph (3), by striking; and and inserting a semicolon;

(iii) by redesignating paragraph (4) as paragraph (5); and

(iv) by inserting after paragraph (3) the following new paragraph:

(4) it will not use such articles or services to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law or international human rights law; and

(iv) ; and

(B) in subsection (e), by striking subsection (a)(1) or (a)(4) each place it appears and inserting subsection (a)(1) or (a)(5).

Section 4 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2754) is amended—

(1) by inserting legitimate before internal security; and

(2) by inserting, to the extent that such defense articles and defense services will not be used in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law or international human rights law. The violation of international humanitarian law or international human rights law may not be construed to be an authorized purpose for military sales or leases by the United States. after such friendly countries.

The amendments made by this section shall take effect 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act.

The Secretary of State shall—

(A) subsume the Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance into the requirements of this Act to carry out the Department’s operational end-use monitoring responsibilities; and

(B) review other relevant policy and doctrine and, as necessary, amend any such policy or doctrine to ensure consistency with such amendments and to carry out such responsibilities.

The Secretary of Defense shall—

(A) reissue Department of Defense Instruction 4140.66 to ensure consistency with the amendments made by this Act to carry out the Department’s operational end-use monitoring responsibilities; and

(B) review other relevant policy and doctrine and, as necessary, amend any such policy or doctrine to ensure consistency with such amendments and to carry out such responsibilities.

There is authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to implement the Silver Shield program described in section 2.

The Silver Shield program shall be considered an administrative service of the administration of sales made pursuant to section 21(e)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2761).

The Silver Shield program shall be considered an administrative and operational cost of the Department of State related to military assistance and sales pursuant to funds authorized to carry out title IV of the annual Acts making appropriations for the State Department, Foreign Operations, and Related programs (relating to the heading Foreign Military Financing program).

Not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the necessary resources, staffing, and authorities to implement the Silver Shield program and requirements described in section 2(a).

Not later than 1 year after the establishment of the program required by section 2, and annually thereafter as a part of the annual congressional presentation documents submitted under section 634 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2394), the President shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report describing the actions taken to implement this Act and the amendments made by this Act, including the following:

(1) A detailed accounting of the costs and number of personnel associated with the Silver Shield program.

(2) Resource constraints associated with the implementation of the program, including staffing, funding, and authorities.

(3) The numbers and range of operational end-use monitoring of United States arms transfers.

(4) The number of identified incidents for which investigations have not yet been initiated.

(5) The number and status of ongoing investigations, including the stage they are in, how long such incidents have remained in such stage, and if any have remained in such stage for more than 1 year.

The term appropriate congressional committees means—

(1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Armed Services, and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives; and

(2) the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Committee on Armed Services, and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate.

The term civilian harm means civilian casualties, damage to or destruction of civilian objects, and significant adverse effects on the civilian population and the personnel, organizations, resources, infrastructure, essential services, and systems on which civilian life depends resulting from military operations.

The terms defense article and defense service have the meanings given those terms in section 47 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2794).

The term operational end-use monitoring means gathering and assessing information regarding the use of a defense article or defense service, including in civilian harm, violations of international humanitarian law, or international human rights law.