Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress makes the following findings: Under section 2576a of title 10, United States Code, the Department of Defense is authorized to provide excess property to local law enforcement agencies. The Defense Logistics Agency, administers such section by operating the Law Enforcement Support Office program. New and used material, including mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles and weapons determined by the Department of Defense to be military grade are transferred to Federal, Tribal, State, and local law enforcement agencies through the program.
As a result local law enforcement agencies, including police and sheriff’s departments, are acquiring this material for use in their normal operations. As a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, military equipment purchased for, and used in, those wars has become excess property and has been made available for transfer to local and Federal law enforcement agencies. In Fiscal Year 2017, $504,000,000 worth of property was transferred to law enforcement agencies. More than $6,800,000,000 worth of weapons and equipment have been transferred to police organizations in all 50 States and four territories through the program.
In May 2012, the Defense Logistics Agency instituted a moratorium on weapons transfers through the program after reports of missing equipment and inappropriate weapons transfers. Though the moratorium was widely publicized, it was lifted in October 2013 without adequate safeguards. On January 16, 2015, President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13688 to better coordinate and regulate the federal transfer of military weapons and equipment to State, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies.
In July, 2017, the Government Accountability Office reported that the program’s internal controls were inadequate to prevent fraudulent applicants’ access to the program. On August, 28, 2017, President Donald Trump rescinded Executive Order 13688 despite a July 2017 Government Accountability Office report finding deficiencies with the administration of the 1033 program. As a result, Federal, State, and local law enforcement departments across the country are eligible again to acquire free military-grade weapons and equipment that could be used inappropriately during policing efforts in which people and taxpayers could be harmed.
The Department of Defense categorizes equipment eligible for transfer under the 1033 program as controlled and un-controlled equipment. Controlled equipment includes weapons, explosives such as flash-bang grenades, mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles, long-range acoustic devices, aircraft capable of being modified to carry armament that are combat coded, and silencers, among other military grade items.
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Sec. 2
Findings
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