Reps. Jacobs, Dean, Castro, Keating Introduce Bill to Prevent U.S. Weapons From Harming Civilians and Committing War Crimes
Reps. Sara Jacobs (CA-51), Madeleine Dean (PA-04), Joaquin Castro (TX-20), and Bill Keating (MA-09), members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Bipartisan Arms Sales Task Force, introduced legislation to improve end-use monitoring and prevent the use of U.S. weapons to commit war crimes or harm civilians. Existing end-use-monitoring programs like Blue Lantern and Golden Sentry only determine whether U.S. weapons or relevant technology have been diverted to third parties, but do not evaluate how U.S. weapons are used. The Silver Shield Operational End Use Monitoring Act of 2025 would address this critical gap by creating a new end-use monitoring program (“Silver Shield”) to monitor whether U.S.-origin defense materials are used to violate international humanitarian and human rights law or harm civilians.
Rep. Sara Jacobs said: “It’s our responsibility to guarantee that U.S. weapons get into the right hands and aren’t used to harm civilians, violate human rights, or commit war crimes; but unfortunately, we don’t currently have the mechanisms in place to do that. Any misuse of U.S. weapons erodes our moral standing in the world, impedes our ability to build and maintain coalitions, and furthers instability and anti-American resentment. That’s why I’m proud to introduce the Silver Shield Operational End Use Monitoring Act of 2025 so we can know where U.S. weapons go and how they are used.”
“It is critical that the United States can be assured that American-produced arms are not used in human rights abuses and atrocities —yet we do not have a mechanism for such monitoring,” Rep. Dean said. “The Silver Shield Act would fill this gap. As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I am committed to supporting our allies abroad while upholding global humanitarian rights. I thank Congresswoman Jacobs for her leadership on this bill.”
The Silver Shield Operational End Use Monitoring Act of 2025 would:
- Establish the “Silver Shield Operational End-Use Monitoring Program” within one year of enactment to monitor for the use of U.S. defense articles and determine whether articles were used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) or international human rights law (IHRL).
- Amend the Arms Export Control Act and the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to clarify arms transfers compliance frameworks, including ensuring serious IHL/IHRL violations are considered a violation of written agreements.
- Authorize funding to carry out the program, including by designating the Silver Shield program as a valid administrative and operational expense for Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and Foreign Military Financing (FMF), which enables the FMS Administrative Fund and the FMF Administrative Fund to be used to carry out the requirements of the program.
- Require an initial report on any additional resources needed to implement the program and an annual report on the implementation of the program.
The bill text can be found here.
The Silver Shield Operational End Use Monitoring Act of 2025 is endorsed by Amnesty International USA, Arms Control Association, Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), Center for Constitutional Rights, Center for International Policy Advocacy, Demand Progress, Friends Committee on National Legislation, MADRE, MedGlobal, Middle East Democracy Center, Oxfam America, Peace Action, Transparency International U.S., Win Without War, and Women for Weapons Trade Transparency.
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