[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4647 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4647
To require the transfer of regulatory control of certain munitions
exports from the Department of Commerce to the Department of State, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
July 9, 2024
Mr. Cardin (for himself, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Durbin, Ms. Warren,
and Mr. Markey) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the transfer of regulatory control of certain munitions
exports from the Department of Commerce to the Department of State, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLES; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Titles.--This Act may be cited as the ``Americas Regional
Monitoring of Arms Sales Act of 2024'' or the ``ARMAS Act of 2024''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as
follows:
Sec. 1. Short titles; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec. 3. Definitions.
Sec. 4. Transfer of regulatory control of certain munitions exports
from Department of Commerce to Department
of State.
Sec. 5. Reports and strategy on disruption of illegal export and
trafficking of firearms to Mexico and
certain Central American, Caribbean, and
South American countries.
Sec. 6. Designation of covered countries.
Sec. 7. Certification requirements relating to certain munitions
exports.
Sec. 8. Limitation on licenses and other authorizations for export of
certain items removed from the Commerce
Control List and included on the United
States Munitions List.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Violence in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean
is exacerbated by firearms originating in the United States.
(2) While firearms are trafficked to Mexico from a variety
of countries, firearms originating in the United States account
for 70 percent of the firearms recovered and traced from crimes
in Mexico, according to the 2021 Government Accountability
Office (referred to in this section as ``GAO'') report
published by the Comptroller General of the United States
titled ``Firearms Trafficking: U.S. Efforts to Disrupt Gun
Smuggling into Mexico Would Benefit from Additional Data and
Analysis''.
(3) United States-origin firearm flows contribute to human
rights violations, organized crime and gang violence,
extrajudicial killings, high homicide rates, domestic violence,
and femicides in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.
(4) Firearms trafficking from the United States and firearm
violence are key drivers of immigration and asylum claims from
Central America.
(5) According to the United Nations Regional Centre for
Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the
Caribbean, firearms are used in 70 percent of homicides in the
Caribbean compared to 30 percent globally, and while the
Caribbean constitutes less than 1 percent of the global
population, 23 percent of all recorded homicides worldwide take
place in the Caribbean.
(6) In an August 2022 press conference, Homeland Security
Investigations officials reported a ``marked uptick in the
number of weapons'', and an increase in the caliber and type of
weapons, being illegally trafficked to Haiti and the rest of
the Caribbean.
(7) The Caribbean Basin Security Initiative of the
Department of State, which commenced in 2009--
(A) is the regional foreign assistance program of
the United States that seeks to reduce illicit
trafficking in the Caribbean region and advance public
safety and security;
(B) seeks to improve the capacity of Caribbean
countries to intercept smuggled weapons at airports and
seaports;
(C) provides support for forensic ballistics and
firearms destruction and stockpile management; and
(D) has also included support for regional
organizations, including--
(i) the Caribbean Community Implementation
Agency for Crime and Security (CARICOM IMPACS),
which based in Trinidad and Tobago, and is the
lead agency involved in the issue of illicit
firearms trafficking and increasing the
capacity of member states to detect and prevent
firearms trafficking; and
(ii) the Eastern Caribbean's Regional
Security System, which is based in Barbados.
(8) The Central America Regional Security Initiative of the
Department of State has been working since 2010 to promote
long-term investments in Central America--
(A) to increase citizen security;
(B) to disrupt illicit trafficking; and
(C) to enhance the capacity and accountability of
governments in the region to establish effective state-
presence and security in violent communities.
(9) Two GAO reports on firearms trafficking, which were
published in 2021 and 2022, respectively, have affirmed that
firearms trafficking to Mexico and Central America continues to
represent a security concern to the United States, as United
States-origin firearms are diverted from legitimate owners and
end up in the hands of violent criminals, including drug
traffickers and other transnational criminal organizations. A
GAO report on the effect of firearms trafficking in the
Caribbean has not yet been compiled.
(10) In the reports referred to in paragraph (9), the
Comptroller General of the United States found that--
(A) Federal departments and agencies lacked
information and analysis of the firearms trafficking
networks in Mexico and Central America;
(B) few efforts by the United States Government in
the region focused on firearms trafficking; and
(C) as a result, Federal departments and agencies
lack a detailed understanding of the firearms
trafficking that fuels violence and enables criminals
in Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and
Mexico.
(11) Firearms used to kidnap and kill a group of United
States citizens traveling in Matamoros, Mexico were illegally
smuggled from the United States into Mexico. The suspect in
these killings admitted to Federal agents that he purchased
firearms in the United States, smuggled them across the border,
and knowingly provided them to members of the Gulf Cartel.
(12) As the incident described in paragraph (11)
demonstrates, United States-sourced firearms are being smuggled
and diverted to cartels implicated in the supply and flow of
illegal fentanyl and other dangerous drugs, which threatens the
public health and safety of United States citizens.
(13) In the 2022 GAO report ``Firearms Trafficking: More
Information Needed to Inform U.S. Efforts in Central America'',
the Comptroller General of the United States reported that
efforts of the United States Government focused on firearms
trafficking in Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras
lacked information about relevant country conditions and
performance measures to ensure such efforts were designed and
implemented to achieve the intended objectives and, as a
result, the Comptroller General recommended that the Secretary
of State obtain information about the conditions in such
countries to support the development of effective programs to
reduce the availability of illicit firearms.
(14) Data on firearms trafficking is limited. Data
compilation is crucial to understanding the problem.
(15) As of the date of the publication of the report
referred to in paragraph (13), the Secretary of Commerce had
not assigned any agents to Central America on permanent
assignment.
(16) In 2021 and 2022, the annual Country Reports on Human
Rights Practices of the Department of State included ``unlawful
and arbitrary killings'' as a significant human rights issue in
Guatemala. Despite such inclusion, the Under Secretary of
Commerce for Industry and Security has authorized approximately
99,270 firearms exports to Guatemala since assuming
responsibility for firearms licensing in 2020.
(17) When firearms were controlled under the United States
Munitions List and the licensing of firearms was the
responsibility of the Secretary of State, the average number of
firearms licensed for export to Guatemala was approximately
4,000 per year.
(18) The number of exports specified in paragraph (16)
represents an extraordinary increase from the number specified
in paragraph (17). The Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry
and Security has only been able to conduct a very limited
number of end-use checks, according to the 2022 GAO report
``Firearms Trafficking: More Information Needed to Inform U.S.
Efforts in Central America''.
(19) Since the Department of Commerce gained jurisdiction
over the control of firearm export licensing--
(A) there has been a 42 percent increase in firearm
exports compared to averages for such exports when the
control of such exports was under the jurisdiction of
the Department of State;
(B) the total value of export licenses approved
annually has increased by an estimated $4,450,000,000;
and
(C) the Secretary of Commerce has also approved 95
percent of license applications for such exports.
(20) According to the Census Bureau, Mexico, Guatemala, and
Brazil have been among the top 10 destinations for United
States-manufactured semiautomatic firearm exports.
(21) The 2021 security cooperation plan, titled ``U.S.-
Mexico Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Heath, and
Safe Communities'', explicitly identifies reducing illicit arms
trafficking as a ``Cooperation Area'' with specific
objectives--
(A) to increase efforts to reduce the illicit
trafficking of firearms, ammunition, and explosive
devices;
(B) to increase bilateral information sharing on
illicit firearms trafficking; and
(C) to increase investigative and prosecutorial
capacity to address illicit firearms trafficking.
(22) As of March 2023, during the second phase of the
Bicentennial Framework referred to in paragraph (21)--
(A) the United States and Mexico were focusing
specifically on stemming firearms trafficking to
Mexico; and
(B) the Department of Justice's Operation
Southbound had deployed 9 interagency Firearms
Trafficking Task Forces to 8 cities along the southwest
border to focus on such firearms trafficking, which
resulted in the seizure of nearly 2,000 firearms during
the first 6 months of fiscal year 2023, and represents
a 65.8 percent increase in firearms seizures compared
to the same period during fiscal year 2022.
(23) Homeland Security Investigations has reported a surge
in firearms trafficking from the United States to Haiti since
2021, and the recovery of increasingly sophisticated arms
destined for ports in Haiti, including--
(A) .50 caliber sniper rifles;
(B) .308 caliber rifles; and
(C) belt-fed machine guns.
(24) The 2023 Assessment by the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime, titled ``Haiti's Criminal Markets: Mapping
Trends in Firearms and Drug Trafficking'', outlines the use of
increasingly sophisticated methods, including a 2022 seizure of
containers filled with semi-automatic weapons and handguns
addressed to the Episcopal Church and labeled as relief
supplies.
(25) The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (Public Law 117-
159), which was enacted into law on June 25, 2022, implemented
key efforts to address firearm trafficking, including--
(A) establishing a Federal criminal offense for
firearm trafficking; and
(B) strengthening the capability of the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to interdict
firearms.
(26) A growing number of firearms exported by United States
manufacturers are found involved in violent crimes worldwide,
including the pistol used in a mass shooting of 23 children and
two teachers in Thailand in October 2022, which was linked to a
United States factory.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the
Senate;
(B) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation of the Senate;
(C) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House
of Representatives; and
(D) the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the
House of Representatives.
(2) Covered country.--The term ``covered country'' means
any country designated by the Secretary of State pursuant to
section 6 as a covered country.
(3) Covered munition.--The term ``covered munition''
means--
(A) any previously covered item; or
(B) any item that, on or after the date of the
enactment of this Act, is designated for control under
Category I, II, or III of the United States Munitions
List pursuant to section 38 of the Arms Export Control
Act (22 U.S.C. 2778) or otherwise subject to control
under any such category.
(4) Firearm.--The term ``firearm'' includes covered
munitions.
(5) Gross violations of internationally recognized human
rights.--The term ``gross violations of internationally
recognized human rights'' has the meaning given such term in
section 502B(d)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22
U.S.C. 2304(d)(1)).
(6) Previously covered item.--The term ``previously covered
item'' means any item that--
(A) as of March 8, 2020, was included in Category
I, II, or III of the United States Munitions List; and
(B) as of the date of the enactment of this Act, is
included on the Commerce Control List.
(7) Security assistance.--The term ``security assistance''
includes--
(A) any type of assistance specified in section
502B(d)(2) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22
U.S.C. 2304); and
(B) assistance furnished under an international
security assistance program of the United States
conducted under any other provision of law, including
the authorities under chapter 16 of title 10, United
States Code.
(8) United states munitions list.--The term ``United States
Munitions List'' means the list maintained pursuant to part 121
of title 22, Code of Federal Regulations.
SEC. 4. TRANSFER OF REGULATORY CONTROL OF CERTAIN MUNITIONS EXPORTS
FROM DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE TO DEPARTMENT OF STATE.
(a) Transfer.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the
enactment of this Act--
(1) the Secretary of Commerce shall transfer the control
over the export of each previously covered item to the
jurisdiction of the Department of State; and
(2) following such transfer, control over the export of any
covered munition may not be transferred to the jurisdiction of
the Department of Commerce.
(b) Rulemaking.--The Secretary of State and the Secretary of
Commerce shall prescribe such regulations as may be necessary to
implement this section by the date specified in subsection (a).
(c) Prohibition on Promotion of Certain Munitions Exports by
Department of Commerce.--The Secretary of Commerce may not take any
actions to promote the export of any previously covered item, including
actions before, on, or after the date on which the Secretary transfers
the control over the export of the previously covered item to the
jurisdiction of the Department State under subsection (a).
(d) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section may be construed
as limiting any authority relating to the designation, control, or
removal of items under the United States Munitions List or the Commerce
Control List, other than the specific authority to transfer the control
of an item as specified in subsection (a).
SEC. 5. REPORTS AND STRATEGY ON DISRUPTION OF ILLEGAL EXPORT AND
TRAFFICKING OF FIREARMS TO MEXICO AND CERTAIN CENTRAL
AMERICAN, CARIBBEAN, AND SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES.
(a) Report.--
(1) Submission.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State, in
consultation with the Secretary of Commerce, the Attorney
General, the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives, and the heads of such other Federal
departments or agencies as the Secretary of State may determine
relevant, shall submit a report to the appropriate
congressional committees that describes the efforts of the
Secretary of State and the heads