Thornberry - Oversight of Sensitive Military Operations Act

.....................................................................

(Original Signature of Member)

113TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. ll

To amend title 10, United States Code, to require the Secretary of Defense

to notify the congressional defense committees of certain sensitive mili-

tary operations, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Mr. THORNBERRY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on lllllllllllllll

A BILL To amend title 10, United States Code, to require the Sec-

retary of Defense to notify the congressional defense

committees of certain sensitive military operations, and

for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1

tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Oversight of Sensitive 4

Military Operations Act’’. 5

VerDate Nov 24 2008 16:50 May 07, 2013 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\HCROSS\APPLICATION DATA\SOFTQUAD\XMETAL\5.May 7, 2013 (4:50 p.m.)

F:\HCR\HASC13\MIL_OP.XML

f:\VHLC\050713\050713.219.xml (545021|23)

2

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION OF SENSITIVE 1

MILITARY OPERATIONS. 2

(a) NOTIFICATION REQUIRED.— 3

(1) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 3 of title 10, United 4

States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 5

following new section: 6

‘‘§ 130f. Congressional notification of sensitive mili-7

tary operations 8

‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Defense shall 9

promptly submit to the congressional defense committees 10

notice in writing of any sensitive military operation fol-11

lowing such operation. 12

‘‘(b) PROCEDURES.—(1) The Secretary of Defense 13

shall establish and submit to the congressional defense 14

committees procedures for complying with the require-15

ments of subsection (a) consistent with the national secu-16

rity of the United States and the protection of operational 17

integrity. 18

‘‘(2) The congressional defense committees shall en-19

sure that committee procedures designed to protect from 20

unauthorized disclosure classified information relating to 21

national security of the United States are sufficient to pro-22

tect the information that is submitted to the committees 23

pursuant to this section. 24

‘‘(c) SENSITIVE MILITARY OPERATION DEFINED.— 25

The term ‘sensitive military operation’ means a lethal op-26



f:\VHLC\050713\050713.219.xml (545021|23)

3

eration or capture operation conducted by the armed 1

forces outside the United States pursuant to— 2

‘‘(1) the Authorization for Use of Military 3

Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note); 4

or 5

‘‘(2) any other authority except— 6

‘‘(A) a declaration of war; or 7

‘‘(B) a specific authorization for the use of 8

force other than the authorization referred to in 9

paragraph (1). 10

‘‘(d) EXCEPTION.—The notification requirement 11

under subsection (a) shall not apply with respect to a sen-12

sitive military operation executed within the territory of 13

Afghanistan pursuant to the Authorization for Use of 14

Military Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 15

note). 16

‘‘(e) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-17

tion shall be construed to provide any new authority or 18

to alter or otherwise affect the War Powers Resolution (50 19

U.S.C. 1541 et seq.) or the Authorization for Use of Mili-20

tary Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note).’’. 21

(2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sec-22

tions at the beginning of such chapter is amended 23

by inserting after the item relating to section 130e 24

the following new item: 25

‘‘130f. Congressional notification regarding sensitive military operations.’’.



f:\VHLC\050713\050713.219.xml (545021|23)

4

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Section 130f of title 10, 1

United States Code, as added by subsection (a), shall 2

apply with respect to any sensitive military operation (as 3

defined in subsection (c) of such section) executed on or 4

after the date of the enactment of this Act. 5

(c) DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTAL OF PROCEDURES.— 6

The Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional 7

defense committees the procedures required under section 8

130f(b) of title 10, United States Code, as added by sub-9

section (a), by not later than 60 days after the date of 10

the enactment of this Act. 11

SEC. 3. REPORT ON PROCESS FOR DETERMINING TARGETS 12

OF LETHAL OPERATIONS. 13

(a) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 60 days 14

after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 15

of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense com-16

mittees a report containing an explanation of the legal and 17

policy considerations and approval processes used in deter-18

mining whether an individual or group of individuals could 19

be the target of a lethal operation or capture operation 20

conducted by the Armed Forces of the United States out-21

side the United States. 22

(b) CONGRESSIONAL DEFENSE COMMITTEES DE-23

FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘congressional defense 24

committees’’ means— 25



f:\VHLC\050713\050713.219.xml (545021|23)

5

(1) the Committee on Armed Services and the 1

Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and 2

(2) the Committee on Armed Services and the 3

Committee on Appropriations of the House of Rep-4

resentatives. 5

SEC. 4. COUNTERTERRORISM OPERATIONAL BRIEFINGS. 6

(a) BRIEFINGS REQUIRED.—Chapter 23 of title 10, 7

United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 8

following new section: 9

‘‘§ 492. Quarterly briefings: counterterrorism oper-10

ations 11

‘‘(a) BRIEFINGS REQUIRED.—The Secretary of De-12

fense shall provide to the congressional defense commit-13

tees quarterly briefings outlining Department of Defense 14

counterterrorism operations and related activities involv-15

ing special operations forces. 16

‘‘(b) ELEMENTS.—Each briefing under subsection 17

(a) shall include each of the following: 18

‘‘(1) A global update on activity within each ge-19

ographic combatant command. 20

‘‘(2) An overview of authorities and legal issues 21

including limitations. 22

‘‘(3) An outline of interagency activities and 23

initiatives. 24



f:\VHLC\050713\050713.219.xml (545021|23)

6

‘‘(4) Any other matters the Secretary considers 1

appropriate.’’. 2

(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 3

at the beginning of such chapter is amended by adding 4

at the end the following new item: 5

‘‘492. Quarterly briefings: counterterrorism operations.’’.



f:\VHLC\050713\050713.219.xml (545021|23)

Documents

Thornberry - Oversight of Sensitive Military Operations Act