S.Amdt. 910

SA 910. Mr. CARDIN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill H.R. 2810, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2018 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle A of title XII, add the following:

SEC. __. USE OF PRIVATE CONTRACTORS.

(a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) combat operations, actions, and combat-enabling support
to operations such as close air support, are inherently
government functions that cannot be appropriately carried out
by private contractors; and
(2) the United States Government should respect the
sovereignty of democratically elected governments over their
territory.
(b) Limitations on Use of Private Contractors.--
(1) Prohibition on use in combat operations.--No department
or agency of the United States Government may employ a
private contractor to conduct combat operations, or embed a
private contractor with foreign military units to engage
directly in combat operations.
(2) Compliance with international law in other
activities.--Any department or agency of the United States
Government that employs a private contractor to conduct
activities not otherwise prohibited by paragraph (1) shall
ensure that such contractor--
(A) acts in the conduct of such activities in accordance
with principles, standards, and codes of conduct based on
international law; and
(B) participates in oversight and accountability mechanisms
to ensure that its actions in the conduct of such activities
accord with such principles, standards, and codes of conduct.
(3) Waiver.--The Secretary of Defense may waive the
prohibition in paragraph (1) or a requirement in paragraph
(2) with respect to a private contractor if the Secretary
determines that the waiver is necessary for reasons of
national security of the United States. The Secretary shall
notify the appropriate committees of Congress in writing of
any such waiver, and the reasons for such waiver, not later
than 48 hours after making the determination on which such
waiver is based.
(4) Appropriate committees of congress defined.--In this
subsection, the term ``appropriate committees of Congress''
means--
(A) the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on
Foreign Relations of the Senate; and
(B) the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on
Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives.
______