S.Amdt. 3498

SA 3498. Mr. VAN HOLLEN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 2296, to authorize appropriations for
fiscal year 2026 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 B of title IX, add the following:

SEC. 923. PERSONNEL TO IMPLEMENT DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE POLICY
ON CIVILIAN HARM.

(a) Purpose.--The purpose of this section is to facilitate
fulfillment of the requirements of section 936 of the John S.
McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2019 (Public Law 115-232; 10 U.S.C. 134 note).
(b) Personnel.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall do
the following:
(1) Add to, and assign within, each of the United States
Central Command, the United States Africa Command, the United
States Special Operations Command, the United States European
Command, the United States Southern Command, the United
States Indo-Pacific Command, and the United States Northern
Command not fewer than four personnel who shall have primary
responsibility for the following in connection with military
operations undertaken by such command:
(A) Providing guidance and oversight relating to mitigation
of and response to civilian harm and the protection of
civilians and civilian infrastructure.
(B) Identifying and integrating approaches to mitigating
and responding to civilian harm across all levels of command
into command policy and procedure, plans, operations,
exercises, training, and capability requirements.
(C) Ensuring information and analysis of the civilian
environment and estimated risk to civilians to support
battlespace awareness and mission effectiveness.
(D) Receiving reports of civilian harm and conducting or
overseeing civilian harm assessments.
(E) Analyzing civilian harm incidents and trends and
identifying and disseminating lessons learned related to
civilian harm mitigation and response.
(F) Overseeing civilian harm response functions on behalf
of the commander of such command, including offering
condolences for civilian casualties, including ex gratia
payments.
(G) Ensuring the integration of activities relating to
civilian harm mitigation and response, protection of
civilians, and promotion of observance of human rights in
security cooperation activities and enhancing shared good
practice and capabilities development for civilian harm
mitigation and response with allies and partners of the
United States.
(H) Maintaining dialogue and conducting consultations with
nongovernmental organizations on civilian harm, human rights,
and humanitarian matters.
(2) Add to, and assign within, the Office of the Under
Secretary of Defense for Policy not fewer than four personnel
who shall have primary responsibility for implementing and
overseeing the implementation of Department of Defense policy
on the protection of civilians and civilian harm mitigation
and response, consistent with the laws of war.
(3) Add to, and assign within, the Joint Staff not fewer
than two personnel who shall have primary responsibility for
the following:
(A) Overseeing implementation by the components of the
Department of Defense of Department policy on civilian harm
mitigation and response.
(B) Developing and sharing in the implementation of such
policy.
(C) Communicating operational guidance on such policy.
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