House Democrats on Thursday introduced legislation that would stop the transfer of surplus military-grade weaponry to state and local law enforcement under a decades-old program at the Pentagon.
The Department of Defense’s 1033 program has come under fire on Capitol Hill before, most recently after the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Mo., when tanks were seen rolling down the streets of the St. Louis suburb.
According to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., the program has transferred over $5.1 billion in surplus military equipment to local law enforcement. In 2013 alone, material worth $449 million was transferred. That includes mine resistant, ambush-protected vehicles (MRAPs), grenade launchers and high-caliber assault rifles.
“H.R. 1556 will shut down the pipeline through which law enforcement agencies are able to acquire military grade weaponry without first obtaining approval from the state and local governmental authority,” Johnson said of his legislation, which has 20 bipartisan cosponsors. A slew of civil rights organizations also support the legislation, including the ACLU and NAACP.
But Republicans are highly unlikely to take up the bill, and a GOP lawmaker on the same day introduced a bill that would prevent efforts to limit the sale of military equipment to law enforcement agencies.
The “Protecting Lives Using Surplus Equipment (PLUS) Act of 2017,” from Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, would undo former President Barack Obama’s 2015 executive order, which prohibited federal agencies from giving certain kinds of military equipment, such as bayonets, to local law enforcement. Obama signed the order in response to protests in Ferguson, as well as Baltimore.
Ratcliffe introduced the legislation in the last Congress when it had the support of the National Fraternal Order of Police, the National Sheriffs Association, the Major County Sheriffs’ Association and the National Association of Police Organizations. However, it never made it out of subcommittee.
Now, the legislation may have new life under a Republican-controlled Congress, and an administration vocal about upping support for law enforcement.
The 1033 Program has been around since 1997 and now includes roughly 8,000 local law enforcement agencies. Some of the most common equipment transferred includes simple items such as medical supplies and flashlights, but other heavier transfers do include armored vehicles.
