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[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.J. Res. 91 Introduced in House (IH)]

110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. J. RES. 91

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States should sign the 
  Declaration of the Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions and future 
 instruments banning cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to 
                               civilians.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 5, 2008

 Mr. McGovern (for himself, Mr. Blumenauer, and Mr. Allen) introduced 
the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                            Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                            JOINT RESOLUTION

 
Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States should sign the 
  Declaration of the Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions and future 
 instruments banning cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to 
                               civilians.

Whereas cluster munitions are bombs, rockets, or artillery shells that contain 
        up to hundreds of small submunitions, or individual ``bomblets'' 
        intended for attacking enemy troop formations and armor;
Whereas cluster munitions threaten the safety of civilians, particularly 
        children, when used in populated areas because they are scattered over a 
        wide area, and up to 40 percent fail to explode as designed, remaining 
        as duds that can be detonated accidentally by whoever comes into contact 
        with them;
Whereas, according to the nongovernmental organization Handicap International, 
        civilians make up 98 percent of those killed or injured by cluster 
        munitions, of which more than 25 percent are children;
Whereas in Laos alone there are millions of unexploded cluster munitions, left 
        over from United States bombing missions in the 1960s and 1970s, and 
        approximately 11,000 people, 30 percent of them children, have been 
        killed or injured since those missions ended;
Whereas former Secretary of Defense William Cohen recognized the threat that 
        cluster munitions pose to civilians and United States troops alike and 
        issued a memorandum which became known as the Cohen Policy, stating that 
        beginning in Fiscal Year 2005, all new United States cluster munitions 
        would have a failure rate of not more than 1 percent;
Whereas the United States maintains an arsenal of an estimated 5,500,000 cluster 
        bombs containing 728,500,000 submunitions, which have estimated failure 
        rates of 5 to 15 percent;
Whereas the State and Foreign Operations division of the Consolidated 
        Appropriations Act, 2008, signed into law on December 26, 2007, 
        prohibits the sale or transfer of cluster munitions unless they have a 
        99 percent or higher tested rate, and the sale or transfer agreement 
        specifies that the cluster munitions will be used only against clearly 
        defined military targets, and will not be used where civilians are known 
        to be present;
Whereas, in February 2007, 46 nations signed a declaration in Oslo, Norway, 
        calling for an international convention to prohibit the production, 
        transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable 
        harm to civilians;
Whereas, on May 30, 2008, 111 nations agreed to the Convention on Cluster 
        Munitions, which will be signed in Oslo in December 2008, requiring 
        parties to stop producing and using cluster bombs and to eliminate their 
        stockpiles within 8 years; and
Whereas the Bush Administration declined to participate in the negotiations of 
        the Oslo Process: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That it is the sense of 
Congress that the United States should--
            (1) embrace efforts to protect innocent citizens from 
        cluster munitions; and
            (2) sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions when it opens 
        for signature in December 2008.
                                 <all>
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