	Introduction

The increasing Department of Defense (DOD) emphasis on expanding U.S. partnerships and building partnership capacity with foreign military and other security forces has refocused congressional attention on two long-standing human rights provisions affecting U.S. security assistance policy. Sponsored in the late 1990s by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and often referred to as the "Leahy amendments" or the "Leahy laws," one is Section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended (FAA, P.L. 2378d) and the other is a recurring provision in annual defense appropriations. FAA Section 620M prohibits the furnishing of assistance authorized by the FAA and the Arms Export Control Act, as amended (AECA, P.L. As two of the many laws that Congress has enacted in recent decades to promote respect for human rights, which has become widely recognized as a core U.S. national interest, the Leahy laws have been the subject of long-standing debate. In 1998, for FY1999, Congress placed a similar condition in the DOD appropriations bill. In 2011, Congress amended the FAA provision (and renumbered it as Section 620M of the FAA) with three word changes to align it more closely with the DOD language. 113-76), contains a provision extending the FY2013 (and earlier) prohibition on any support for training where a gross violation of human rights occurred to "any training, equipment, or other assistance for the members of a unit of a foreign security force if the Secretary of Defense has credible information that the unit has committed a gross violation of human rights." Comparison of Current Laws

The FAA and DOD appropriations Leahy laws both prohibit assistance to foreign military and other security units credibly believed to be involved in a gross violation of human rights. After the FY2014 change, three differences remain. For DOD and State Department-funded training (and in some cases the provision of equipment related to training), the process has evolved from a "cable-based" system when the State Department began to vet foreign security forces in 1997 to a computerized process through the International Vetting and Security Tracking (INVEST) system. In FY2012, the State Department reported vetting nearly 165,000 individuals and units. U.S. Embassy Procedures

U.S. embassy staff initiates each vetting request. assistance.) In general, vetting results are used to determine who will receive U.S. assistance or training. Vetting Funding

In recent years, Congress has supported Leahy vetting operations through a directed allocation of funds to DRL in the Diplomacy and Consular Programs (D&CP) account. Over time, Congress has aligned the State Department and DOD Leahy language for greater consistency, most recently by extending the scope of the DOD law in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014. What Level of Resources Are Adequate to Conduct Vetting? Should Implementation Practices and Procedures Be Standardized? In addressing the overarching issues of utility and desirability, Congress may wish to question the Obama Administration about the laws' effectiveness.
Congressional interest in the laws and processes involved in conditioning U.S. assistance to foreign security forces on human rights grounds has grown in recent years, especially as U.S. Administrations have increased emphasis on expanding U.S. partnerships and building partnership capacity with foreign military and other security forces. Congress has played an especially prominent role in initiating, amending, supporting with resources, and overseeing implementation of long-standing laws on human rights provisions affecting U.S. security assistance.
First sponsored in the late 1990s by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the "Leahy laws" (sometimes referred to as the "Leahy amendments") are currently manifest in two places. One is Section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA), as amended, which prohibits the furnishing of assistance authorized by the FAA and the Arms Export Control Act to any foreign security force unit where there is credible information that the unit has committed a gross violation of human rights. The second is a recurring provision in annual defense appropriations, newly expanded by the FY2014 Department of Defense (DOD) appropriations bill as contained in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (P.L. 113-76), to align its scope with that of the FAA provision. (Prior DOD appropriations measures had applied the prohibition to support for any training program, as defined by DOD, but not to other forms of DOD assistance.) As they currently stand, the FAA and DOD provisions are similar but not identical. Over the years, they have been subject to changes to more closely align their language, most recently with the expansion of scope enacted in the FY2014 DOD appropriations law. Nevertheless, some differences remain.
Implementation of Leahy vetting involves a complex process in the State Department and U.S. embassies overseas that determines which foreign security individuals and units are eligible to receive U.S. assistance or training. Beginning in 2010, the State Department has utilized a computerized system called the International Vetting and Security Tracking (INVEST) system, which has facilitated a major increase in the number of individuals and units vetted (some 160,000 in FY2012). Congress supports Leahy vetting operations through a directed allocation of funds in State Department appropriations.
The Leahy laws touch upon many issues of interest to Congress. These range from current vetting practices and implementation (involving human rights standards, relations and policy objectives with specific countries, remediation mechanisms, and inter-office and inter-agency coordination, among other issues), to legislative efforts to increase alignment between the Foreign Assistance Act and DOD restrictions, to levels and forms of resources dedicated to conduct vetting. More broadly, overarching policy questions persist about the utility and desirability of applying the Leahy laws, and whether there is sometimes a conflict between promoting respect for human rights and furthering other national interests.