Gillibrand, Colleagues Press Hegseth On Pentagon Gutting Civilian Protection Efforts Amid War In Iran

Pentagon’s independent watchdog found that Trump administration defunded and blocked reforms to protect civilians during war, potentially violating federal law U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, joined nine other members of Congress in pressing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the Department of Defense’s (DoD) defunding and deprioritizing of programs that prevent and respond to civilian harm in war. The letter follows a new report by the DoD Inspector General (DoD IG), which found that under Hegseth’s leadership, DoD has potentially violated the law and put service members and civilians at risk. It also follows reports of recent U.S. military strikes that hit Iranian water treatment facilities, which impacted thousands of civilians’ access to drinking water. “Secretary Hegseth gutting our military’s ability to prevent harm to civilians demonstrates blatant carelessness and a severe lack of the moral fitness his position demands,” said Senator Gillibrand. “His incompetent leadership has endangered our troops, jeopardized our national security and threatened civilian lives. I will not stop fighting until the Trump administration fully restores the programs and public servants that mitigate civilian harm.” In addition to Senator Gillibrand, the letter was signed by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), as well as Representatives Jason Crow (D-CO) and Sara Jacobs (D-CA). “The Trump administration’s military adventurism overseas, combined with its obvious disregard for civilians, do not make the American people or our service members safer. We [] request clarification about the steps the Department is taking to address these deficiencies and to protect civilians in line with the Department’s strategic, legal, and moral obligations,” wrote the lawmakers . In May, the DoD IG released a review of DoD’s implementation of its Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response (CHMR) Action Plan (CHMR-AP) , which outlined critical steps to prevent, mitigate, and respond to civilian harm. The DoD IG’s report found that the Trump administration may have violated federal law by defunding and blocked civilian protection efforts. The DoD IG report confirms that all of the objectives of the plan – including training for assessing and investigating civilian harm – are “at risk” under Hegseth’s leadership. The report also found that the Trump administration’s failure to implement the plan means DoD is failing to comply with congressionally-mandated obligations to protect civilians during armed conflict. “These revelations make real the concerns that we have previously raised about your complete ‘disregard for the strategic, legal, and moral imperative to minimize civilian harm,’” the lawmakers said . During the DoD IG’s investigation, the Joint Staff and combatant commands warned that eliminating CHMR funding and personnel “harms readiness” and “increases risk to military personnel and objectives and mission success.” “The Department’s failure to implement the CHMR-AP has profound consequences for civilians in conflict zones and makes service members’ jobs harder and riskier,” the lawmakers continued . The report also revealed that DoD failed to cooperate with the office’s investigation, including by blocking investigators’ attempts to observe an implementation meeting and withholding access to DoD’s implementation tracking tools. The lawmakers pressed Secretary Hegseth to explain DoD’s failure to implement civilian protection policies, account for changes in resourcing and staffing for civilian protection efforts, explain what DoD is doing to comply with federal law requiring civilian protection policies and institutions, and provide any analysis DoD has done on the impact of recent strikes on civilian infrastructure in Iran. Senator Gillibrand continues to fight to ensure the U.S. military protects civilians, particularly during President Trump’s war in Iran. She previously joined her colleagues in opening an investigation into Secretary Hegseth’s role in dismantling the military’s civilian harm prevention programs, which he gutted ahead of a war that has reportedly killed more than 1,700 civilians. After a U.S. strike destroyed an Iranian girls’ elementary school, she demanded a bipartisan investigation and pressed Hegseth and top military leaders for answers on how the target was chosen. Additionally, she introduced the Secure and Accountable Military AI Act to keep human commanders in control of life-and-death decisions and ban AI from choosing lethal targets. The full text of the letter can be found here . ###