SENSE OF CONGRESS ON PERFORMANCE BY PRIVATE SECURITY CONTRACTORS OF CERTAIN FUNCTIONS IN AN AREA OF COMBAT OPERATIONS.

SEC. 832. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON PERFORMANCE BY PRIVATE SECURITY CONTRACTORS OF CERTAIN FUNCTIONS IN AN AREA OF COMBAT OPERATIONS. It is the sense of Congress that—(1) security operations for the protection of resources (including people, information, equipment, and supplies) in uncontrolled or unpredictable high-threat environments should ordinarily be performed by members of the Armed Forces if they will be performed in highly hazardous public areas where the risks are uncertain and could reasonably be expected to require deadly force that is more likely to be initiated by personnel performing such security operations than to occur in self-defense;(2) it should be in the sole discretion of the commander of the relevant combatant command to determine whether or not the performance by a private security contractor under a contract awarded by any Federal agency of a particular activity, a series of activities, or activities in a particular location, within a designated area of combat operations is appropriate and such a determination should not be delegated to any person who is not in the military chain of command;(3) the Secretaries of the military departments and the Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces should ensure that the United States Armed Forces have appropriate numbers of trained personnel to perform the functions described in paragraph (1) without the need to rely upon private security contractors; and(4) the regulations issued by the Secretary of Defense pursuant to section 862(a) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (Public Law 110–181; 122 Stat. 254; 10 U.S.C. 2302 note) should ensure that private security contractors are not authorized to perform inherently governmental functions in an area of combat operations.