{"id":83907,"date":"2026-05-15T21:45:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T21:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2026\/05\/15\/congress-clashes-with-pentagon-over-civilian-harm-reduction-program\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T17:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:14:08","slug":"congress-clashes-with-pentagon-over-civilian-harm-reduction-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2026\/05\/15\/congress-clashes-with-pentagon-over-civilian-harm-reduction-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress clashes with Pentagon over civilian harm reduction program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lawmakers on Friday accused the Pentagon of gutting a congressionally mandated effort to reduce civilian harm after a new Inspector General investigation found the Defense Department had started shutting down the initiative despite a legal requirement to maintain it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During a House Armed Services Committee <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/05\/15\/army-leaders-in-hot-seat-over-poland-deployment-cancellation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/05\/15\/army-leaders-in-hot-seat-over-poland-deployment-cancellation\/\">hearing<\/a>, lawmakers pressed Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Acting Army Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve over the watchdog\u2019s report that the DoD had proposed hollowing out civilian harm mitigation efforts while prematurely scaling back parts of the program across the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2026\/05\/13\/us-army-abruptly-cancels-deployment-of-4000-soldiers-to-poland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2026\/05\/13\/us-army-abruptly-cancels-deployment-of-4000-soldiers-to-poland\/\">military<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That move, the congressmen said, was against the law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the committee\u2019s ranking Democrat, addressed the Army leader about the program, saying, \u201cAs I understand it, the Department of Defense and Army has completely defunded that. You are in violation of the law right now on civilian harm.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan, or <a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2022\/Aug\/25\/2003064740\/-1\/-1\/1\/CIVILIAN-HARM-MITIGATION-AND-RESPONSE-ACTION-PLAN.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">CHMR-AP<\/a>, was launched in 2022 following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2022\/04\/01\/pentagon-policies-dont-do-enough-to-prevent-harm-to-civilians-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2022\/04\/01\/pentagon-policies-dont-do-enough-to-prevent-harm-to-civilians-report\/\">scrutiny over civilian casualties<\/a> from U.S. strikes and military operations overseas. The effort aimed to better track, investigate and reduce civilian harm during combat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the May inspector general <a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2026\/May\/14\/2003930527\/-1\/-1\/1\/DOWIG-2026-084_REDACTED%20SECURE.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">report<\/a>, released Wednesday, found that Pentagon and Army officials had proposed eliminating or significantly reducing major parts of the initiative, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2022\/08\/25\/a-center-of-excellence-for-preventing-civilian-harm-is-coming\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2022\/08\/25\/a-center-of-excellence-for-preventing-civilian-harm-is-coming\/\">Civilian Protection Center of Excellence<\/a>, or CPCOE. <\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2023\/04\/18\/pentagon-taps-official-to-oversee-civilian-protection-in-war-zones\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-851645742.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Pentagon taps official to oversee civilian protection in war zones<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The move comes as the Pentagon works to rethink best practices to mitigate civilian harm in military operations in its airstrikes.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In May 2025, the report said, the DoD submitted a legislative proposal asking Congress to repeal the law requiring the center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The watchdog also found that meetings had stopped, personnel had been lost or reassigned, and some funding was halted even though no formal decision had been made about the program\u2019s future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs a result, the DoW may not comply with its civilian casualties and harm policy (DoDI 3000.17), a policy required by Federal law,\u201d the report said, adding that Joint Staff and command officials had linked the program\u2019s performance to mission success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., an Army veteran who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan \u2014 and a key supporter of the CPCOE \u2014 argued that the military\u2019s long-term success depended on staying lethal and maintaining the local population\u2019s approval, which was endangered when civilians died or were brutally maimed in combat operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOver the course of those tours, what became very obvious to me is that what we did lack was a full understanding about how to win the support of local populations,\u201d he said, adding later, \u201cWe ultimately lost the support of the people in Iraq and Afghanistan, who we were there to serve and to help liberate.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Driscoll acknowledged the concerns and affirmed the Pentagon\u2019s legal obligations. He also defended the Army\u2019s handling of the program, arguing that the Pentagon remained committed to reducing civilian harm and suggesting that some of the disruption identified in the report stemmed from organization restructuring instead of an intentional effort to scrap the program. <\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2023\/12\/21\/us-revamps-how-it-prevents-handles-collateral-damage-in-strikes\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-1128594219-Cropped.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Pentagon revamps how it prevents, handles collateral damage in strikes<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The entire Defense Department has civilian harm reduction marching orders.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Smith\u2019s closing comments suggested he did not believe Pentagon assurances that the civilian harm efforts were being reorganized and not dismantled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think a good number of members on this committee do not trust the Secretary of Defense on civilian harm,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cAnd we don\u2019t trust the notion that it\u2019s just being moved around. It seems like it\u2019s being gutted, and that there is no focus on it whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawmakers on Friday accused the Pentagon of gutting a congressionally mandated effort to reduce civilian harm during combat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":110728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":68,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[100,12,25,68,70],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3401],"class_list":["post-83907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","category-your-army"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"NBBBNLYVLZAARDVTBAMW6KHETM","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2026\/05\/15\/congress-clashes-with-pentagon-over-civilian-harm-reduction-program\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Congress clashes with Pentagon over civilian harm reduction program - Army Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lawmakers on Friday accused the Pentagon of gutting a congressionally mandated effort to reduce civilian harm during combat.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Congress clashes with Pentagon over civilian harm reduction program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lawmakers on Friday accused the Pentagon of gutting a congressionally mandated effort to reduce civilian harm during combat.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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