Revocation of Reporting Requirement
Signed: March 6, 2019
Published: March 11, 2019
Document Number: 2019-04595
📋Summary
This executive order removes a prior requirement for the Director of National Intelligence (or another designated official) to publish an annual unclassified public summary of U.S. strikes against terrorist targets outside areas of active hostilities and the estimated combatant and civilian deaths from those strikes. It affects the intelligence community officials responsible for producing that public report, and it reduces the amount of strike and casualty information that must be released under that earlier executive order. It does not change separate reporting duties created by Congress for the Department of Defense, including annual civilian casualty reporting to Congress and, in many cases, public release unless the Secretary of Defense cites national security concerns. The order also states it does not alter existing legal authorities, depends on available funding, and does not create enforceable legal rights for the public.
💼Business Impact
This order mainly affects defense contractors, intelligence/ISR providers, aerospace/drone and targeting technology firms, and government services companies that support U.S. operations overseas—especially those exposed to public scrutiny, ESG screens, or reputational risk tied to civilian-casualty reporting. By revoking EO 13732’s annual unclassified strike/casualty summary, it reduces a specific transparency/reporting channel (though NDAA reporting to Congress/public may still apply), which can shift compliance emphasis from public disclosures to contract-driven requirements, classified handling, and internal auditability for DoD/IC customers. Businesses should (1) reassess reputational/ESG and customer-communications plans given less public data, (2) tighten documentation and data-retention around targeting, ISR, and incident assessments to meet contract clauses and potential congressional/IG inquiries, and (3) monitor NDAA Section 1057/1062 implementation and any agency guidance that could still require public release or certification-based withholding.
Full Text
Executive Order 13862 of March 6, 2019
Revocation of Reporting Requirement
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Findings. (a) Section 3 of Executive Order 13732 of July 1, 2016 (United States Policy on Pre- and Post-Strike Measures To Address Civilian Casualties in U.S. Operations Involving the Use of Force), requires the Director of National Intelligence, or such other official as the President may designate, to release, by May 1 each year, an unclassified summary of the number of strikes undertaken by the United States Government against terrorist targets outside areas of active hostilities, as well as assessments of combatant and non-combatant deaths resulting from those strikes, among other information.
(b) Section 1057 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 (Public Law 115-91) similarly requires the Secretary of Defense to submit to the congressional defense committees, by May 1 each year, a report on civilian casualties caused as a result of United States military operations during the preceding year (civilian casualty report). Subsection 1057(d) requires that the civilian casualty report be submitted in unclassified form, but recognizes that the report may include a classified annex.
(c) Section 1062 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (Public Law 115-232) expanded the scope of the civilian casualty report and specified that the report shall be made available to the public unless the Secretary of Defense certifies that the publication of the report would pose a threat to the national security interests of the United States.
Sec. 2 . Revocation of Reporting Requirement. Section 3 of Executive Order 13732 is hereby revoked.
Sec. 3 . General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
( printed page 8790)(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
THE WHITE HOUSE,
March 6, 2019.