Rep. Gaetz supports bipartisan effort to prevent Biden Admin from supplying Ukraine with cluster munitions.

A Democrat-led effort to stop the Biden administration from transferring cluster munitions to Ukraine is gaining bipartisan support, with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) offering to be the Republican co-sponsor on the effort.

On Friday, July 7, the Biden administration announced plans to begin transferring to Ukraine a type of cluster munition known as the dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM). The plan quickly caught criticism from members of the president’s own party, citing concerns about the weapons, which release a cluster of dozens of submunitions that don’t always immediately explode.

Reps. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) were among those Democratic lawmakers who opposed the DPICM transfers to Ukraine. On Friday, Ms. Jacobs and Ms. Omar introduced an amendment (pdf) to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would bar export licensing to transfer cluster munitions from the United States abroad.

“Our international coalition is strong because we’re united together and because we’re living up to our values—but sending cluster munitions defies these two tenets,” Ms. Jacobs said in a July 6 press statement. “Many of our partners don’t support this move with many having already banned cluster munitions from their stockpiles. We’ve seen Russia’s horrific use of cluster munitions in Ukraine—and we shouldn’t cede the moral high ground by criticizing their actions and then deciding to send cluster munitions ourselves.”

Ms. Omar said, “If the U.S. is going to be a leader on international human rights, we must not participate in human rights abuses.”

On Monday, Mr. Gaetz volunteered to be the Republican co-sponsor on Ms. Jacobs’s amendment.

“Democrats used to call the use of cluster bombs a war crime, and that war crime is now an American export. We’ve just learned that there are some Democrats who are working against the Biden administration” with regard to these munitions, Mr. Gaetz said in a segment of his “Firebrand” podcast on Monday.

Mr. Gaetz noted he’d criticized Ms. Jacobs “a great deal” in the past, but saw her opposition to sending cluster munitions to Ukraine as a common-ground issue.

“I’m here to tell you is that I’m going to be the Republican co-sponsor of the Jacobs amendment before the House Rules Committee,” he added. “We have an opportunity, with bipartisanship, to stand against the warmongering Bidens.”

The risk of cluster munitions leaving behind small unexploded bomblets that are hard to track raises the concern that these bomblets may be triggered by innocent civilians later on. Mr. Gaetz said these cluster munitions have been used throughout “the world’s bloodiest and most inhumane wars” in places like Laos, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria.

“Children will be left without limbs and without parents because of this decision by Joe Biden if we do not work together in a bipartisan fashion to stop it,” Mr. Gaetz said.

Bipartisan Support, Opposition For Cluster Munitions Transfer

It remains to be seen which lawmakers will join in support of Ms. Jacobs’s amendment. Several other Democratic lawmakers have spoken in opposition to the transfer of DPICMs to Ukraine, including Reps. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.).

Numerous Republicans have also spoken in opposition to providing weapons to Ukraine. Those who have specifically criticized the cluster munitions include…