Since July, $25M worth of military gear has gone to police through the 1033 program
Speaking Security Newsletter | Advisory Note for Organizers and Candidates, n°120 | 5 October 2021
If you find these notes useful, you can support this newsletter here and SPRI, here. Sharing these newsletters also helps. Thank you!
Situation
DOD releases quarterly data on the acquisition value of property transferred to police through the 1033 program. This last quarter (July-Sept), police received $24.6 million worth of combat gear from the Pentagon under this authorization.
This makes $76.5 million for the (calendar) year. In total, over $1.2 billion worth of matériel has gone to police via 1033 while Biden’s been in the White House as vice president or president.
This doesn’t mean it was his choice to send all this equipment out. But now that he’s president, it is his problem: Biden can shut down the program and recall past 1033 transfers by executive order, but has chosen not to (so far). Last month, Congress failed to pass 1033 legislation. So until next year, progress on this is contingent on Biden’s willingness to do something about it.
Thanks for your time,
Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org)
Find this note useful? Please consider becoming a supporter of SPRI. Unlike establishment think tanks, we rely exclusively on small donations.