10 U.S.C. § 402 — Transportation of humanitarian relief supplies to foreign countries

(a) The Secretary of Defense may transport humanitarian supplies to any country for free. These must be supplies donated by a nongovernmental source, meant for humanitarian assistance. The Secretary can only send them if there is spare room on a flight or shipment already happening — there's no dedicated transport just for this. (b) Before transporting supplies, the Secretary must decide five things are true: (A) sending the supplies fits with U.S. foreign policy; (B) the supplies are actually suitable for humanitarian use and are in usable condition; (C) the people or group getting the supplies genuinely need them; (D) the supplies will really be used for humanitarian purposes; and (E) there are solid plans in place for handing out or using the supplies once they arrive. The President must set up a process for making these five decisions, and that process must include inspecting the supplies before agreeing to transport them. It's the job of whoever asked for the transport to make sure their supplies are actually fit to be shipped. (c) Once supplies arrive, they can be handed out by a U.S. government agency, a foreign government, an international organization, or a private nonprofit relief group. They can never be given, directly or indirectly, to any person, group, or organization involved in military or paramilitary activity. (d) The Secretary may also use this same power to transport supplies meant to respond to or reduce damage from an environmental emergency, like an oil spill — but only if no other transportation is readily available. Unlike the free humanitarian transport in subsection (a), the Secretary may require whoever requested this environmental transport to pay back the Department of Defense's costs. (e) Each year, by July 31, the Secretary of State must send a report to four congressional committees — the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, plus the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House International Relations Committee. The report must list where the supplies came from, what they were, where they went, and what happened to them, covering the twelve months ending the previous June 30.