50 U.S.C. § 1549 — Report on and notice of changes made to the legal and policy frameworks for the United States’ use of military force and related national security operations

(a) Annual report. (1) General rule. By March 1 each year, the President must send the appropriate congressional committees a report about the legal and policy frameworks for the United States’ use of military force and related national-security operations. (2) Required matters. The report must give the legal, factual, and policy reasons for changes made since the preceding year. It must include: (A) a list of every foreign force, irregular force, group, or individual for which the United States determined that force could legally be used under the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40), including (i) the legal and factual basis for each determination and (ii) whether force has been used against each listed entity or person; and (B) the criteria, and changes to those criteria, for designating a foreign force, irregular force, group, or individual as lawfully targetable, as a high-value target, or as formally or functionally a member of a group covered by that Authorization. (b) Notice required. Within 30 days after changing those frameworks, the President must notify the appropriate congressional committees and include the legal, factual, and policy reasons for the change. (c) Form. The report and each notice must be unclassified, but may include a classified annex. At minimum, the unclassified part of each report must list every change made during the preceding year and the legal, factual, and policy reasons for the changes. It must be made public when it is sent to the committees. (d) Meaning of “appropriate congressional committees.” The term means: (1) in the Senate, the Committees on Armed Services, Appropriations, Foreign Relations, and the Select Committee on Intelligence; and (2) in the House of Representatives, the Committees on Armed Services, Appropriations, and Foreign Affairs, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.