“To amend the Defense Production Act of 1950 to require the establishment of a DPA Registry, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section revises section 722 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, which establishes an interagency committee to coordinate the effective use of authorities under the act (i.e., priorities and allocations, loans, purchases, and other production incentives for national defense needs). (1) It broadens the committee's purpose in subsection (a) from priorities and allocations authorities to all authorities under the act; (2) in subsection (b), it adds the chairperson as a committee member and replaces paragraph (2) to designate the chairperson as a full-time Senior Executive Service (SES) employee from the Department of Commerce—selected by the Secretary of Commerce, reporting directly to the Secretary, with primary responsibility to lead the committee and provide members information on meetings, data sharing requirements, and coordination needs; (3) it replaces subsection (c) to require the Secretary of Commerce to provide the chairperson necessary staff and resources, submit the committee's funding requests for the President's budget, and direct committee members to designate an SES coordinator from each relevant federal department, agency, or establishment within 90 days of enactment; and (4) it revises subsection (d) to require the committee's annual report to include a review of all agencies' use of DPA authorities and recommendations consistent with the act's policy in section 2(b), while eliminating one reporting element and broadening language throughout from priorities and allocations to all authorities. This section also requires the Comptroller General to submit a report to the House Committee on Financial Services and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs within two years of enactment assessing the committee's coordination and planning, the chairperson's information-sharing, authorities needing attention, and improvement recommendations.
This section establishes a secure, electronic DPA Registry, to be created by the Secretary of Commerce through the Chairperson of the Defense Production Act Committee not later than one year after enactment of this section, to track all uses of Defense Production Act (DPA) authorities (i.e., presidential powers to prioritize contracts, allocate materials, and expand production capacity for national defense) by federal agencies on or after one year before enactment. For each use, the registry identifies the responsible agency, the reason for use, and how it supported national defense; agency heads must submit required data within 180 days of registry establishment (covering the retroactive period) and update it quarterly thereafter. The registry must be protected from cyber attacks, provide tiered access for federal agencies and Congress (full) versus the public (limited to protect national security), and maximize public transparency consistent with security needs.