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TITLE VIII--ACQUISITION POLICY, ACQUISITION MANAGEMENT, AND RELATED MATTERS

Subtitle E—Defense Industrial Base Matters

P. L. 112-81

House Conference Report 112-329

(a) Report- Not later than March 1, 2012, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report on the defense industrial base pilot program of the Department of Defense.

(b) Elements- The report required by subsection (a) shall include each of the following:

(1) A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the effectiveness of the defense industrial base pilot program.

(2) An assessment of the legal, policy, or regulatory challenges associated with effectively executing the pilot program.

(3) Recommendations for changes to the legal, policy, or regulatory framework for the pilot program to make it more effective.

(4) A description of any plans to expand the pilot program, including to other sectors beyond the defense industrial base.

(5) An assessment of the potential legal, policy, or regulatory challenges associated with expanding the pilot program.

(6) Any other matters the Secretary considers appropriate.

(c) Form- The report required under this section shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.

The House bill contained a provision (sec. 831) that would require the Secretary of Defense to submit a report to the congressional defense committees on the defense industrial base (DIB) pilot program.

The Senate amendment contained no similar provision.

The Senate recedes.

The conferees emphasize the importance of a careful and objective assessment of the effectiveness of the DIB pilot program, since it could serve as a model for other critical infrastructure sectors. The Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3) reports that the so-called `threat indicators' they have compiled for the Department of Defense networks and the defense industrial base, respectively, reflect a very small overlap. According to DC3, the overlap between these threat indicators and those of the financial sector is significantly smaller still. These statistics are interpreted to indicate that each sector is experiencing attacks from different threat actors using different tactics and techniques. If correct, this would mean that signatures developed for one sector could have limited utility for a different sector or organization. If the intelligence community is to provide threat signatures to defend all of the government departments and agencies, and all of the critical infrastructure sectors, the resources required could be very extensive.

The conferees request that the assessment required by this section address this specific issue.

House Report 112-078

This section would require the Secretary of Defense to submit a report to the congressional defense committees assessing the defense industrial base pilot program of the Department of Defense by March 1, 2012.