Back to JWNDAA 2007 Contents

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

Subtitle D—United States Defense Industrial Base Provisions

JWNDAA Section

House Conference Report 109-702

(a) In General- Chapter 7 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

`Sec. 187. Strategic Materials Protection Board

`(a) Establishment-

`(1) The Secretary of Defense shall establish a Strategic Materials Protection Board.

`(2) The Board shall be composed of representatives of the following:

`(A) The Secretary of Defense, who shall be the chairman of the Board.

`(B) The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.

`(C) The Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.

`(D) The Secretary of the Army.

`(E) The Secretary of the Navy.

`(F) The Secretary of the Air Force.

`(b) Duties- In addition to other matters assigned to it by the Secretary of Defense, the Board shall--

`(1) determine the need to provide a long term domestic supply of materials designated as critical to national security to ensure that national defense needs are met;

`(2) analyze the risk associated with each material designated as critical to national security and the effect on national defense that the nonavailability of such material from a domestic source would have;

`(3) recommend a strategy to the President to ensure the domestic availability of materials designated as critical to national security;

`(4) recommend such other strategies to the President as the Board considers appropriate to strengthen the industrial base with respect to materials critical to national security; and

`(5) publish not less frequently than once every two years in the Federal Register recommendations regarding materials critical to national security, including a list of specialty metals, if any, recommended for addition to, or removal from, the definition of `specialty metal' for purposes of section 2533b of this title.

`(c) Meetings- The Board shall meet as determined necessary by the Secretary of Defense but not less frequently than once every two years to make recommendations regarding materials critical to national security as described in subsection (b)(5).

`(d) Reports- After each meeting of the Board, the Board shall prepare and submit to Congress a report containing the results of the meeting and such recommendations as the Board determines appropriate.'.

(b) Clerical Amendment- The table of sections at the beginning of such chapter is amended by adding at the end the following new item:

`187. Strategic Materials Protection Board.'.

(c) First Meeting of Board- The first meeting of the Strategic Materials Protection Board, established by section 187 of title 10, United States Code (as added by subsection (a)) shall be not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.

The House bill contained a provision (sec. 832) that would establish a Strategic Materials Protection Board to determine the domestic supply of items designated as critical to national security, including adding items to the list of specialty metals protected under the so-called ‘‘Berry amendment,’’ recodified elsewhere in this Act as section 2533b of title 10, United States Code.

The Senate amendment contained no similar provision.

The Senate recedes with an amendment that would authorize the new board to make recommendations regarding the list of specialty metals covered by the Berry amendment, but not to add or delete items from the list.

House Armed Services Committee Report 109-452

SECTION 832--STRATEGIC MATERIALS PROTECTION BOARD

This section would establish a Strategic Material Protection Board. The board would be established by the Secretary of Defense and include the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, the Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Secretary of the Air Force. The committee believes that the Department of Defense should create a process to identify items that are critical to national security. In particular, the committee notes that certain materials, should they be unavailable domestically would severely impair our national security. This section would require the board to publish a list of items determined to be critical to national security. Additionally, this section would prohibit the removal of specialty metals listed in section 2533b of title 10, United States Code, from the list of items critical to national security.