H.R. 4216 — Made-in-America Defense Act

This section states the sense of Congress that (1) expeditious delivery of defense articles and services to allies and partners strengthens U.S. national security; (2) Department of Defense contracting processes often delay such deliveries, which could be expedited via direct commercial sales (i.e., sales by U.S. contractors directly to foreign governments, with State Department approval) in some cases; and (3) the FMS-Only List—which identifies defense articles and services available only through the government-managed Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program—should be reviewed periodically to remove appropriately transferable items.

This section directs the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of Defense, to conduct a review not later than one year after enactment and annually thereafter of defense articles and services eligible under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program (i.e., chapter 2 of the Arms Export Control Act) but not under direct commercial sales (DCS) (i.e., section 38 of such Act), to identify those that should also be eligible for DCS. (As background, FMS involves government-to-government transfers overseen by the Departments of State and Defense, while DCS enables direct sales by U.S. companies to foreign buyers subject to State licensing.) The review must address for each identified item (1) average transfer time under FMS compared to DCS, measured from initial letter of request to delivery; (2) impact on State and Defense Department workload from using DCS; and (3) benefits to U.S. national security and competitiveness from using DCS. Not later than 30 days after each review, the Secretaries must submit to the appropriate congressional committees (i.e., House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees; Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees) an unclassified report (with classified annex option) on review results, including average prior-period transfer times under FMS and DCS with year-over-year comparisons, leading delay causes, steps to reduce delays, and any additions to or removals from the FMS-only list with justifications.