“A bill to require contractors to provide reasonable access to repair materials, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes a new requirement (in 10 U.S.C. §4663) prohibiting the head of a procuring agency from entering a Department of Defense (DoD) contract for goods unless the contractor agrees in writing to provide DoD fair and reasonable access to all repair materials—including parts, tools, and information—used by the manufacturer or authorized repair providers to diagnose, maintain, or repair the goods. It authorizes the agency head to waive this requirement for contracts related to programs begun before enactment, upon submitting to the congressional defense committees a justification based on an independent technical risk assessment of impacts to the program's costs, schedule, or technical performance. It defines "fair and reasonable access" (i.e., terms equivalent to those offered to authorized repair providers, or otherwise fair and reasonable if not so offered), "part" (i.e., any new or used replacement part for digital electronic equipment maintenance or repair), and "tool" (i.e., any software, hardware, or apparatus for such purposes). Separately, this section requires the Comptroller General to submit to the congressional defense committees, not later than one year after enactment, a report on DoD implementation of and compliance with the new requirement.
This section requires the Secretary of Defense to review contracts and identify modifications necessary to remove intellectual property constraints limiting the Department of Defense's ability to conduct maintenance and access repair materials—including parts, tools, and information—used by manufacturers or their authorized providers to diagnose, maintain, or repair covered goods. The section defines a "part" as any new or used replacement part made available by or to an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for maintenance or repair of digital electronic equipment supplied by the OEM, and a "tool" as any software, hardware, or apparatus used for such diagnosis, maintenance, or repair (including to provision, program, pair, or calibrate parts).