§4891 — Title 10 Armed Forces | U.S. Code

§4891 Improved national defense control of technology diversions overseas

Title 10 › Subtitle Subtitle A— - General Military Law › Part PART V— - ACQUISITION › Subpart Subpart I— - Defense Industrial Base › Chapter CHAPTER 385— - OTHER TECHNOLOGY BASE POLICIES AND PROGRAMS › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER V— - OTHER MATTERS › § 4891

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy must each keep a database of contractors the Departments control who are owned by foreign people. The database must include contractors from 1988 onward when they get more than $10,000,000 in contracts in any single year from the Department of Defense or the Department of Energy. If the Secretary of Defense is acting as the President’s designee under section 721(a) of the Defense Production Act (50 U.S.C. 4565(a)) and thinks a proposed merger, acquisition, or takeover might involve a company working on defense-critical technology or is important to the defense industrial and technology base, the Secretary must require an assessment of the risk that defense technology could be diverted. The assessment must come from one or more of these agencies: the Defense Intelligence Agency; the Army Foreign Technology Science Center; the Naval Maritime Intelligence Center; or the Air Force Foreign Aerospace Science and Technology Center.

Title 10, §4891

Armed Forces — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy shall each collect and maintain a data base containing a list of, and other pertinent information on, all contractors with the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy, respectively, that are controlled by foreign persons. The data base shall contain information on such contractors for 1988 and thereafter in all cases where they are awarded contracts exceeding $10,000,000 in any single year by the Department of Defense or the Department of Energy.

(b)(1)If the Secretary of Defense is acting as a designee of the President under section 721(a) 11 See References in Text note below. of the Defense Production Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4565(a)) and if the Secretary determines that a proposed or pending merger, acquisition, or takeover may involve a firm engaged in the development of a defense critical technology or is otherwise important to the defense industrial and technology base, then the Secretary shall require the appropriate entity or entities from the list set forth in paragraph (2) to conduct an assessment of the risk of diversion of defense critical technology posed by such proposed or pending action.

(2)The entities referred to in paragraph (1) are the following:

(A)The Defense Intelligence Agency.

(B)The Army Foreign Technology Science Center.

(C)The Naval Maritime Intelligence Center.

(D)The Air Force Foreign Aerospace Science and Technology Center.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

section 721(a) of the Defense Production Act of 1950, referred to in subsec. (b), is section 721(a) of act Sept. 8, 1950, ch. 932, as added by Pub. L. 100–418, title V, § 5021, Aug. 23, 1988, 102 Stat. 1425, which is classified to section 4565(a) of Title 50, War and National Defense. section 721(a) of the Act was struck out, and a new section 721(a) was added, by Pub. L. 110–49, § 2, July 26, 2007, 121 Stat. 246. As so added, section 721(a) does not refer to investigations by the President or the President’s designee.

Amendments

2021—Pub. L. 116–283 renumbered section 2537 of this title as this section. 2017—Subsecs. (b), (c). Pub. L. 115–91 redesignated subsec. (c) as (b) and struck out former subsec. (b) which required annual reports to Congress regarding the information collected under subsec. (a). 2016—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 114–328 substituted “(50 U.S.C. 4565(a))” for “(50 U.S.C. App. 2170(a))”. 2002—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 107–314 substituted “$10,000,000” for “$100,000”. 1993—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 103–35, § 201(d)(5), substituted “respectively, that” for “respectively, which”. Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 103–35, § 201(h)(2), struck out subsec. (d) which read as follows: “In this section, the term ‘defense critical technology’ has the meaning provided that term by section 2491(8) of this title.”

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 2021 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 116–283 effective Jan. 1, 2022, with additional provisions for delayed implementation and applicability of existing law, see section 1801(d) of Pub. L. 116–283, set out as a note preceding section 3001 of this title.