Title 41 › Subtitle I — Federal Procurement Policy › CHAPTER 19 — SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION PROCEDURES › § 1904
Heads of executive agencies that do research and development that could help defend against or recover from terrorism or nuclear, biological, chemical, or radiological attacks may use the same authority the Secretary of Defense has under 10 U.S.C. 2371, except for subsections (b) and (f). They may run prototype (test) projects under the rules of section 845 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994, using competition to pick partners whenever possible and following the time limits in section 845(i). When using section 845 here, section 845(c) applies and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) fills the role of the Secretary of Defense under section 845(d). An agency may only use this authority for a project if the OMB Director approves. The authority does not apply to the Secretary of Homeland Security while section 831 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 is in effect. The OMB Director must write regulations before any of this can be used, and no actions can happen until those rules take effect. Agency heads must send the annual report required by 2371(h) to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The authority ends on September 30, 2008.
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Public Contracts, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
41 U.S.C. § 1904
Title 41, Public Contracts
Last Updated
Sep 23, 2026
Release point: 119-110