§98h–1 Strategic and Critical Materials Board of Directors

Summary

Creates a Strategic and Critical Materials Board of Directors to oversee the National Defense Stockpile program. The Board must include the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy as chair; one designee from each of the Secretaries of Commerce, State, Energy, and the Interior; one designee from each chair and each ranking member of the Readiness Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee; one designee from each chair and each ranking member of the Readiness Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee; and four experts chosen by the chair. The Board must do certain tasks itself and cannot give those tasks to others. Those tasks include making by‑laws, choosing or removing members, advising the Stockpile Manager, setting performance measures and doing an annual review, approving and reallocating the program’s annual budget and reviewing financial statements, approving the Annual Materials and Operations Plan and adding the Board’s views to the required report, submitting an annual Board report, and recommending strategies to the Secretary of Defense to secure supplies of critical materials and to strengthen the industrial base. The Board must meet as needed but at least once every year. Section 1013(a) of title 5 does not apply to the Board. materials critical to national security — materials needed for making or supporting military equipment and whose supply could be limited by events outside U.S. control. military equipment — equipment used directly by the Armed Forces in military operations. secure supply — having available sources and the full supply chain for a material and parts that contain it.