EconDefense
USC-15 / Acquisition, transition and contract finance

Lease commercial vehicles and equipment when practicable and efficient

Use leasing to acquire commercial vehicles and equipment on a determination that leasing is practicable and efficient.

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Authority / instrument · USC-15

Commercial equipment leasing

Acquisition, transition and contract finance

Statute & instrument
Authority holder

Secretary of Defense

What this does not authorize / hard limit

Section 3681 supplies no blanket long-term funding exception, capital-lease authorization, or waiver of competition.

Recorded executor

Authorized component contracting, agreements, or personnel office; assignment is illustrative

Continue to actor →

Recorded executing role; this record-specific route is not an additional institutional office.

Legal basisSources linkedLegal sources and instrument limits are recorded.
RequirementsGates recordedRead the requirements for this instrument; applicability depends on the proposed action.
Public fundingRules recordedAppropriate lease/acquisition funds; §3133 supplies only its narrowly defined crossing-fiscal-year treatment. Office budget figures are separate institutional context, not an allocation to this instrument.
Assigned rolesRoles recordedPublic sources describe institutional authority. The instrument identifies approval and execution roles; a specific signature remains transaction-dependent.
EngagementProgram unverifiedAdded in the October 5 statutory review; no current implementing program, intake or individual delegation verified.

Public evidence describes the institution and instrument; it is not approval of an individual transaction.

At a glance

Possible toolUSC-15 · Property & leases
Legal basis10 U.S.C. §3681

Authority holder: Secretary of Defense

Property & leases

Mechanism tags describe the source text; they do not expand the authority.

Availability and verification

Express statutory pathway identified in the USC scrub. Current implementation, public intake, appropriations, available balances, and transaction-specific delegations were not independently verified.

Requirements and limits

Eligibility & prerequisites

  • Make the §3681 practicability-and-efficiency determination and comply with applicable acquisition and fiscal rules.
  • If using §3133 to cross a fiscal year, the lease period excluding extension options must not exceed one year; that provision separately permits obligation of the total contract amount.

Limits & exclusions

  • Section 3681 supplies no blanket long-term funding exception, capital-lease authorization, or waiver of competition.
  • Special vessel, aircraft, and combat-vehicle lease restrictions in chapter 257 must be checked when applicable.

Funding conditions

  • Appropriate lease/acquisition funds; §3133 supplies only its narrowly defined crossing-fiscal-year treatment.

Read the funding and execution guide

Who contributes what

Need & planning

  • Relevant DoD mission or program sponsor

Resources

  • Sponsoring component budget owner and comptroller; available funding not verified

Approval

  • Secretary of Defense; transaction-specific delegation must be confirmed
    Office profile

Execution

  • Authorized component contracting, agreements, or personnel office; assignment is illustrative

Partners & review

  • Program counsel, fiscal officials, and eligible external counterpart as applicable

Office links are editorial matches to the original role text, not verified delegations. Composite labels and unmatched actors are preserved.

Coordination pathway

Mission sponsor → relevant program or personnel lead → counsel and fiscal review → official holding the required authority → eligible counterpart. Named functions are routing guidance, not verified individual delegations.

Actor and execution-role sources

October 5 statutory review

Added in the October 5 statutory coverage review. The cited legal mechanism and its conditions were examined; a current implementing program, intake, funding balance and individual delegation were not verified.

Section coverage and review findings

Legal basis

  • 10 U.S.C. §3681Official GovInfo 2024 baseline; read alongside the enacted amendments identified in this record.
  • 10 U.S.C. §3133Official GovInfo 2024 baseline; read alongside the enacted amendments identified in this record.

What this research establishes

Legal basisSources linkedLegal sources and instrument limits are recorded.
RequirementsGates recordedRead the requirements for this instrument; applicability depends on the proposed action.
Public fundingRules recordedAppropriate lease/acquisition funds; §3133 supplies only its narrowly defined crossing-fiscal-year treatment. Office budget figures are separate institutional context, not an allocation to this instrument.
Assigned rolesRoles recordedPublic sources describe institutional authority. The instrument identifies approval and execution roles; a specific signature remains transaction-dependent.
EngagementProgram unverifiedAdded in the October 5 statutory review; no current implementing program, intake or individual delegation verified.

Confidence: High on the cited statutory text and express conditions; operational availability is unverified.

Currentness: Reviewed 2026-10-05 against official GovInfo 2024 Code text and a targeted P.L. 119-60 enacted-amendment search. OLRC direct pages were intermittently under maintenance. This is not an exhaustive certification of legislation after that baseline, funding, implementation, or individual delegation.

Review scope: Record reviewed 2026-10-05. Publication is not legal-currentness certification.

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