EconDefense
USC-32 / Energy, environment and communities

Buy wetland, conservation, and water-quality mitigation credits

Pay approved wetland mitigation banks or consolidated user sites, conservation banks or in-lieu-fee sponsors, and pollutant banking or water-quality trading programs to mitigate effects of qualifying military activities.

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Authority / instrument · USC-32

Environmental mitigation markets

Energy, environment and communities

Statute & instrument
Authority holder

Secretary of a military department; Secretary of Defense for Defense Agency matters

What this does not authorize / hard limit

These are distinct mitigation mechanisms with their own predicates, not a general power to speculate in environmental credits.

Recorded executor

Authorized contracting, grants, agreements, property, or finance office; implementation not verified

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 recordedQualifying payments may be eligible military-construction project costs; §2694c expressly permits specified O&M, MILCON, RDT&E, and Guam-account funds subject to availability. 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-32 · Other statutory tools

Authority holder: Secretary of a military department; Secretary of Defense for Defense Agency matters

Other statutory tools

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

Availability and verification

Statutory pathway identified; current implementation, intake, funding availability, and executing delegation unverified.

Requirements and limits

Eligibility & prerequisites

  • Use the approved program and applicable environmental regulatory guidance for the specific type of credit.
  • Tie payments to eligible military operations, training, testing, construction, or authorized pollutant discharge, as the particular section requires.

Limits & exclusions

  • These are distinct mitigation mechanisms with their own predicates, not a general power to speculate in environmental credits.
  • Wetland-bank payments replace mitigation through creation of a wetland on federal property under §2694b.

Funding conditions

  • Qualifying payments may be eligible military-construction project costs; §2694c expressly permits specified O&M, MILCON, RDT&E, and Guam-account funds subject to availability.

Read the funding and execution guide

Who contributes what

Need & planning

  • Relevant statutory program or requirement sponsor; organizational routing to be confirmed

Resources

  • Responsible component resource owner and comptroller; available funding not verified

Approval

  • Secretary of a military department; Secretary of Defense for Defense Agency matters; any delegation must be verified
    Office profile
    Office profile

Execution

  • Authorized contracting, grants, agreements, property, or finance office; implementation not verified

Partners & review

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

Coordination pathway

Requirement sponsor → statutory holder and responsible resource owner → legal and fiscal review → authorized executing office. Routing is illustrative; current program intake and individual delegations are unverified.

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. §2694bOfficial 2024 U.S. Code baseline; see currentness for subsequent amendments and access limits.
  • 10 U.S.C. §2694cOfficial 2024 U.S. Code baseline; see currentness for subsequent amendments and access limits.
  • 10 U.S.C. §2694dOfficial 2024 U.S. Code baseline; see currentness for subsequent amendments and access limits.

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 recordedQualifying payments may be eligible military-construction project costs; §2694c expressly permits specified O&M, MILCON, RDT&E, and Guam-account funds subject to availability. 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 cited statutory text; no claim of verified current implementation.

Currentness: Statutory scrub 2026-10-05: official GovInfo 2024 Code text and relevant provisions of Pub. L. 119-60/119-21 inspected. Direct OLRC current-text retrieval was unavailable under maintenance. This establishes the described statutory baseline and expressly identified amendments, not an exhaustive post-2024 session-law certification. Current implementation, open intake, available balances, and individual delegations were not verified.

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

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