{
  "id": "USC-02",
  "category": "Supplier development",
  "capability": "Reimburse mentor assistance and credit development of eligible small-business suppliers",
  "summary": "Approve mentor-protege agreements for business and technical development, eligible noncompetitive subcontracts, progress or advance payments, and mentor loans. Provide the reimbursements or subcontracting-goal credits expressly authorized for mentors.",
  "legal_basis": [
    {
      "citation": "10 U.S.C. §4902",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title10/html/USCODE-2024-title10-subtitleA-partV-subpartI-chap387-subchapI-sec4902.htm",
      "kind": "statute",
      "note": "Official GovInfo 2024 baseline; read alongside the enacted amendments identified in this record."
    }
  ],
  "authority_holder": "Secretary of Defense",
  "actor_chain": {
    "planner": [
      "Relevant DoD mission or program sponsor"
    ],
    "resource_owner": [
      "Sponsoring component budget owner and comptroller; available funding not verified"
    ],
    "approver": [
      "Secretary of Defense; transaction-specific delegation must be confirmed"
    ],
    "executor": [
      "Authorized component contracting, agreements, or personnel office; assignment is illustrative"
    ],
    "partners": [
      "Program counsel, fiscal officials, and eligible external counterpart as applicable"
    ]
  },
  "actor_sources": [
    {
      "title": "Department of Defense Mentor-Protege Program — statutory holder and execution conditions",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title10/html/USCODE-2024-title10-subtitleA-partV-subpartI-chap387-subchapI-sec4902.htm"
    }
  ],
  "requirements": [
    "Mentor and protege must satisfy §4902(c), (d), and (n); SBA affiliation determinations remain relevant.",
    "An agreement normally lasts no more than three years, with a written unusual-circumstances determination for up to five; the protege’s agreement-entry window is separately governed by subsection (c).",
    "Apply the applicable reimbursement categories, annual limits, written exceptions, performance reviews, and rules for crediting unreimbursed costs."
  ],
  "limits": [
    "Mentor loans and subcontract payments are not independent DoD lending authority.",
    "Participation may not be required as a condition for receiving a contract or subcontract; prohibited fees and joint-venture business-development costs are not reimbursable."
  ],
  "funding": [
    "Authorized DoD contract line items or a qualifying separate contract for reimbursement; no current funding verified."
  ],
  "coordination_path": "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.",
  "availability": "Express statutory pathway identified in the USC scrub. Current implementation, public intake, appropriations, available balances, and transaction-specific delegations were not independently 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. OLRC search-index text labeled laws effective September 29, 2026 corroborates the section. The old pilot sunsets were removed by P.L. 117-263 §856; do not label the current codified program expired.",
  "family": "Industrial capacity, capital and credit",
  "supplement": "usc-review-2026-10-05",
  "last_reviewed": "2026-10-05",
  "implementation_caution": "Statutory-source review only. A current implementing program, open intake, available funds and individual delegation were not verified.",
  "usc_review_notes": [
    "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."
  ],
  "mechanisms": [
    "Funds & shared services"
  ],
  "goal_ids": [
    "expand-production"
  ],
  "office_links": [
    {
      "office_id": "secretary-deputy-secretary",
      "role": "approver",
      "label": "Secretary of Defense; transaction-specific delegation must be confirmed"
    }
  ],
  "family_slug": "industrial-capacity-capital-and-credit",
  "instrument_groups": [
    "Other statutory tools"
  ],
  "executor_route": {
    "id": "execution-usc-02",
    "name": "Authorized component contracting, agreements, or personnel office; assignment is illustrative",
    "label": "Authorized component contracting, agreements, or personnel office; assignment is illustrative",
    "url": "/offices/execution/usc-02/",
    "basis": "Recorded executing role; this record-specific route is not an additional institutional office."
  },
  "program_context": [],
  "program_research": null,
  "checks": [
    {
      "key": "legal",
      "label": "Legal basis",
      "state": "Sources linked",
      "detail": "Legal sources and instrument limits are recorded."
    },
    {
      "key": "eligibility",
      "label": "Requirements",
      "state": "Gates recorded",
      "detail": "Read the requirements for this instrument; applicability depends on the proposed action."
    },
    {
      "key": "funds",
      "label": "Public funding",
      "state": "Rules recorded",
      "detail": "Authorized DoD contract line items or a qualifying separate contract for reimbursement; no current funding verified. Office budget figures are separate institutional context, not an allocation to this instrument.",
      "url": "/capabilities/usc-02/#funding"
    },
    {
      "key": "delegation",
      "label": "Assigned roles",
      "state": "Roles recorded",
      "detail": "Public sources describe institutional authority. The instrument identifies approval and execution roles; a specific signature remains transaction-dependent.",
      "url": "/capabilities/usc-02/#roles"
    },
    {
      "key": "execution",
      "label": "Engagement",
      "state": "Program unverified",
      "detail": "Added in the October 5 statutory review; no current implementing program, intake or individual delegation verified.",
      "url": "/sources/usc/"
    }
  ],
  "hard_limit": "Mentor loans and subcontract payments are not independent DoD lending authority."
}