{
  "id": "USC-03",
  "category": "Procurement technical assistance",
  "capability": "Co-fund procurement technical assistance and APEX specialized support for businesses",
  "summary": "Use cooperative agreements with eligible public, nonprofit, and qualifying tribal entities to furnish procurement technical assistance, including certain non-defense contracts, compliance education, and assistance to covered small businesses growing beyond size standards. Support APEX centers of excellence beyond their geographic service areas.",
  "legal_basis": [
    {
      "citation": "10 U.S.C. §4951",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title10/html/USCODE-2024-title10-subtitleA-partV-subpartI-chap388-sec4951.htm",
      "kind": "statute",
      "note": "Official GovInfo 2024 baseline; read alongside the enacted amendments identified in this record."
    },
    {
      "citation": "10 U.S.C. §4954",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title10/html/USCODE-2024-title10-subtitleA-partV-subpartI-chap388-sec4954.htm",
      "kind": "statute",
      "note": "Official GovInfo 2024 baseline; read alongside the enacted amendments identified in this record."
    },
    {
      "citation": "10 U.S.C. §4955",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title10/html/USCODE-2024-title10-subtitleA-partV-subpartI-chap388-sec4955.htm",
      "kind": "statute",
      "note": "Official GovInfo 2024 baseline; read alongside the enacted amendments identified in this record."
    },
    {
      "citation": "10 U.S.C. §4958",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title10/html/USCODE-2024-title10-subtitleA-partV-subpartI-chap388-sec4958.htm",
      "kind": "statute",
      "note": "Official GovInfo 2024 baseline; read alongside the enacted amendments identified in this record."
    },
    {
      "citation": "10 U.S.C. §4959",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title10/html/USCODE-2024-title10-subtitleA-partV-subpartI-chap388-sec4959.htm",
      "kind": "statute",
      "note": "Official GovInfo 2024 baseline; read alongside the enacted amendments identified in this record."
    },
    {
      "citation": "P.L. 119-60, §861",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-119publ60/html/PLAW-119publ60.htm",
      "kind": "statute",
      "note": "Enacted FY2026 NDAA text; not a proposal."
    }
  ],
  "authority_holder": "Secretary of Defense acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment",
  "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 acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment; 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": "Cooperative agreements; Funding; Authority to provide certain types of technical assistance; Advancing small business growth — statutory holder and execution conditions",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title10/html/USCODE-2024-title10-subtitleA-partV-subpartI-chap388-sec4951.htm"
    }
  ],
  "requirements": [
    "Use an eligible entity defined by §4951, not an unrestricted grant directly to any company.",
    "Apply §4954 cost shares and authorized waivers, §4955 funding ceilings and exceptions, and the special covered-small-business definition in §4959.",
    "AUKUS, export-control, SBIR, cybersecurity, and foreign-ownership compliance education are bounded forms of technical assistance, not regulatory waivers."
  ],
  "limits": [
    "This is technical-assistance funding, not a general business loan, procurement award, export license, or security clearance.",
    "National APEX center-of-excellence reach under amended §4958(d) does not eliminate eligibility or fiscal restrictions."
  ],
  "funding": [
    "Chapter 388 assistance funds subject to statutory caps and shares; amended §4955(e) allows acceptance and use of other federal agency funds for execution and administration."
  ],
  "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 corroborated §4954 through September 28, 2026 and amended §4958 through July 14, 2026. P.L. 119-60 §861(b)-(d) read directly.",
  "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": [
    "Contracts & purchases"
  ],
  "goal_ids": [
    "expand-production"
  ],
  "office_links": [
    {
      "office_id": "secretary-deputy-secretary",
      "role": "approver",
      "label": "Secretary of Defense acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment; transaction-specific delegation must be confirmed"
    },
    {
      "office_id": "usd-acquisition-sustainment",
      "role": "approver",
      "label": "Secretary of Defense acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment; transaction-specific delegation must be confirmed"
    }
  ],
  "family_slug": "industrial-capacity-capital-and-credit",
  "instrument_groups": [
    "Contracts & purchases"
  ],
  "executor_route": {
    "id": "execution-usc-03",
    "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-03/",
    "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": "Chapter 388 assistance funds subject to statutory caps and shares; amended §4955(e) allows acceptance and use of other federal agency funds for execution and administration. Office budget figures are separate institutional context, not an allocation to this instrument.",
      "url": "/capabilities/usc-03/#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-03/#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": "This is technical-assistance funding, not a general business loan, procurement award, export license, or security clearance."
}