Bill > S1443

This bill aims to improve the Department of Defense's (DoD) software management practices. It has several key provisions: 1. It requires that all unclassified, custom-developed software and related technical data created under DoD contracts be managed as open source software, unless specifically waived by the service acquisition executive. This means the source code and technical data must be released in a public repository under an open source license. 2. It directs the Secretary of Defense to apply open source licenses to existing DoD custom-developed software and release the source code and technical data in a public repository, where appropriate. 3. It requires the Secretary of Defense to create prize competitions to incentivize the identification, capture, and storage of existing DoD custom-developed software, as well as improvements, repurposing, or reuse of that software. 4. It tasks the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) with a project to identify methods to locate and reverse engineer DoD custom-developed software for which the source code is unavailable. 5. It requires the Secretary of Defense to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement within 180 days to implement these provisions. The overall goal of the bill is to improve the management and utilization of DoD software by making more of it open source and accessible, while also incentivizing the identification and reuse of existing custom-developed software.

Military Affairs and Security

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1443/all-info