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To modify other transaction authority, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill modifies the Department of Defense's "other transaction authority," which allows more flexible contracting outside normal procurement rules. The bill extends this authority to cover both prototype development projects and follow-on production contracts valued over $100 million. It requires written approval from a high-level official (head of contracting activity or agency director) for such contracts, and specifies that this approval authority cannot be delegated to lower levels. The bill also adds new authority to award production contracts without competitive bidding for proven technologies and systems when an acquisition executive determines that exceptional circumstances and urgent military needs justify it. These changes are intended to accelerate the development and fielding of defense technologies from prototype to production.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Sheehy, Tim [R-MT] (R-MT)
Actions (2)
- Jun 18, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services. · senate
- Jun 18, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 18, 2025
Mr. Sheehy introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services
A BILL
To modify other transaction authority, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Prototype to Production Act”.
SEC. 2. MODIFICATIONS TO OTHER TRANSACTIONS.
(a) In General.—Section 4022 of title 10, United States Code, is amended—
(1) in subsection (a)—
(A) by amending paragraph (2) to read as follows:
“(2) The authority of this section may be exercised for a transaction for a prototype project, or for a transaction for a follow- on production contract or transaction that is awarded pursuant to subsection (f) or (g), that is expected to cost the Department of Defense in excess of $100,000,000 (including all options) only upon a written determination that the requirements of subsection (d) will be met by a head of the contracting activity, or, for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Defense Innovation Unit, or the Missile Defense Agency, the director of the agency.”; and
(B) by amending paragraph (3) to read as follows:
“(3) The authority of the head of the contracting activity, the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the director of the Defense Innovation Unit, the director of the Missile Defense Agency, or the senior procurement executive, as applicable, under paragraph (2), may not be delegated.”;
(2) in subsection (e)—
(A) by amending paragraph (1) to read as follows:
“(1) The term ‘head of the contracting activity’ means those officials within the organization who have responsibility for and manage an acquisition organization and usually hold unlimited procurement authority.”; and
(B) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
“(6) The term ‘follow-on production’ means a contract or transaction that is intended to further develop, test, produce, deploy, operate, or sustain a capability that was successfully prototyped under the authority established in subsection
(a).”;
(3) by redesignating subsections (h) and (i) as subsections
(i) and (j), respectively; and
(4) by inserting after subsection (g) the following new subsection:
“(h) Authority To Award a Production Transaction to Rapidly Field an Existing Capability.—A production transaction may be awarded, with or without the use of competitive procedures, to acquire emergent and proven technologies and field production quantities of new or upgraded systems that do not require additional development and have been demonstrated in a relevant environment when the appropriate service or component acquisition executive determines in writing that exceptional circumstances justify the use of such a transaction to address a high priority warfighter need.”. <all>
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