Defense Production Act Program Definitions

Civil Transportation

Delegated Senior Official

Emergency Preparedness

Energy

Food Resources

Health Resources

Industrial Resources

National Defense

Section 101(a) of the DPA

Section 201(a) of E.O. 13603

Civil Transportation

"Civil transportation" is defined in E.O. 13603 as including movement of persons and property by all modes of transportation in interstate, intrastate, or foreign commerce within the United States, its territories and possessions, and the District of Columbia, and related public storage and warehousing, ports, services, equipment and facilities, such as transportation carrier shop and repair facilities. "Civil transportation" also shall include direction, control, and coordination of civil transportation capacity regardless of ownership. "Civil transportation" shall not include transportation owned or controlled by the Department of Defense, use of petroleum and gas pipelines, and coal slurry pipelines used only to supply energy production facilities directly.

Delegated Senior Official (DSO)

A "Delegated Senior Official" is a DHS official, who has been delegated authority by the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to direct use of priority ratings in contracts and orders supporting DHS Approved Programs.

Emergency Preparedness

DPA authorities are available to support emergency preparedness activities conducted pursuant to title VI of The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act [42 U.S.C. 5195 et seq.].  “Emergency preparedness” is defined in section 602 of the Stafford Act as follows:

The term “emergency preparedness” means all those activities and measures designed or undertaken to prepare for or minimize the effects of a hazard upon the civilian population, to deal with the immediate emergency conditions which would be created by the hazard, and to effectuate emergency repairs to, or the emergency restoration of, vital utilities and facilities destroyed or damaged by the hazard. Such term includes the following:

(A) Measures to be undertaken in preparation for anticipated hazards (including the establishment of appropriate organizations, operational plans, and supporting agreements, the recruitment and training of personnel, the conduct of research, the procurement and stockpiling of necessary materials and supplies, the provision of suitable warning systems, the construction or preparation of shelters, shelter areas, and control centers, and, when appropriate, the nonmilitary evacuation of the civilian population).
(B) Measures to be undertaken during a hazard (including the enforcement of passive defense regulations prescribed by duly established military or civil authorities, the evacuation of personnel to shelter areas, the control of traffic and panic, and the control and use of lighting and civil communications).
(C) Measures to be undertaken following a hazard (including activities for fire fighting, rescue, emergency medical, health and sanitation services, monitoring for specific dangers of special weapons, unexploded bomb reconnaissance, essential debris clearance, emergency welfare measures, and immediately essential emergency repair or restoration of damaged vital facilities).

Energy

"Energy" is defined in E.O. 13603 as all forms of energy including petroleum, gas (both natural and manufactured), electricity, solid fuels (including all forms of coal, coke, coal chemicals, coal liquification, and coal gasification), solar, wind, other types of renewable energy, atomic energy, and the production, conservation, use, control, and distribution (including pipelines) of all of these forms of energy.

Food Resources

Agriculture Priorities and Allocations System (APAS) Delegation 2 authorizes the DHS Secretary to place rated orders for food resources.  “Food resources” is defined in E.O. 13603 and APAS Delegation 2 as all commodities and products, (simple, mixed, or compound), or complements to such commodities or products, that are capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals, irrespective of other uses to which such commodities or products may be put, at all stages of processing from the raw commodity to the products thereof in vendible form for human or animal consumption. "Food resources" also means potable water packaged in commercially marketable containers, all starches, sugars, vegetable and animal or marine fats and oils, seed, cotton, hemp, and flax fiber, but does not mean any such material after it loses its identity as an agricultural commodity or agricultural product.

Health Resources

“Health resources” is defined in E.O. 13603 as drugs, biological products, medical devices, materials, facilities, health supplies, services and equipment required to diagnose, mitigate or prevent the impairment of, improve, treat, cure, or restore the physical or mental health conditions of the population.

Industrial Resources

“Industrial resources” is the term used in the DPAS regulation to describe the materials, services, and facilities that fall within DPAS jurisdiction.  The DPAS definition of “industrial resources” includes all materials, services, and facilities, including construction materials, with the following exceptions:

  • All forms of energy
  • Health resources
  • Civil transportation
  • Water resources
  • Food resources
  • Food resource facilities
  • Livestock resources
  • Veterinary resources
  • Plant health resources
  • Domestic distribution of farm equipment
  • Commercial fertilizer.

Note: The DPAS definition of “industrial resources” should not be confused with the different definition of this term provided in the DPA.

National Defense

DPA authorities are used to promote the national defense.  “National defense” is defined in section 702 of the DPA as programs for military and energy production or construction, military or critical infrastructure assistance to any foreign nation, homeland security, stockpiling, space, and any directly related activity. Such term includes emergency preparedness activities conducted pursuant to title VI of The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act [42 U.S.C. 5195 et seq.] and critical infrastructure protection and restoration.

Section 101(a) of the DPA [50 U.S.C. § 4511]

(a) Allocation of materials, services, and facilities

The President is authorized (1) to require that performance under contracts or orders (other than contracts of employment) which he deems necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense shall take priority over performance under any other contract or order, and, for the purpose of assuring such priority, to require acceptance and performance of such contracts or orders in preference to other contracts or orders by any person he finds to be capable of their performance, and (2) to allocate materials, services, and facilities in such manner, upon such conditions, and to such extent as he shall deem necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense.

Section 201(a) of E.O. 13603

Sec. 201. Priorities and Allocations Authorities. (a) The authority of the President conferred by section 101 of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2071, to require acceptance and priority performance of contracts or orders (other than contracts of employment) to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders, and to allocate materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense, is delegated to the following agency heads:

  1. the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to food resources, food resource facilities, livestock resources, veterinary resources, plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment and commercial fertilizer;
  2. the Secretary of Energy with respect to all forms of energy;
  3. the Secretary of Health and Human Services with respect to health resources;
  4. the Secretary of Transportation with respect to all forms of civil transportation;
  5. the Secretary of Defense with respect to water resources; and
  6. the Secretary of Commerce with respect to all other materials, services, and facilities, including construction materials.
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