10 U.S.C. § 2452: Duties of Secretary of Defense

develop and maintain the supply catalog, and the standardization program, described in section 2451 of this title ; direct and coordinate progressive use of the supply catalog in all supply functions within the Department of Defense from the determination of requirements through final disposal; the naming, description, and pattern of description of all items; the screening, consolidation, classification, and numbering of descriptions of all items; and the publication and distribution of the supply catalog; maintain liaison with industry advisory groups to coordinate the development of the supply catalog and the standardization program with the best practices of industry and to obtain the fullest practicable cooperation and participation of industry in developing the supply catalog and the standardization program; establish, publish, review, and revise, within the Department of Defense, military specifications, standards, and lists of qualified products, and resolve differences between the military departments, bureaus, and services with respect to them; assign responsibility for parts of the cataloging and the standardization programs to the military departments, bureaus, and services within the Department of Defense, when practical and consistent with their capacity and interest in those supplies; establish time schedules for assignments made under clause (6); and make final decisions in all matters concerned with the cataloging and standardization programs. except as provided in clause (2), prohibit the purchase of any spare part or replacement equipment when the price of such part or equipment, since a time in the past specified by the Secretary (in terms of days or months) or since the most recent purchase of such part or equipment by the Department of Defense, has increased in price by a percentage in excess of a percentage threshold specified by the Secretary in such regulations, and such officer has evaluated the price of such part or equipment and concluded that the increase in the price of such part or equipment is fair and reasonable, or the national security interests of the United States require that such part or equipment be purchased despite the increase in price of such part or equipment. The Secretary shall publish the regulations issued under this section in the Federal Register. The Secretary may provide in such regulations for the waiver of the prohibition in subsection (a)(1) and compliance with the requirements of subsection (a)(2) in the case of a purchase of any spare part or replacement equipment made or to be made through competitive procedures. Not less than 30 days before the Secretary publishes such regulations in accordance with subsection (b), the Secretary shall submit the text of the proposed regulations to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and House of Representatives.”