10 U.S.C. § 7063: Basic branches

Infantry; Armor; Artillery; Corps of Engineers; Signal Corps; Adjutant General’s Corps; Quartermaster Corps; Finance Corps; Ordnance Corps; Chemical Corps; Transportation Corps; Military Police Corps; and such other basic branches as the Secretary considers necessary. The Secretary may discontinue or consolidate basic branches of the Army for the duration of any war, or of any national emergency declared by Congress. The Secretary may not assign to a basic branch any commissioned officer appointed in a special branch. The amendments made by subsection (a) [amending this section] shall take effect on October 1, 2025 , but only if the report required by paragraph (2) is not submitted before that date as required by such paragraph. The defense budget materials display funding requirements for explosive ordnance disposal separately and a program of record is established and maintained for explosive ordnance disposal. A process has been established to ensure that, by not later than five years after the date of the enactment of this Act [ Dec. 12, 2017 ], there is, and will continue to be, at least one general officer in the Army, the explosive ordnance disposal commandant (chief of explosive ordnance disposal), qualified regarding issues involving explosive ordnance disposal to ensure officer professional development and upward mobility. The Ordnance Personnel Proponency Office is, and will continue to be, manned with an explosive ordnance disposal officer to oversee explosive ordnance disposal officer and enlisted personnel proponency. Explosive ordnance disposal officer education has been included in a basic officer leadership course, a captains career course, and a policy and planning course specific to explosive ordnance disposal as part of intermediate level education and pre-command courses. The office of the Army Deputy Chief of Staff, G8, and the office of the Army Deputy Chief of Staff, G3, have, and will continue to be, manned with explosive ordnance disposal officers responsible for the decision management decision packages, ammunition organizational integration, and force modernization related to explosive ordnance disposal. The Army has established and maintained explosive ordnance disposal cells at the Army Forces Command, Army Service Component Commands, Army Special Operations Command, Army Training and Doctrine Command, and the Army Capability and Integration Center. The explosive ordnance disposal commandant (chief of explosive ordnance disposal) has determined whether explosive ordnance disposal soldiers have the appropriate skills necessary to support missions of special operations forces (as identified in section 167(j) of title 10 , United States Code). Such skills may include airborne, air assault, combat diver, fast roping insertion and extraction, helocasting, military free-fall, and off-road driving. The Secretary of the Army shall notify the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives of the submission of the report under paragraph (2) so that the Law Revision Counsel does not execute the amendments made by subsection (a).”