6 U.S.C. § 391: Research and development projects

When the Secretary carries out basic, applied, and advanced research and development projects, including the expenditure of funds for such projects, the Secretary may exercise the same authority (subject to the same limitations and conditions) with respect to such research and projects as the Secretary of Defense may exercise under section 4021 of title 10 (except for subsections (b) and (f)), after making a determination that the use of a contract, grant, or cooperative agreement for such project is not feasible or appropriate. The annual report required under subsection (b) 1 of this section, as applied to the Secretary by this paragraph, shall be submitted to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. may, under the authority of paragraph (1), carry out prototype projects under section 4022 of title 10 ; and in applying the authorities of such section 4022, the Secretary shall perform the functions of the Secretary of Defense as prescribed in such section. procure the temporary or intermittent services of experts or consultants (or organizations thereof) in accordance with section 3109(b) of title 5 ; and whenever necessary due to an urgent homeland security need, procure temporary (not to exceed 1 year) or intermittent personal services, including the services of experts or consultants (or organizations thereof), without regard to the pay limitations of such section 3109. issues policy guidance detailing the appropriate use of that authority; and provides training to each employee that is authorized to exercise that authority. The Secretary shall provide an annual report to the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate, and the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives detailing the projects for which the authority granted by subsection (a) was used, the rationale for its use, the funds spent using that authority, the outcome of each project for which that authority was used, and the results of any audits of such projects. In this section, the term “nontraditional Government contractor” has the same meaning as the term “nontraditional defense contractor” as defined in section 4022(e) of title 10 . Each major acquisition program of the Department of Homeland Security, as defined in Department of Homeland Security Management Directive 102–2, shall meet established acquisition documentation requirements for its acquisition program baseline established in the Department of Homeland Security Instruction Manual 102–01–001 and the Department of Homeland Security Acquisition Instruction/Guidebook 102–01–001, Appendix K. The Department shall report to the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and the House of Representatives in the Comprehensive Acquisition Status Report and its quarterly updates, required under the heading ‘Office of the Under Secretary for Management’ of this Act [div. F of Pub. L. 114–113 , 129 Stat. 2493 ], on any major acquisition program that does not meet such documentation requirements and the schedule by which the program will come into compliance with these requirements. None of the funds made available by this or any other Act for any fiscal year may be used for a major acquisition program that is out of compliance with such documentation requirements for more than two years except that funds may be used solely to come into compliance with such documentation requirements or to terminate the program.”