How Defense Department security cooperation is managed

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1. The administrative rules behind the authorities

The last subchapter of chapter 16 of title 10 covers administrative and miscellaneous matters. It does not authorize any activity with a foreign partner. Instead it fixes who runs the Defense Department’s security cooperation work, how it is budgeted and reported, how it is assessed, and when the Department may fund another agency to help. Those rules apply across all the chapter’s authorities, from training with foreign forces to section 333, the authority to build partner capacity.

Every rule here applies to one defined category, the Department’s security cooperation programs and activities (10 U.S.C. 301). The definitions section of the chapter counts any program, exercise or other interaction with a foreign security establishment, provided it builds partner capabilities, secures access for American forces, or builds relationships serving specific American security interests. Those definitions are explained in training and exercises with foreign forces.

2. One policy office, one executing agency

Policy and money are assigned to one place. The Secretary of Defense must give responsibility for oversight of strategic policy and guidance, and for overall resource allocation, to a single official and office. That office sits in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, at the level of Under Secretary or below (10 U.S.C. 382(a)).

Execution is assigned to another. The Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency is responsible for executing and administering all the Department’s security cooperation programs and activities of one kind. They are those that provide defense articles, military training and other defense-related services by grant, loan, cash sale or lease (10 U.S.C. 382(b)(1)).

The Director may hand execution to someone else. An element of an armed force, a combatant command, a Defense Agency, a Field Activity or another Defense Department organization may be designated to execute and administer such programs (10 U.S.C. 382(b)(2)). The test is that the designation will achieve maximum effectiveness, efficiency and economy in the activities concerned.

Funds of the agency, and other Defense Department funds available for security cooperation, may be used to implement the programs the chapter authorizes (10 U.S.C. 382(c)(1)). The funds needed each year must be identified, with justification, in the consolidated budget (10 U.S.C. 382(c)(2)).

3. The consolidated budget and the semiannual report

The President’s budget submission must set out, by budget function and as a separate item, the amounts requested for the Department’s security cooperation programs and activities for the fiscal year (10 U.S.C. 381(a)). This includes the military departments. To the extent practicable, it must identify the specific country or region and the applicable authority.

Spending is reported twice a year. The Secretary reports to the appropriate committees on the obligation and expenditure of security cooperation funds (10 U.S.C. 381(b)). The report for the first six months of a year is due by August 31, and the report for the second six months of the preceding year is due by February 28.

4. Assessment, monitoring and evaluation

The Secretary must maintain a program of assessment, monitoring and evaluation in support of the Department’s security cooperation programs and activities (10 U.S.C. 383(a)). The statute lists five elements (10 U.S.C. 383(b)(1)).

• Initial assessments of partner capability requirements, programmatic risks, baseline information and indicators of efficacy, for planning, monitoring and evaluation.
• Monitoring of implementation to measure progress in execution and, where possible, achievement of desired outcomes.
• Evaluation of how efficiently and effectively programs achieve desired outcomes.
• Identification of lessons learned, with recommendations for improving future programs.
• Incorporation of lessons from programs carried out at any time on or after September 11, 2001.

The program must follow international best practices and interagency standards. Where applicable, it must also follow the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 and the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 (10 U.S.C. 383(b)(2)). It may be funded from the agency’s funds and other security cooperation funds, identified in the consolidated budget (10 U.S.C. 383(c)).

Results are reported and published. Each year the Secretary reports to the congressional defense committees on the program, describing its activities and evaluating lessons learned, challenges and best practices (10 U.S.C. 383(d)(1)). A summary of each evaluation must be posted on a public Defense Department website. Information may be redacted or omitted where disclosure would harm the interests of the United States or the countries covered (10 U.S.C. 383(d)(2)).

5. Paying other agencies to help

Some work the Department needs cannot be done by the Department. The Secretary may support other federal departments and agencies in implementing or supporting foreign assistance programs that advance the Department’s security cooperation objectives (10 U.S.C. 385(a)). The programs must be necessary for the effectiveness of a Defense Department security cooperation program under the chapter, and must be ones the Department cannot carry out itself (10 U.S.C. 385(b)).

Support is capped at $75,000,000 in any fiscal year (10 U.S.C. 385(c)). Any transfer of funds is subject to a notice and wait rule (10 U.S.C. 385(d)). The Secretary and the head of the receiving agency jointly notify the congressional defense committees, and the transfer may occur only 30 days later.

The joint notice has six parts. It describes the purpose and estimated cost of the program, and the Department’s security cooperation objectives it will advance, including the combatant command’s theater campaign plan. It justifies why the program will advance those objectives and why the Department cannot carry it out. It identifies any of the other agency’s own funds already set aside in programming or obligated for the program, and gives a timeline for the support (10 U.S.C. 385(d)(1)).

6. Where the workforce and the budget table fit

Two further sections of the same subchapter complete the picture. One requires a professional workforce for security cooperation, described in the security cooperation workforce. The other requires the annual country-by-country report described in the annual security cooperation report.

Key terms

Security cooperation programs and activities	Any program, activity or interaction with a foreign security establishment for one of three statutory purposes.
Consolidated budget	The separate item in the President’s budget showing all Defense Department security cooperation requests.
Assessment, monitoring and evaluation	The standing program that assesses partners, tracks execution and evaluates outcomes.
Notice and wait	A joint notice to Congress and a 30 day wait before funds pass to another agency.

Every statement above links to the document behind it. The full source list for this piece is on the sources page.

This page describes public United States government programs for general information. It is not legal, regulatory or procurement advice, and it does not address the facts of any particular case.

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