Made-in-America Defense Act

The Made-in-America Defense Act would require the U.S. Secretary of State, working with the Secretary of Defense, to regularly review which defense articles and services are available through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program but not through Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) under the Arms Export Control Act. The goal is to identify items that could be transferred more quickly under DCS and thus improve delivery speed to allies and partners, while also assessing the workload impact on State and Defense and any national security or competitiveness benefits from using DCS. Starting within one year of enactment, and then annually, the review would evaluate each candidate item’s transfer time, workload effects, and security/competitiveness benefits. The agencies would report their findings to Congress within 30 days of each review, including the average transfer times for FMS vs. DCS, key delay causes, steps taken to reduce delays, and any changes to the FMS-Only List with justification. The report would be unclassified, with a possible classified annex.