(a) Establishment.—There is established in the Treasury an account to be known as the “Joint Urgent Operational Needs Fund” (in this section referred to as the “Fund”).

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(b) Elements.—The Fund shall consist of the following:

(1) Amounts appropriated to the Fund.

(2) Amounts transferred to the Fund.

(3) Any other amounts made available to the Fund by law.

(c) Use of Funds.—(1) Amounts in the Fund shall be available to the Secretary of Defense for capabilities that are determined by the Secretary, pursuant to the review process required by Department of Defense Instruction 5000.81 (or any successor instruction), dated December 31, 2019, and titled “Urgent Capability Acquisition”, to be suitable for rapid fielding in response to urgent operational needs.

(2) The Secretary shall establish a merit-based process for identifying equipment, supplies, services, training, and facilities suitable for funding through the Fund.

(3) Nothing in this section shall be interpreted to require or enable any official of the Department of Defense to provide funding under this section pursuant to a congressional earmark, as defined in clause 9 of Rule XXI of the Rules of the House of Representatives, or a congressionally directed spending item, as defined in paragraph 5 of Rule XLIV of the Standing Rules of the Senate.

(d) Transfer Authority.—(1) Amounts in the Fund may be transferred by the Secretary of Defense from the Fund to any of the following accounts of the Department of Defense to accomplish the purpose stated in subsection (c):

(A) Operation and maintenance accounts.

(B) Procurement accounts.

(C) Research, development, test, and evaluation accounts.

(2) Upon determination by the Secretary that all or part of the amounts transferred from the Fund under paragraph (1) are not necessary for the purpose for which transferred, such amounts may be transferred back to the Fund.

(3) The transfer of an amount to an account under the authority in paragraph (1) shall be deemed to increase the amount authorized for such account by an amount equal to the amount so transferred.

(4) The transfer authority provided by paragraphs (1) and (2) is in addition to any other transfer authority available to the Department of Defense by law.

(e) Sunset.—The authority to make expenditures or transfers from the Fund shall expire on September 30, 2018.