(a) Policy Required.—

(1) In general.—The Secretary of Defense shall maintain a strategic policy on the programs of the Department of Defense for prepositioned materiel and equipment. Such policy shall take into account national security threats, strategic mobility, service requirements, support for crisis response elements, and the requirements of the combatant commands, and shall address how the Department’s prepositioning programs, both ground and afloat, align with national defense strategies and departmental priorities.

(2) Elements.—The strategic policy required under paragraph (1) shall include the following elements:

(A) Overarching strategic guidance concerning planning and resource priorities that link the Department of Defense’s current and future needs for prepositioned stocks, such as desired responsiveness, to evolving national defense objectives.

(B) A description of the Department’s vision for prepositioning programs and the desired end state.

(C) Specific interim goals demonstrating how the vision and end state will be achieved.

(D) A description of the strategic environment, requirements for, and challenges associated with, prepositioning.

(E) Metrics for how the Department will evaluate the extent to which prepositioned assets are achieving defense objectives.

(F) A framework for joint departmental oversight that reviews and synchronizes the military services’ prepositioning strategies to minimize potentially duplicative efforts and maximize efficiencies in prepositioned materiel and equipment across the Department of Defense.

(3) Joint oversight.—The Secretary of Defense shall establish joint oversight of the military services’ prepositioning efforts to maximize efficiencies across the Department of Defense.

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(b) Limitation of Diversion of Prepositioned Materiel.—The Secretary of a military department may not divert materiel or equipment from prepositioned stocks except—

(1) in accordance with a change made by the Secretary of Defense to the policy maintained under subsection (a); or

(2) for the purpose of directly supporting a contingency operation or providing humanitarian assistance under chapter 20 of this title.

(c) Congressional Notification.—The Secretary of Defense may not implement or change the policy required under subsection (a) until the Secretary submits to the congressional defense committees a report describing the policy or change to the policy.

(d) Annual Certification.—(1) Not later than the date of the submission of the President’s budget request for a fiscal year under section 1105 of title 31, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees a certification in writing that the prepositioned stocks of each of the military departments meet all operations plans, in both fill and readiness, that are in effect as of the date of the submission of the certification.

(2) If, for any year, the Secretary cannot certify that any of the prepositioned stocks meet such operations plans, the Secretary shall include with the certification for that year a list of the operations plans affected, a description of any measures that have been taken to mitigate any risk associated with prepositioned stock shortfalls, and an anticipated timeframe for the replenishment of the stocks.

(3) A certification under this subsection shall be in an unclassified form but may have a classified annex.