I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3093 

To establish acquisition pathways for software applications and software upgrades and software development and software acquisition training and 

management programs for the Department of Defense, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 4, 2019 

Ms. SLOTKIN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Armed Services 

A BILL 

To establish acquisition pathways for software applications 

and software upgrades and software development and 

software acquisition training and management programs 

for the Department of Defense, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Creating Opportunities 

5 through Defense Engineering Requirements Act of 2019’’ 

6 or the ‘‘CODER Act of 2019’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF ACQUISITION PATHWAYS FOR 

2 SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS AND SOFTWARE 

3 UPGRADES. 

4 (a) GUIDANCE REQUIRED.—Not later than March 1, 

5 2020, the Secretary of Defense shall establish guidance 

6 authorizing the use of acquisition pathways described in 

7 subsection (b) for the rapid acquisition of software appli8 cations and software upgrades that are intended to be 

9 fielded within one year. A contract awarded under this sec10 tion— 

11 (1) shall be in an amount equal to or less than 

12 $50,000,000; and 

13 (2) may be entered into for a period of not 

14 more than one year. 

15 (b) SOFTWARE ACQUISITION PATHWAYS.—The guid16 ance required by subsection (a) shall provide for the use 

17 of the following two acquisition pathways: 

18 (1) APPLICATIONS.—The applications pathway 

19 shall provide for the use of rapid development and 

20 implementation of software applications to be used 

21 with commercially available hardware. 

22 (2) UPGRADES.—The upgrades pathway shall 

23 provide for the rapid development and insertion of 

24 software upgrades for embedded weapon systems or 

25 another hardware system solely used by the Depart26 ment of Defense. 


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1 (c) GENERAL REQUIREMENTS.—The guidance re2 quired by subsection (a) shall provide for— 

3 (1) the use of proven technologies and solutions 

4 to continuously engineer, update, and deliver capa5 bilities in software; and 

6 (2) a streamlined and coordinated require7 ments, budget, and acquisition process that results 

8 in the rapid fielding of software applications and 

9 software upgrades. 

10 (d) EXPEDITED PROCESS.— 

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—An acquisition conducted 

12 under the guidance required by subsection (a) shall 

13 not be subject to the Joint Capabilities Integration 

14 and Development System Manual and Department 

15 of Defense Directive 5000.01, except to the extent 

16 specifically provided in such guidance. 

17 (2) REQUIREMENTS PROCESS.—The guidance 

18 required by subsection (a) shall provide that the re19 quirements for acquisition of software applications 

20 and software upgrades— 

21 (A) are developed, refined, and prioritized 

22 on an iterative basis through continuous partici23 pation and collaboration by users, testers, and 

24 requirements authorities; 


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1 (B) include an identification of the need 

2 for, and users of, the software to be acquired 

3 and a rationale for how the software will sup4 port increased efficiency of the Department of 

5 Defense; 

6 (C) are stated in the form of a summary7 level list of vulnerabilities in existing software 

8 systems and desired features or capabilities of 

9 the software to be acquired; and 

10 (D) consider issues related to lifecycle 

11 costs, systems interoperability, and logistics 

12 support if the developer of the software to be 

13 acquired stops providing support. 

14 (3) EXECUTION OF RAPID ACQUISITIONS.—The 

15 Secretary shall ensure that— 

16 (A) an acquisition conducted under the 

17 guidance required by subsection (a) is sup18 ported by an entity capable of regular auto19 mated testing of the source code of the software 

20 to be acquired and that such entity is author21 ized to buy storage, bandwidth, and computing 

22 capability as necessary; 

23 (B) the Department of Defense can collect 

24 and analyze the testing data described in subVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:08 Jun 12, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3093.IH H3093

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1 paragraph (A) to make decisions regarding soft2 ware acquisition and oversight; 

3 (C) the Director of Operational Test and 

4 Evaluation and the project manager appointed 

5 under paragraph (5) design test cases to ensure 

6 that the entity described in subparagraph (A) 

7 can test the software to be acquired to ensure 

8 such software meets the requirements of the 

9 contract; 

10 (D) the project manager appointed under 

11 paragraph (5) closely monitors the progress of 

12 an acquisition conducted under the guidance re13 quired by subsection (a); 

14 (E) an independent cost estimate is con15 ducted that considers— 

16 (i) the iterative process of the develop17 ment of the software to be acquired; and 

18 (ii) the long-term value of the soft19 ware to be acquired to the Department of 

20 Defense, not based on the value of indi21 vidual lines of source code of the software; 

22 (F) the performance of fielded versions of 

23 the software to be acquired are demonstrated 

24 and evaluated in an operational environment; 

25 and 


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1 (G) performance metrics of the software to 

2 be acquired, such as metrics relating to when 

3 the software can be fielded, delivery capabilities 

4 of the software (including speed of recovery 

5 from outages and cybersecurity vulnerabilities), 

6 and assessments and estimations of the size 

7 and complexity of such software, are automati8 cally generated on a continuous basis and made 

9 available to the Department of Defense and the 

10 congressional defense committees. 

11 (4) ADMINISTRATION OF SOFTWARE ACQUISI12 TION PATHWAYS.—The guidance required by sub13 section (a) may provide for the use of any of the fol14 lowing streamlined procedures: 

15 (A) The service acquisition executive of the 

16 military department concerned shall appoint a 

17 project manager for each acquisition of software 

18 applications and software upgrades, as deter19 mined by the service acquisition executive. Such 

20 project manager shall be appointed from among 

21 civilian employees or members of the Armed 

22 Forces who have significant and relevant expe23 rience in current software processes. 

24 (B) Each project manager shall report 

25 with respect to such acquisition directly, and 


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1 without intervening review or approval, to the 

2 service acquisition executive of the military de3 partment concerned. 

4 (C) The service acquisition executive of the 

5 military department concerned shall evaluate 

6 the job performance of such manager on an an7 nual basis. In conducting an evaluation under 

8 this paragraph, a service acquisition executive 

9 shall consider the extent to which the manager 

10 has achieved the objectives of the acquisition 

11 for which the manager is responsible, including 

12 quality, timeliness, and cost objectives. 

13 (D) The project manager shall be author14 ized staff positions for a technical staff, includ15 ing experts in software engineering to enable 

16 the manager to manage the acquisition without 

17 the technical assistance of another organiza18 tional unit of an agency to the maximum extent 

19 practicable. 

20 (E) The project manager shall be author21 ized, in coordination with the users and testers 

22 of the software to be acquired, to make trade23 offs among lifecycle costs, requirements, and 

24 schedules to meet the goals of the acquisition. 


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1 (F) The service acquisition executive or the 

2 Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and 

3 Sustainment, as applicable, shall serve as the 

4 decision authority for the acquisition. 

5 (G) The project manager of a defense 

6 streamlined acquisition shall be provided a 

7 process to expeditiously seek a waiver from 

8 Congress from any statutory or regulatory re9 quirement that the project manager determines 

10 adds little or no value to the management of 

11 the acquisition. 

12 (e) CONTRACT TERMS.— 

13 (1) IN GENERAL.—A contract entered into pur14 suant to the guidance required by subsection (a)— 

15 (A) may be awarded within a 90-day pe16 riod after solicitation on the basis of— 

17 (i) statements of qualifications and 

18 past performance data submitted by 

19 offerors; and 

20 (ii) discussions with two or more 

21 qualified offerors without regard to price; 

22 (B) may be a time-and-materials contract; 

23 (C) shall be treated as a contract for the 

24 acquisition of commercial services (as defined in 


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1 section 103a of title 41, United States Code, as 

2 in effect on January 1, 2020); 

3 (D) shall identify the individuals to per4 form the work of the contract, and such individ5 uals may not be replaced without the advance 

6 written consent of the contracting officer; and 

7 (E) may allow for a contractor performing 

8 the work of the contract to review existing soft9 ware in consultation with the user community 

10 and incorporate user feedback to— 

11 (i) define and prioritize software re12 quirements; and 

13 (ii) design and implement new soft14 ware applications and software upgrades. 

15 (2) OPTIONS.—A contract entered into pursu16 ant to the guidance required by subsection (a) may 

17 contain an option to extend the contract once, for a 

18 period not to exceed one year, to complete the imple19 mentation of one or more specified software applica20 tions and software upgrades identified during the 

21 period of the initial contract. Such an option may 

22 not be in an amount greater than $100,000,000 

23 and— 

24 (A) if the option is a time-and-materials 

25 contract, it shall be treated as a contract for 


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1 the acquisition of commercial services (as de2 fined in section 103a of title 41, United States 

3 Code); and 

4 (B) if the option is a fixed-price contract, 

5 it shall be treated as a contract for the acquisi6 tion of commercial products (as defined in sec7 tion 103 of title 41, United States Code). 

8 (f) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec9 tion shall be deemed to prevent the use of other methods 

10 of acquisition to procure software applications and up11 grades. 

12 (g) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 2430(a)(2) 

13 of title 10, United States Code, is amended— 

14 (1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘or’’ at 

15 the end; 

16 (2) in subparagraph (B), by striking the period 

17 at the end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 

18 (3) by adding at the end the following new sub19 paragraph: 

20 ‘‘(C) an acquisition program for software 

21 applications and software upgrades carried out 

22 using the acquisition guidance issued pursuant 

23 to the CODER Act of 2019.’’. 


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1 SEC. 3. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AND SOFTWARE ACQUI2 SITION TRAINING AND MANAGEMENT PRO3 GRAMS. 

4 (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

5 AND SOFTWARE ACQUISITION TRAINING AND MANAGE6 MENT PROGRAMS.— 

7 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Defense, 

8 acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for 

9 Acquisition and Sustainment and in consultation 

10 with the Under Secretary of Defense for Research 

11 and Engineering and the Chief Information Officer 

12 of the Department of Defense, shall establish soft13 ware development and software acquisition training 

14 and management programs for all software acquisi15 tion professionals, software developers, and other ap16 propriate individuals, as determined by the Secretary 

17 of Defense to earn a certification in software devel18 opment and software acquisition. 

19 (2) PROGRAM CONTENTS.—The programs es20 tablished under paragraph (1) shall— 

21 (A) develop and expand the use of special22 ized training programs for chief information of23 ficers of the military departments and the De24 fense Agencies, service acquisition executives, 

25 program executive officers, and program man26 agers to include training on and experience in— 


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1 (i) continuous software development; 

2 and 

3 (ii) acquisition pathways available to 

4 acquire software; 

5 (B) ensure program managers for major 

6 defense acquisition programs, defense business 

7 systems, and other software programs of the 

8 Department of Defense— 

9 (i) have demonstrated competency in 

10 current software processes; 

11 (ii) have the skills to lead a workforce 

12 that can quickly meet challenges, use soft13 ware tools that prioritize continuous or fre14 quent upgrades as such tools become avail15 able, take up opportunities provided by 

16 new innovations, and plan software activi17 ties in short iterations to learn from risks 

18 of software testing; and 

19 (iii) have the experience and training 

20 to delegate technical oversight and execu21 tion decisions; and 

22 (C) include continuing education courses 

23 and experiential training to help individuals 

24 maintain skills learned through the programs. 

25 (b) REPORTS.— 


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1 (1) REPORTS REQUIRED.—The Secretary shall 

2 submit to the congressional defense committees— 

3 (A) not later than 90 days after the date 

4 of the enactment of this Act, an initial report; 

5 and 

6 (B) not later than one year after the date 

7 of the enactment of this Act, a final report. 

8 (2) CONTENTS.—Each report required under 

9 paragraph (1) shall include— 

10 (A) the status of implementing the soft11 ware development and software acquisition 

12 training and management programs established 

13 under subsection (a)(1); 

14 (B) a description of the requirements for 

15 certification, including the requirements for 

16 competencies in current software processes; 

17 (C) a description of potential career paths 

18 in software development and software acquisi19 tion within the Department of Defense; 

20 (D) an independent assessment conducted 

21 by the Defense Innovation Board of the 

22 progress made on implementing the programs 

23 established under subsection (a)(1); and 

24 (E) any recommendations for changes to 

25 existing law to facilitate the implementation of 


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1 the programs established under subsection 

2 (a)(1). 

3 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

4 (1) PROGRAM EXECUTIVE OFFICER; PROGRAM

5 MANAGER.—The terms ‘‘program executive officer’’ 

6 and ‘‘program manager’’ have the meanings given 

7 those terms, respectively, in section 1737 of title 10, 

8 United States Code. 

9 (2) SERVICE ACQUISITION EXECUTIVE.—The 

10 terms ‘‘military department’’, ‘‘Defense Agency’’, 

11 and ‘‘service acquisition executive’’ have the mean12 ings given those terms, respectively, in section 101 

13 of title 10, United States Code. 

14 (3) MAJOR DEFENSE ACQUISITION PROGRAM.— 

15 The term ‘‘major defense acquisition program’’ has 

16 the meaning given in section 2430 of title 10, 

17 United States Code. 

18 (4) DEFENSE BUSINESS SYSTEM.—The term 

19 ‘‘defense business system’’ has the meaning given in 

20 section 2222(i)(1) of title 10, United States Code. 

Æ 


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