The Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (DPA), provides the President a broad set of authorities to ensure that domestic industry can meet national defense requirements. In the DPA, Congress has found that "the security of the United States is dependent on the ability of the domestic industrial base to supply materials and services for the national defense and to prepare for and respond to military conflicts, natural or man-caused disasters, or acts of terrorism within the United States." Through the DPA, the President can, among other activities, prioritize government contracts for goods and services over competing customers, and offer incentives within the domestic market to enhance the production and supply of critical materials and technologies when necessary for national defense. Since 1950, the DPA has been reauthorized over 50 times by Congress, most recently in 2018 (Sec. 791 of P.L. 115-232 ). The majority of DPA authorities will expire on September 30, 2025, unless reauthorized. This report examines some of the extensive history of the DPA, focusing primarily on its creation and most recent legislative reauthorization. This report also discusses the foremost active authorities of the DPA. Nevertheless, this report is not intended to evaluate all authorities of the DPA comprehensively. For example, though significant authorities for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) are included in the DPA, CFIUS is generally considered separate and distinct from the DPA and this report defers to other CRS reports for in-depth discussion on that issue. This report also identifies relevant delegations of the President's DPA authorities made in Executive Order (E.O.) 13603, National Defense Resources Preparedness . Finally, this report provides a brief overview of issues Congress may consider in its oversight of executive branch use of DPA authorities, as well as the implementation of changes made in the most recent reauthorization. The report also discusses congressional considerations for expanding, restricting, or otherwise modifying the authorities provided by the DPA through new legislation. As appendices to this report, several supplementary tables provide: additional resources related to various DPA subjects; a tabled analysis of key provisions of the DPA and related portions of E.O. 13603 and in regulations; the delegation of Title I priorities and allocations authority to Cabinet Secretaries in E.O. 13603; and a chronology of laws reauthorizing DPA authorities since first enactment. There is also an appendix discussing how DPA authorities changed as a result of the last major reauthorization of the law that included reforms ( P.L. 113-172 , To reauthorize the Defense Production Act, to improve the Defense Production Act Committee, and for other purposes). The DPA was inspired by the First and Second War Powers Acts of 1941 and 1942, which gave the executive branch broad authority to regulate industry during World War II. Much of this authority lapsed at the end of that war, but the beginning of the Cold War with the Soviet Union in the late 1940s and the North Korean invasion of South Korea in June of 1950 caused the Truman Administration to reconsider the need for stronger executive authority in the interest of national defense. The original DPA, enacted on September 8, 1950, granted broad authority to the President to control national economic policy. Containing seven separate titles, the DPA allowed the President, among other powers, to demand that manufacturers give priority to defense production, to requisition materials and property, to expand government and private defense production capacity, ration consumer goods, fix wage and price ceilings, force settlement of some labor disputes, control consumer credit and regulate real estate construction credit and loans, provide certain antitrust protections to industry, and establish a voluntary reserve of private sector executives who would be available for emergency federal employment. Four of the seven titles (Titles II, IV, V, and VI), those which related to requisitioning, rationing, wage and price fixing, labor disputes, and credit controls and regulation, terminated in 1953 when Congress allowed them to lapse. Though commonly associated with industrial production for the DOD, the DPA currently lies within the jurisdiction of the House Committee on Financial Services and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Prior to 1975, House rules did not permit simultaneous referral of bills to two or more committees. Precedents in both chambers did not allow divided or joint referrals, regardless of bill content. Instead, bills were assigned to committees based on the preponderance of their subject matter. Because much of the President's proposal dealt with economic policy, what became the Defense Production Act was assigned in 1950 to the House and Senate Committees on Banking and Currency (their successors are the House Committee on Financial Services and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs). Although the parts of the act dealing with the requisitioning of materials, wages and prices, labor, and credit are no longer in force, these committees have retained jurisdiction. In addition to the standing committees of jurisdiction, the original statute created a Joint Committee on Defense Production. This committee was composed of selected members from the standing Committees on Banking and Currency of the Senate and House. This committee was intended to review the programs established by the DPA and advise the standing committees whenever they drafted legislation on the subject. Although the provision in the DPA establishing the Joint Committee on Defense Production was officially repealed in 1992, in effect, the Joint Committee has not existed since 1977, when salaries and expenses for the committee were last funded. The DPA has been amended and reauthorized numerous times since its original enactment. Most notably, with the passage and enactment of P.L. 85-95, Congress reauthorized Titles I, III, and VII while allowing Titles II, IV, V, and VI of the DPA to expire in 1953. The Defense Production Act, like the War Power Acts that preceded it, included a sunset provision that has required periodic reauthorization and offered the opportunity for amendment. Congress passed the DPA in 1950 and has thus far reauthorized it 53 times, including many short-term "stop-gap" extensions. From time to time, the DPA has expired without Congress passing a law reauthorizing and extending its termination date. In such circumstances, Congress has often ultimately passed a law retroactively setting the effective date for the law to the previous expiration date. Most notably, for example, the DPA expired on October 20, 1990, and was not reauthorized until August 17, 1991. However, upon passage of P.L. 102-99 , the effective date of the law was set to October 20, 1990. The DPA was most recently reauthorized by the 115 th Congress, in Section 1791 of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 ( P.L. 115-232 ). This extended the termination of the act by six years, from September 30, 2019, to September 30, 2025, when nearly all DPA authorities will terminate. See Table A-4 in the Appendix for a full chronology of reauthorizations. This section provides summaries of the major authorities granted to the President in the three remaining active titles of the DPA. Each summary describes how the DPA authorities are delegated to Cabinet officials or other offices of the U.S. government in the issued Executive Order (E.O.) 13603, National Defense Resource Preparedness . It is not intended to comprehensively evaluate all authorities in the DPA. The information provided below is reviewed in Table A-2 for select provisions of the DPA. Table A-1 also provides a list of additional materials, information, and resources on various topics of the DPA that may be of use to Congress. The DPA provides the President an "array of authorities to shape national defense preparedness programs and to take appropriate steps to maintain and enhance the domestic industrial base." [Italics added.] DPA authorities are tied to the definition of national defense , as the use of any major DPA authority must be interpreted to promote, support, or otherwise be deemed needed or essential for the national defense. National defense is currently defined in the statute as programs for military and energy production or construction, military or critical infrastructure assistance to any foreign nation, homeland security, stockpiling, space, and any directly related activity. Such term includes emergency preparedness activities conducted pursuant to title VI of The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act [42 U.S.C. §§5195 et seq.] and critical infrastructure protection and restoration. Further reference can be made to Title VI of the Stafford Act for a definition of "emergency preparedness" activities. It states that emergency preparedness: means all those activities and measures designed or undertaken to prepare for or minimize the effects of a hazard upon the civilian population, to deal with the immediate emergency conditions which would be created by the hazard, and to effectuate emergency repairs to, or the emergency restoration of, vital utilities and facilities destroyed or damaged by the hazard. Therefore, the use of DPA authorities extends beyond shaping U.S. military preparedness and capabilities, as the authorities may also be used to enhance and support domestic preparedness, response, and recovery from hazards, terrorist attacks, and other national emergencies, among other purposes. In its original 1950 form, the DPA defined national defense as "the operations and activities of the armed forces, the Atomic Energy Commission, or any other department or agency directly or indirectly and substantially concerned with the national defense... " Over the many reauthorizations and amendments to the DPA, Congress has gradually expanded the scope of the definition of national defense, as recently as 2009. At that time, Congress included critical infrastructure assistance to any foreign nation and added homeland security to the definition. The DPA statute also includes both a full Congressional "Findings" and "Statement of Policy," as set forth in the "Declaration of Policy" section of the DPA.