DEPOTS Act

The Defense Expenditure Planning for Optimizing Throughput and Sustainment Act (DEPOTS Act) allows the Department of Defense (DOD) to clear certain internal accounting balances from its books. Specifically, it gives the Secretary of Defense—and delegated leaders of individual military branches—the authority to write off internal debts or remaining depreciation costs attached to equipment and facilities at military depots and arsenals.

* **Department of Defense (DOD):** The Secretary of Defense and the Secretaries of the individual military departments gain authority to manage internal accounting write-offs. * **Military Depots and Arsenals:** Facilities holding capital assets that no longer generate revenue due to federal decisions to realign their missions.

* **Internal Write-Off Authority:** The Secretary of Defense can wipe out internal government financial charges, such as unresolved internal debt or asset depreciation, from military accounts. * **Delegation:** The Secretary of Defense is permitted to delegate this write-off authority down to the Secretaries of the individual military departments (e.g., Army, Navy, Air Force).

* **Internal Balances Only:** The bill deals with internal government accounting numbers rather than new appropriations or external taxes. * **Revolving Fund Requirement:** If a write-off involves an asset tied to a government revolving fund, the process **must** be managed in a way that recovers any previous cash outlays made from that fund.

* **Specific Eligibility:** The write-off authority only applies to capital assets at DOD depots and arsenals that stopped generating revenue because of federally directed mission realignments. * **No Impact on Contractors:** The authority applies strictly to internal government financial balances. It **cannot** be used to cancel, adjust, or write off payments or debts owed to commercial contractors.

The DEPOTS Act allows the military to clean up its internal accounting by erasing bookkeeping debts and depreciation costs for equipment at depots and arsenals that lost their revenue sources due to federal mission changes, while making sure private contractors are not affected and revolving fund money is recovered.