10 U.S.C. § 127 — Emergency and extraordinary expenses

(a) The Secretary of Defense, the Defense Department's Inspector General, and the secretary of each military department may spend money on emergency or extraordinary expenses that could not be predicted or sorted into a normal budget category — but only if Congress specifically appropriated the funds for that purpose, and only within the limits set by subsection (c). Once Congress appropriates money this way, the responsible official decides how to spend it for any purpose that official thinks proper, and that decision is final — the government's accounting officers cannot second-guess it. The official may certify the amount spent without saying exactly what it bought, and that certificate alone is enough to prove the expense. This section does not cover confidential, extraordinary, or emergency spending for intelligence and counterintelligence purposes under the Military Intelligence Program — that spending is instead governed by section 429a of this title. (b) The Secretary of Defense may hand off this spending power to anyone in the Department of Defense; the Inspector General may hand it off to anyone in the Office of the Inspector General; and a military department secretary may hand it off to anyone in that department. Each may also let the person receiving the power pass it along further. (c)(1) No one may commit or spend more than $500,000 under this authority until the Secretary of Defense first notifies the congressional defense committees of the intent to do so. After that notice, they must then wait: 15 days for spending over $1,000,000, or 5 days for spending between $500,000 and $1,000,000. (2) The Secretary may skip that waiting period if applying it would compromise U.S. national security objectives. If the Secretary does this, the Secretary must immediately notify the same committees' chairs and ranking members (or their designees) that the spending is necessary, providing relevant information — in classified form if needed. (3) Every notice under this subsection must state the amount to be spent and its purpose. (4)(A) For intelligence or counterintelligence spending over $100,000, the Secretary must notify both the defense committees and the congressional intelligence committees, then wait 15 days before spending. (B) The Secretary may waive that 15-day wait if extraordinary circumstances affecting national security make it necessary. If the Secretary does, the Secretary must send the defense and intelligence committees written notice explaining the waiver within 48 hours of issuing it. (d) Annual Report. (1) By December 1 each year, the Secretary must submit: (A) to the congressional defense committees, a report on all spending during the previous fiscal year under subsections (a) and (b); and (B) to the congressional intelligence committees, a report on the intelligence- and counterintelligence-related spending from that same period. (2) For every individual expense over $100,000, each report must describe: what the expense was for, its amount, who approved it, why no other available Defense Department authority could have covered it instead, and any other matters the Secretary thinks appropriate. (e) "Congressional intelligence committees" means the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.