42 U.S.C. § 18961 — National Supply Chain Database

(a) Establishment. The Director must establish a voluntary National Supply Chain Database, subject to available funding. (b) Purpose. The database's purpose is to help the federal government and industry sectors minimize supply chain disruptions, by giving an assessment of U.S. manufacturers' capabilities. (c) Study on National Supply Chain Database. In establishing the database, the Director must consider the findings and recommendations from the study authorized under a 2021 defense law, including measures to secure and protect the database from adversarial attacks and vulnerabilities. (d) Database and Manufacturing Extension Partnership. (1) The Director must establish the database's infrastructure through the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, by connecting information from its Centers. (2) The Director must ensure these connections: (A) provide a national overview of U.S. supply chain networks; and (B) support understanding of whether some manufacturers need to retool in critical areas to meet urgent product needs. (3) (A) The Director must ensure each Center connects to the database, and that each Center's own supply chain database works with the national one. (B) Nothing in this section requires a state or territory to establish a new supply chain database through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program. (e) Maintenance of National Supply Chain Database. The Director, acting through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program or its designee: (1) must maintain the database as an integration of state-level databases from each state or territory's Center; (2) may populate it with information from Centers' past or current clients; and (3) may include information non-client private sector entities based and operating in the U.S. voluntarily provide, as applicable and appropriate. (f) Database content. The database may include: (1) basic private sector entity information; (2) an overview of capabilities, accreditations, and products; and (3) proprietary information. (g) Standard classification system. The database may, where applicable, use NAICS codes, including: (1) Sector 31-33, Manufacturing; (2) Sector 54, Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services; and (3) Sector 48-49, Transportation and Warehousing. (h) Levels. The database must be multi-leveled, under terms of mutual disclosure: (1) Level 1 provides basic private sector entity information and is available to the public; (2) Level 2 provides a deeper, nonproprietary overview of capabilities, products, and accreditations, available to companies that contribute to the database; and (3) Level 3 holds proprietary information. (i) Matters relating to disclosure and access. (1) The database, and any information in it not publicly released by the Institute, is exempt from public disclosure under section 552(b)(3) of title 5 (the Freedom of Information Act). (2) Access to a contributing entity's nonpublic content is limited to: (A) that entity, the Institute, and Center staff who sign a nondisclosure agreement; and (B) other federal departments and agencies, as the Director considers appropriate. (3) The Director may make aggregated, de-identified information available to contributing companies, Centers, or the public, as the Director considers appropriate, to support the section's purposes. (j) Coordination with National Technology and Industrial Base Council. The Director, acting through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, may work with the National Defense Technology and Industrial Base Council, as the Director considers appropriate, to include defense manufacturing supply chain information in the database. (k) Protections. (1) Supply chain information voluntarily and lawfully submitted by a private sector entity, accompanied by the express statement described in paragraph (2): (A) is exempt from disclosure under section 552(b)(3) of title 5; (B) may not be released under any federal, state, local, or tribal law requiring public disclosure of records; and (C) may not, without the submitting entity's written consent, be used by the Director or any other federal, state, or local authority in a civil enforcement action. (2) The express statement is: for written records, a marking citing protection under section 10253(k) of the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act; for oral information, a similar written statement submitted within a reasonable time after the oral communication. (l) Rules of construction. (1) Nothing in this section requires a private entity to share data, including proprietary information, with the Director or the database. (2) Nothing in this section grants the Director, or any other federal agency head, new authority to regulate manufacturers based on database data, beyond what was in effect before August 9, 2022.