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Order Code RS20549
Updated May 11, 2007
'RS Report for Congress
Defense Surplus Equipment Disposal:
Background Information
Valerie Bailey Grasso
Analyst in National Defense
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division
Summary
The Department of Defense (DOD), through the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA),
has a policy for disposing of government equipment and supplies considered surplus
for a different mission, or deemed unnecessary to the agency's designated mission. The
effort to dispose of surplus military equipment dates back to the end of World War II,
when the federal government decided to reduce a massive inventory of surplus military
equipment by making such equipment available to civilians.! At a July 25, 2006,
hearing before the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security,
Emerging Threats, and International Relations, Major General Bennie Williams, the
Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Director of Logistics Operations, identified four target
areas for managing surplus military equipment: (1) processing controls for batch lot
items and materials requiring demilitarization; (2) processing of items coded with Local
Stock Numbers received at the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS);
(3) improved controls regarding access to DRMS inventory assets; and (4) reducing the
concurrent procurement of items available at DRMS.2
In FY2006, DLA identified, disposed of, and re-utilized approximately $20 billion
dollars of military surplus/excess materiel annually items ranging from desks and
chairs to full weapons systems.' Property is considered excess when one particular
agency decides that it is no longer needed, while property is considered surplus when
1 Disposal of surplus real property, including land, buildings, commercial facilities, and
equipment situated thereon, is assigned to the General Services Administration's Office of
Property Disposal. For further information, see CRS Report RS20630, Surplus Federal Property,
by Stephanie Smith.
2 Statement of Major General Bennie Williams before the House Government Reform
Committee, Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations,
July 25, 2006.
' From the DRMS website, at [http://www.drms.dla.mil].
Congressional Research Service The Library of Congress
Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/crsmthaazxw0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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