MSCI, NAM Successfully Remove Right To Prepare Mandate From Defense Bill

As Connecting the Dots reported in August, the U.S. Senate was considering a fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have implemented a broad, burdensome right to repair mandate. Thanks in part to advocacy by the National Association of Manufacturers, the Metals Service Center Institute, and other trade associations, this provision is no longer in the legislation.

A second right-to-repair provision in the U.S. House of Representative’s version of the NDAA also was removed.

The Senate language would have required companies to provide repair materials and information to the federal government on a price-controlled basis and with no protections for proprietary or trade secret information. The mandate, which would have applied to most companies that contribute to the U.S. defense industrial base or are involved in a U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) supply chain, would have imposed significant burdens on defense contractors and the small and medium-sized businesses and commercial suppliers in their supply chains.

MSCI, NAM, and dozens of other business trade groups sent a letter to U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services leaders asking that they oppose this provision. The letter, available at the link above, noted manufacturers already provide a wide range of resources, including parts, manuals, product guides, product service training, and diagnostic tools, to the DOD and that agreements between contractors and the DOD already have repair and maintenance provisions that ensure materials and services are available and tailored to the products being procured.

The letter concluded the new policy “would have a significant negative impact on companies of all sizes throughout the manufacturing supply chain and the defense industrial base, without a corresponding benefit to U.S. national security.”