DOD Sends Counterfeit Parts Rule to OMB

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received from the DOD a draft DFARS notice of proposed rulemaking for “Costs Related to Counterfeit Electronic Parts”. This was not listed in the Fall 2015 Unified Agenda, but it is related to DFARS Case 2016-D010.

According to the Counterfeit Parts web site this NPRM would “Implements section 885(a) of the NDAA for FY 2016 (Pub. L. 112-81)”. Actually that should be PL 114-92 which has not been printed yet (it was only signed in November, give the GPO a break – Sarcasm Alert). The enrolled version of S 1356 shows that §885 actually amended §818 of the FY 2012 NDAA which was PL 112-81. No wonder things get confusing.

If you are not a DOD supplier, then you will probably be able to ignore this rule when it does finally come out. I’ll be briefly looking at it to see if it really provides any in-sight into dealing with counterfeit electronic components that might affect cybersecurity efforts, but I’m not going to be holding my breath.