50 U.S.C. § 3103 — Budget treatment of costs of acquisition of major systems by the intelligence community

**(a) Independent cost estimates** (1) The Director of National Intelligence shall, in consultation with the head of each element of the intelligence community concerned, prepare an independent cost estimate of the full life-cycle cost of development, procurement, and operation of each major system to be acquired by the intelligence community. (2) (A) Each independent cost estimate for a major system shall, to the maximum extent practicable, specify the amount required to be appropriated and obligated to develop, procure, and operate the major system in each fiscal year of the proposed period of development, procurement, and operation of the major system. (B) For major system acquisitions requiring a service or capability from another acquisition or program to deliver the end-to-end functionality for the intelligence community end users, independent cost estimates shall include, to the maximum extent practicable, all estimated costs across all pertinent elements of the intelligence community. For collection programs, such cost estimates shall include the cost of new analyst training, new hardware and software for data exploitation and analysis, and any unique or additional costs for data processing, storing, and power, space, and cooling across the life cycle of the program. If such costs for processing, exploitation, dissemination, and storage are scheduled to be executed in other elements of the intelligence community, the independent cost estimate shall identify and annotate such costs for such other elements accordingly. (3) (A) In the case of a program of the intelligence community that qualifies as a major system, an independent cost estimate shall be prepared before the submission to Congress of the budget of the President for the first fiscal year in which appropriated funds are anticipated to be obligated for the development or procurement of such major system. (B) In the case of a program of the intelligence community for which an independent cost estimate was not previously required to be prepared under this section, including a program for which development or procurement commenced before December 13, 2003, if the aggregate future costs of development or procurement (or any combination of such activities) of the program will exceed $500,000,000 (in current fiscal year dollars), the program shall qualify as a major system for purposes of this section, and an independent cost estimate for such major system shall be prepared before the submission to Congress of the budget of the President for the first fiscal year thereafter in which appropriated funds are anticipated to be obligated for such major system. (4) The independent cost estimate for a major system shall be updated upon— (A) the completion of any preliminary design review associated with the major system; (B) any significant modification to the anticipated design of the major system; or (C) any change in circumstances that renders the current independent cost estimate for the major system inaccurate. (5) Any update of an independent cost estimate for a major system under paragraph (4) shall meet all requirements for independent cost estimates under this section, and shall be treated as the most current independent cost estimate for the major system until further updated under that paragraph. **(b) Preparation of independent cost estimates** (1) The Director shall establish within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for Community Management an office which shall be responsible for preparing independent cost estimates, and any updates thereof, under subsection (a), unless a designation is made under paragraph (2). (2) In the case of the acquisition of a major system for an element of the intelligence community within the Department of Defense, the Director and the Secretary of Defense shall provide that the independent cost estimate, and any updates thereof, under subsection (a) be prepared by an entity jointly designated by the Director and the Secretary in accordance with section 2434(b)(1)(A) 11 See References in Text note below. of title 10. **(c) Utilization in budgets of President** (1) If the budget of the President requests appropriations for any fiscal year for the development or procurement of a major system by the intelligence community, the President shall, subject to paragraph (2), request in such budget an amount of appropriations for the development or procurement, as the case may be, of the major system that is equivalent to the amount of appropriations identified in the most current independent cost estimate for the major system for obligation for each fiscal year for which appropriations are requested for the major system in such budget. (2) If the amount of appropriations requested in the budget of the President for the development or procurement of a major system is less than the amount of appropriations identified in the most current independent cost estimate for the major system for obligation for each fiscal year for which appropriations are requested for the major system in such budget, the President shall include in the budget justification materials submitted to Congress in support of such budget— (A) an explanation for the difference between the amount of appropriations requested and the amount of appropriations identified in the most current independent cost estimate; (B) a description of the importance of the major system to the national security; (C) an assessment of the consequences for the funding of all programs of the National Intelligence Program in future fiscal years if the most current independent cost estimate for the major system is accurate and additional appropriations are required in future fiscal years to ensure the continued development or procurement of the major system, including the consequences of such funding shortfalls on the major system and all other programs of the National Intelligence Program; and (D) such other information on the funding of the major system as the President considers appropriate. **(d) Inclusion of estimates in budget justification materials** The budget justification materials submitted to Congress in support of the budget of the President shall include the most current independent cost estimate under this section for each major system for which appropriations are requested in such budget for any fiscal year. **(e) Definitions** In this section: (1) The term “budget of the President” means the budget of the President for a fiscal year as submitted to Congress under [section 1105(a) of title 31](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title31-section1105/a&num=0&edition=prelim). (2) (A) The term “independent cost estimate” means a pragmatic and neutral analysis, assessment, and quantification of all costs and risks associated with the development, acquisition, procurement, operation, and sustainment of a major system across its proposed life cycle, which shall be based on programmatic and technical specifications provided by the office within the element of the intelligence community with primary responsibility for the development, procurement, or operation of the major system. (B) In accordance with subsection (a)(2)(B), each independent cost estimate shall include all costs required across elements of the intelligence community to develop, acquire, procure, operate, and sustain the system to provide the end-to-end intelligence functionality of the system, including— (i) for collection programs, the cost of new analyst training, new hardware and software for data exploitation and analysis, and any unique or additional costs for data processing, storing, and power, space, and cooling across the life cycle of the program; and (ii) costs for processing, exploitation, dissemination, and storage scheduled to be executed in other elements of the intelligence community. (3) The term “major system” means any significant program of an element of the intelligence community with projected total development and procurement costs exceeding $500,000,000 (based on fiscal year 2010 constant dollars), which costs shall include all end-to-end program costs, including costs associated with the development and procurement of the program and any other costs associated with the development and procurement of systems required to support or utilize the program.