(a) Pilot program required
(1) Establishment
The Secretary of Defense shall establish a pilot program for the development of an online real estate tool to identify the existing inventory of space available at the military installations selected by the Secretary under paragraph (2) for the purposes specified in subsection (b).
(2) Selection of pilot locations
The Secretary shall evaluate the online inventory tool at not less than five, but not more than ten, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Space Force military installations selected by the Secretary as appropriate locations for evaluation of the online inventory tool.
(3) Coordination with Army
In addition to the military installations selected under paragraph (2), the Secretary shall include in the pilot program—
all military installations under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Army that participated in the pilot program established under section 2866 of the Military Construction Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (division B of Public Law 116–283 ; 10 U.S.C. 7771 note prec.); and
entries included in the online real estate tool of the Department of Army as of the date on which such pilot program terminated.
(4) Consultation
The Secretary shall establish the pilot program and develop the online inventory tool in consultation with the Administrator of General Services and each of the service Secretaries.
(b) Purposes
The purposes of the online inventory tool are—
to achieve efficiencies in real estate property management consistent with the National Defense Strategy goal of finding greater efficiencies within Department of Defense operations and leveraging commercial off-the-shelf technologies to better enable members of the Armed Forces;
to provide a means to better market to the public information regarding space available at all Department of Defense military installations for better utilization of such space; and
to provide a means to better quantify existing space available at all Department of Defense military installations and how it is utilized for current missions and requirements.
(c) Considerations
To establish the pilot program, the Secretary of Defense shall—
consider innovative approaches, including the use of other transaction authorities consistent with section 2371 of title 10, United States Code, and the use of commercial off- the-shelf technologies;
develop appropriate protections of sensitive or classified information from being included with the online inventory tool; and
develop appropriate levels of access for private sector users of the online inventory tool;
in developing these considerations shall include lessons learned from the Secretary of the Army on the development of the pilot program for the online real estate tool under 2866 of the Military Construction Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021.
(d) Establishment of use policy
In connection with the development of the online inventory tool, the Secretary of the Defense shall develop policy requiring the use of the online inventory tool at all Department of Defense military installations selected under subsection (a)(2) to query for existing inventory at such military installations before any military construction or off-post leases are agreed to for such military installations. The Secretary shall prescribe guidelines that will be implemented by each respective service secretary. Further, the Secretary shall ensure that all relevant notifications to congressional defense committees include certification that the online inventory tool was used.
(e) Online inventory tool defined
In this section, the term online inventory tool means the online real estate tool developed under the pilot program to identify existing inventory of space available at Department of Defense military installations selected to participate in the pilot program.
(f) Rule of construction
Nothing in this section shall be construed to effect the application of title V of the McKinney- Vento Homeless Assistance Act ( 42 U.S.C. 11411 et seq. ).
(g) Reporting requirement
Not later than February 15, 2027, the Secretary of the Defense shall submit to Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives a report evaluating the success of the pilot program in achieving the purposes specified in subsection (b). At a minimum, the report also shall identify and contain the following:
The Department of Defense military installations selected under subsection (a)(2) to participate in the pilot program broken out by respective service.
The number of real estate agreements entered into by each of the respective service secretaries that were facilitated by use of the online inventory tool, including for each agreement the installation, amount of space, value, and purpose of the agreement.
An evaluation of the extent to which use of the online inventory tool reduced the need for military construction or off-post leases.
An evaluation of any impediments to efficient use of the online inventory tool.
The recommendations of the Secretary of Defense regarding whether the pilot program should be extended, expanded, or made permanent.
(h) Duration
The authority of the Secretary of the Defense to carry out the pilot program shall expire on September 30, 2031.