The definitions in this section apply throughout this part:

Act or DPA means the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (50 U.S.C. 4501, et seq.).

Administrator means the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Allocation means the control of the distribution of materials, services or facilities for a purpose deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense.

Allocation order means an official action to control the distribution of materials, services, or facilities for a purpose deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense.

Allotment means an official action that specifies the maximum quantity of a material, service, or facility authorized for a specific use to promote the national defense.

Approved program means a program determined as necessary or appropriate for priorities and allocations support to promote the national defense by the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Energy, or the Secretary of Homeland Security, under the authority of the Defense Production Act and Executive Order 13603.

Construction means the erection, addition, extension, or alteration of any building, structure, or project, using materials or products which are to be an integral and permanent part of the building, structure, or project. Construction does not include maintenance and repair.

Critical infrastructure means any systems and assets, whether physical or cyber-based, so vital to the United States that the degradation or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on national security, including, but not limited to, national economic security and national public health or safety.

Delegate Agency means a Federal Government agency authorized by delegation from FEMA to place priority ratings on contracts or orders needed to support approved programs.

Directive means an official action which requires a person to take or refrain from taking certain actions in accordance with its provisions.

Emergency preparedness means all those activities and measures designed or undertaken to prepare for or minimize the effects of a hazard upon the civilian population, to deal with the immediate emergency conditions which would be created by the hazard, and to effectuate emergency repairs to, or the emergency restoration of, vital utilities and facilities destroyed or damaged by the hazard. “Emergency preparedness” includes the following:

(1) Measures to be undertaken in preparation for anticipated hazards (including the establishment of appropriate organizations, operational plans, and supporting agreements, the recruitment and training of personnel, the conduct of research, the procurement and stockpiling of necessary materials and supplies, the provision of suitable warning systems, the construction or preparation of shelters, shelter areas, and control centers, and, when appropriate, the nonmilitary evacuation of the civilian population).

(2) Measures to be undertaken during a hazard (including the enforcement of passive defense regulations prescribed by duly established military or civil authorities, the evacuation of personnel to shelter areas, the control of traffic and panic, and the control and use of lighting and civil communications).

(3) Measures to be undertaken following a hazard (including activities for firefighting, rescue, emergency medical, health and sanitation services, monitoring for specific dangers of special weapons, unexploded bomb reconnaissance, essential debris clearance, emergency welfare measures, and immediately essential emergency repair or restoration of damaged vital facilities).

Facilities includes all types of buildings, structures, or other improvements to real property (but excluding farms, churches or other places of worship, and private dwelling houses), and services related to the use of any such building, structure, or other improvement.

Hazard means an emergency or disaster resulting from:

(1) A natural disaster, or

(2) An accidental or man-caused event.

Health and medical resources means drugs, biological products, medical devices, materials, facilities, health supplies, services, and equipment required to diagnose, mitigate, prevent the impairment of, improve, treat, cure, or restore the physical or mental health conditions of the population.

Homeland security includes efforts:

(1) To prevent terrorist attacks within the United States;

(2) To reduce the vulnerability of the United States to terrorism;

(3) To minimize damage from a terrorist attack in the United States; and

(4) To recover from a terrorist attack in the United States.

Industrial resources means all materials, services, and facilities, including construction materials, but not including: food resources, food resource facilities, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment and commercial fertilizer; all forms of health resources; all forms of civil transportation; and water resources. This term also includes the term “item” as defined and used in this part.

Item means any raw, in process, or manufactured material, article, commodity, supply, equipment, component, accessory, part, assembly, or product of any kind, technical information, process, or service.

Maintenance and repair and/or operating supplies (MRO).

(1) Maintenance is the upkeep necessary to continue any plant, facility, or equipment in working condition.

(2) Repair is the restoration of any plant, facility, or equipment to working condition when it has been rendered unsafe or unfit for service by wear and tear, damage, or failure of parts.

(3) Operating supplies are any items carried as operating supplies according to a person's established accounting practice. Operating supplies may include hand tools and expendable tools, jigs, dies, fixtures used on production equipment, lubricants, cleaners, chemicals, and other expendable items.

(4) MRO does not include items produced or obtained for sale to other persons or for installation upon or attachment to the property of another person, or items required for the production of such items; items needed for the replacement of any plant, facility, or equipment; or items for the improvement of any plant, facility, or equipment by replacing items which are still in working condition with items of a new or different kind, quality, or design.

Materials includes:

(1) Any raw materials (including minerals, metals, and advanced processed materials), commodities, articles, components (including critical components), products, and items of supply; and

(2) Any technical information or services ancillary to the use of any such materials, commodities, articles, components, products, or items.

National defense means programs for military and energy production, or construction, military or critical infrastructure assistance to any foreign nation, homeland security, stockpiling, space, and any directly related activity. Such term includes emergency preparedness activities conducted pursuant to Title VI of The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5195 et seq.) and critical infrastructure protection and restoration.

Official action means an action taken by FEMA under the authority of the Defense Production Act, the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act and related statutes, or this part. Such actions include the issuance of rating authorizations, directives, letters and memoranda of understanding, demands for information, inspection authorizations, administrative subpoenas, and allocation orders.

Person includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, or any other organized group of persons, or legal successor or representative thereof; or any State or local government or agency thereof; and for purposes of administration of this part, includes the Federal Government and any authorized foreign government or international organization or agency thereof, delegated authority as provided in this part.

Priorities authority means the authority of FEMA, pursuant to Section 101 of the Defense Production Act, to require acceptance and priority performance of contracts and orders for health and medical resource items and other resources as further delegated by the President to the Secretary of Homeland Security or Administrator for use in approved programs.

Priority rating means an identifying code assigned by a Delegate Agency, FEMA, or authorized person placed on all rated orders and consisting of the rating symbol and the program identification symbol.

Production equipment means any item of capital equipment used in producing materials or furnishing services that has a unit acquisition cost of $2,500 or more, an anticipated service life in excess of one year, and the potential for maintaining its integrity as a capital item.

Program identification symbols means abbreviations used to indicate which approved program is supported by a rated order.

Rated order means a prime contract, a subcontract, or a purchase order in support of an approved program issued in accordance with the provisions of this part.

Services includes any effort that is needed for or incidental to:

(1) The development, production, processing, distribution, delivery, or use of an industrial resource or a critical technology item;

(2) The construction of facilities;

(3) The movement of individuals and property by all modes of civil transportation; or

(4) Other national defense programs and activities.

Set-aside means an official action that requires a person to reserve materials, services, or facilities capacity in anticipation of the receipt of rated orders.

Written and in writing mean documented via printing, typewriting, handwriting, or similar means, whether in tangible or electronic form.

Written electronic means written and in electronic form, except that when electronic form is impracticable under the circumstances, FEMA may construe this term to allow for a tangible format.