RELEASE: Congressman Michael Cloud and Senator Cornyn Introduce Two Companion Bills: The DEPOTS Act and Depot Data Transparency Act

Resources / Press Share on RELEASE: Congressman Michael Cloud and Senator Cornyn Introduce Two Companion Bills: The DEPOTS Act and Depot Data Transparency Act Aug 07, 2026 Press WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Michael Cloud (TX-27) introduced two House companion bills to improve oversight and financial management of Department of War (DoW) depots and arsenals: The Defense Expenditure Planning for Optimizing Throughput and Sustainment (DEPOTS) Act and the Depot Data Transparency Act. The DEPOTS Act aims to clear the outdated internal accounting charges tied to depots and arsenals, which were affected by mission changes. The Department of War (DoW) runs depots and arsenals using revolving funds, but when facilities receive mission changes from the government, some of the old equipment or capital investments stop generating revenue. Key provisions of the DEPOTS Act include: Allow the Secretary of Defense to write off depreciation costs or internal debt on DoW’s books when the charges are linked to capital assets that no longer generate revenue, due to a change in mission. Require cash outlays to be recovered first. Allow the Secretary of Defense to delegate this authority down to the secretaries of the individual military departments: Army, Navy, Air Force. Does not apply to payments owed to commercial contractors. “The DEPOTS Act is a commonsense flexibility for a real problem. Depots shouldn’t face the adverse effects alone due to mission changes by the Department of War and Congress,” said Rep. Cloud . “Corpus Christi Army Depot does critical work keeping our service members’ aircraft safe and reliable, and this practical reform keeps our Army’s and the nation’s rotary aircraft operational and, in the fight,” concluded Rep. Cloud. “Texas’ two extraordinary Organic Industrial Base sites, the Corpus Christi and Red River Army Depots, make immeasurable, ongoing contributions to our nation’s defense readiness,” said Sen. Cornyn . “I’m proud to introduce the DEPOTS Act, which would allow the Department of War to provide surpluses to depots whose labor rates have been negatively impacted by government-directed mission changes, and the Depot Data Transparency Act, which would improve transparency into how depot-level maintenance funds are allocated and allow Congressional oversight at each depot,” concluded Sen. Cornyn. The Depot Data Transparency Act, co-led with Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, requires DoW’s depot maintenance to apply to all individual depots rather than being averaged across an agency, thus strengthening the visibility of where taxpayer dollars are going. For years, the DoW reported the percentage of work done at its Army Depots under each Defense Agency, rather than at each depot individually. This gap has allowed work contracts to shift away from certain depots, including Corpus Christi Army Depot. The bill thus fixes a loophole in our current law that requires at least half of depot maintenance work to stay with government-run facilities to protect our national security and industrial base. “Over the past decade, Corpus Christi Army Depot’s highly trained civilian workforce has dropped by thousands due to the Army’s increasing reliance on private companies for helicopter repair work. This is a federal issue hurting depots across the country and requires a federal solution; it starts with bringing greater transparency to the Army’s maintenance and overhaul schedule. Our bill builds on bipartisan language we secured in the House-passed National Defense Authorization Act and would ensure we protect South Texas’s military competitiveness and the thousands of workers it employs,” said Rep. Gonzalez. The DEPOTS Act and Depot Data Transparency Act work together to keep depots competitive for mission and platform changes, promote public transparency, and strengthen our organic industrial bases. Read the bill text for the DEPOTS Act here. Read the bill text for the Depot Data Transparency Act here. Share on