Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the criteria and processes used by the Department of Defense (DOD) to impose, retain, or rescind domestic source restrictions on procurement.

GAO noted that: (1) the justification for imposing domestic source restrictions is generally based on national security concerns; (2) these concerns include the need to retain a unique domestic industrial capability essential to meeting defense requirements, protect information on performance characteristics and vulnerabilities of U.S. systems, and meet surge and replenishment requirements; (3) DOD and the services continually conduct assessments of DOD- or service-imposed source restrictions; and (4) however, DOD does not regularly review legislatively imposed restrictions.