Report to Congress on the Department of Defense

Overview

Executive Order 14347 (dated September 5, 2025) authorizes the Department of Defense to use "Department of War" as a secondary designation and the Office of the Secretary of Defense to use "Office of the Secretary of War" as a secondary designation. For contractors this is primarily a nomenclature change, but it may appear in solicitations, awards, contract clauses, and official correspondence. Contractors should act now to ensure internal systems, templates, and searches will recognize both designations and that contracting, legal, compliance, and capture teams are aware of the dual naming. Failure to recognize either designation could cause missed opportunities, incorrect contract references, or administrative friction during proposal or performance phases. Monitor for follow-on guidance from affected agencies and update internal controls and communications accordingly. See our Secure Operations Guide and the related compliance guides linked below for implementation context.

Immediate Actions (This Week)

• [ ] Brief contracts, capture, legal, and compliance teams on the Executive Order and its operational impact on naming conventions.
• [ ] Add both designations ("Department of Defense" / "Department of War" and "Office of the Secretary of Defense" / "Office of the Secretary of War") to key internal reference lists, search keywords, and document templates.
• [ ] Run a quick audit of active solicitations and recent awards in your opportunity pipeline for any use of the secondary designations and flag items that may require immediate review or clarification.
• [ ] Instruct proposal and admin teams to accept and log official correspondence that uses either designation without rejecting it as non-standard.

Short-Term Actions (30 Days)

• [ ] Update contract management systems, CRM/opportunity trackers, and proposal templates to normalize and map both designations to the same agency entity so searches and reports capture either term.
• [ ] Task legal/compliance to review sample contract language and standard terms for any ambiguity caused by dual naming and prepare a guidance memo for proposal writers and contracting officers.

Long-Term Actions (90+ Days)

• [ ] Incorporate dual-designation handling into capture plans, proposal checklists, and contract performance procedures so future bids and contract modifications explicitly account for both names.
• [ ] Train proposal, contracts, and program management staff on the updated naming conventions and update customer-facing materials and past-performance descriptions to include both designations where appropriate.

Compliance Checklist

• [ ] Re-assess compliance and contracting references where agency name is cited to ensure that references to DFARS (Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement) and FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation) obligations remain accurate when either designation appears.
• [ ] Review CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification) and NIST 800-171 (NIST Special Publication 800-171) obligations in your contract language and internal compliance matrices to ensure CUI (Controlled Unclassified Information) handling and cybersecurity references remain consistent regardless of agency naming.
• [ ] Confirm export-control references (ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations), EAR) and NIST 800-53 mappings point to the correct sponsoring agency entity regardless of nomenclature.
• [ ] Maintain a documented decision trail for any contracts, solicitations, or correspondence where naming required clarification.

(Compliance scope TBD — re-evaluate when official guidance is published.)

Resources

• Executive Order 14347 text — source TBD pending source review (TBD)
• [Department of Defense guidance — source TBD pending source review] (TBD)
• Internal guidance and further reading:
• Secure Operations Guide (/insights/secure-operations-guide)
• CMMC Compliance Guide (/insights/cmmc-compliance-guide)
• CUI-Safe CRM Guide (/insights/cui-safe-crm-guide)

How Cabrillo Club Automates This

Cabrillo Signals War Room — Already detected this event and delivered this briefing within minutes. War Room continuously monitors regulatory changes and policy language; for this Executive Order it will continue to capture follow-on agency memos, solicitation updates, and policy clarifications so your teams are alerted when an official document uses either designation.

Cabrillo Signals Match Engine — Automatically rescoring your opportunity pipeline when events like this shift keyword relevance. The Match Engine will update match scores and keyword mappings so opportunities that use "Department of War" or "Office of the Secretary of War" are surfaced with the correct agency alignment and urgency, reducing the risk of missed bids.

Cabrillo Signals Intelligence Hub — Tracks affected agencies, NAICS codes, and contract vehicles associated with this event. Configure saved searches and alerts in the Intelligence Hub to notify capture teams when solicitations, amendments, or awards surface that contain either designation so you can triage impact quickly.

Proposal Studio (Proposal OS) — Generates updated proposal artifacts that account for both agency names. Proposal Studio can produce first-draft technical approaches, compliance matrices, and a guidance memo for proposal writers that normalize references to the agency regardless of nomenclature, and it pulls relevant past performance entries that include either designation.

Proposal Studio Workflow Tracker — Updates capture workflows automatically to route review tasks to contracts, legal, and compliance when a solicitation or internal document uses either designation. The Workflow Tracker creates audit-ready documentation packages showing who approved naming decisions and when, and it tracks supplier and subcontractor certification checks impacted by agency reference changes.

Call to action: Use your Cabrillo dashboard to enable the saved alerts and workflow templates above so the platform begins auto-triage for any solicitations or contract actions using the secondary designation.