I’ve been surprised by how little coverage has been afforded to the Office of Strategic Capital, or OSC. But my lobbyist friends tell me that the office is the “best kept secret in DC,” so naturally I’m compelled to talk loudly about it on the internet.
Authorized in 2022 and formally enacted into law by the FY24 defense package, the Department of Defense’s loan office was originally a small shop, with a loan authority of just over $900 million. But Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill (OB3) supersized OSC, giving the office $200 billion in loan authority and $1 billion in credit subsidy. It now effectively represents the DoD’s version of the DOE Loan Programs Office.
With extraordinary new resources at its disposal, OSC now has the task of figuring out what to actually do with the money. This will start with staffing up the office, which I’ve been told may still have a single-digit number of employees. But OSC will also have to determine its risk tolerance and remit.
