The responsibilities of the ASD(EI&E) include the development of installation capabilities, programs, and budgets; installation-energy programs and policy; base realignment and closure; privatization of military housing and utilities; and integration of environmental needs into the weapons acquisition process.

Responsibility over installations and environmental affairs at the Defense Department was spread out across a variety of positions over time.

Oversight for installations has been lumped together in the past with manpower, acquisition, and logistics functions (see, for example, the history of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Materiel Readiness and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Management Policy).

For a brief period in the mid-1990s, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Economic Security had oversight for installations and the base realignment and closure (BRAC) program, in addition to DoD policy in the areas of industrial affairs, dual-use technology, international cooperation programs, and community economic adjustment.

[2] On April 5, 1996, the DoD nullified Defense Directive 5134.7 (signed August 21, 1995), thereby abolishing the ASD(Economic Security) while noting that this position has served the "purpose for which it was intended and is no longer required.