115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4969 

AN ACT 

To improve the design and construction of diplomatic posts, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Embassy Security Au3 thorization Act, Fiscal Year 2019’’. 

4 SEC. 2. STANDARD DESIGN IN CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION. 

5 (a) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con6 gress that the Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas 

7 Building Operations (OBO) or successor office should give 

8 appropriate consideration to standard embassy design, in 

9 which each new embassy and new consulate starts with 

10 a standard design and keeps customization to a minimum. 

11 (b) CONSULTATION.—The Secretary of State shall, in 

12 consultation with the appropriate congressional commit13 tees, carry out any new embassy compound project or new 

14 consulate compound project that is in the design phase 

15 or pre-design phase as of the date of the enactment of 

16 this Act and that utilizes a non-standard design. The Sec17 retary shall provide such committees, for each such 

18 project, the following documentation: 

19 (1) A comparison of the estimated full lifecycle 

20 costs of the project at issue to the estimated full 

21 lifecycle costs of such project if such project were to 

22 use a standard embassy design. 

23 (2) A comparison of the estimated completion 

24 date of such project to the estimated completion 

25 date of such project if such project were to use a 

26 standard embassy design. 
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1 (3) A comparison of the security of such com2 pleted project to the security of such completed 

3 project if such completed project were to use a 

4 standard embassy design. 

5 (4) A justification for the Secretary’s selection 

6 of a non-standard design over a standard embassy 

7 design for such project. 

8 (5) A written explanation if any of the docu9 mentation necessary to support the comparisons and 

10 justification, as the case may be, described in para11 graphs (1) through (4) cannot be provided. 

12 SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 

13 It is the policy of the United States that the Bureau 

14 of Overseas Building Operations of the Department of 

15 State or its successor office shall continue to balance 

16 functionality and security with accessibility as defined by 

17 guidelines established by the United States Access Board 

18 in constructing embassies and consulates and shall ensure 

19 compliance with the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 

20 to the fullest extent possible. 

21 SEC. 4. CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION TRANSPARENCY. 

22 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 118 of the Department of 

23 State Authorities Act, Fiscal Year 2017 (22 U.S.C. 304) 

24 is amended— 
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1 (1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘AN2 NUAL REPORT ON EMBASSY CONSTRUCTION

3 COSTS’’ and inserting ‘‘QUARTERLY REPORT ON

4 OVERSEAS CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION

5 PROJECTS’’; and 

6 (2) by amending subsections (a) and (b) to read 

7 as follows: 

8 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after 

9 the date of the enactment of this subsection and every 90 

10 days thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to the appro11 priate congressional committees a comprehensive report 

12 regarding all ongoing overseas capital construction 

13 projects and major embassy security upgrade projects. 

14 ‘‘(b) CONTENTS.—Each report required under sub15 section (a) shall include the following with respect to each 

16 ongoing overseas capital construction project and major 

17 embassy security upgrade project: 

18 ‘‘(1) The initial cost estimate as specified in the 

19 proposed allocation of capital construction and main20 tenance funds required by the Committees on Appro21 priations for Acts making appropriations for the De22 partment of State, foreign operations, and related 

23 programs. 

24 ‘‘(2) The current cost estimate. 
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1 ‘‘(3) The value of each request for equitable ad2 justment received by the Department of State to 

3 date. 

4 ‘‘(4) The value of each certified claim received 

5 by the Department of State to date. 

6 ‘‘(5) The value of any usage of the project’s 

7 contingency fund to date and the value of the re8 mainder of the project’s contingency fund. 

9 ‘‘(6) An enumerated list of each request for ad10 justment and certified claim that remains out11 standing or unresolved. 

12 ‘‘(7) An enumerated list of each request for eq13 uitable adjustment and certified claim that has been 

14 fully adjudicated or that the Department has settled, 

15 and the final dollar amount of each adjudication or 

16 settlement. 

17 ‘‘(8) The date of estimated completion specified 

18 in the proposed allocation of capital construction 

19 and maintenance funds required by the Committees 

20 on Appropriations not later than 45 days after the 

21 date of the enactment of an Act making appropria22 tions for the Department of State, foreign oper23 ations, and related programs. 

24 ‘‘(9) The current date of estimated comple25 tion.’’. 
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1 (b) INITIAL REPORT.—The first report required 

2 under subsection (a) of section 118 of the Department of 

3 State Authorities Act, Fiscal Year 2017 (as amended by 

4 this section) shall include an annex regarding all overseas 

5 capital construction projects and major embassy security 

6 upgrade projects completed during the 10-year period end7 ing on December 31, 2018, including, for each such 

8 project, the elements specified in subsection (b) of such 

9 section 118 (as amended by this section). 

10 SEC. 5. CONTRACTOR PERFORMANCE INFORMATION. 

11 (a) DEADLINE FOR COMPLETION.—The Secretary of 

12 State shall complete by October 1, 2020, all contractor 

13 performance evaluations required by subpart 42.15 of the 

14 Federal Acquisition Regulation. 

15 (b) PRIORITIZATION SYSTEM.— 

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 

17 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 

18 of State shall develop a prioritization system for 

19 clearing the current backlog of required evaluations 

20 referred to in subsection (a). 

21 (2) ELEMENTS.—The system required under 

22 paragraph (1) should prioritize such evaluations as 

23 follows: 

24 (A) Project completion evaluations should 

25 be prioritized over annual evaluations. 
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1 (B) Evaluations for relatively large con2 tracts should have priority. 

3 (C) Evaluations that would be particularly 

4 informative for the awarding of government 

5 contracts should have priority. 

6 (c) BRIEFING.—Not later than 90 days after the date 

7 of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall 

8 brief the appropriate congressional committees on the De9 partment of State’s plan for completing all evaluations by 

10 October 1, 2020, and the prioritization system developed 

11 pursuant to this section. 

12 (d) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con13 gress that— 

14 (1) contractors deciding whether to bid on De15 partment of State contracts would benefit from 

16 greater understanding of the Department as a client; 

17 and 

18 (2) the Department should develop a forum 

19 through which contractors can rate the Depart20 ment’s project management performance. 

21 SEC. 6. GROWTH PROJECTIONS FOR NEW EMBASSIES AND 

22 CONSULATES. 

23 (a) IN GENERAL.—For each new embassy compound 

24 project (NEC) and new consulate compound project 

25 (NCC) in or not yet in the design phase as of the date 
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1 of the enactment of this Act, the Office of Management 

2 Policy, Rightsizing, and Innovation of the Department of 

3 State shall project growth over the estimated life of the 

4 facility at issue using all available and relevant data, in5 cluding the following: 

6 (1) Relevant historical trends for Department 

7 personnel and personnel from other agencies rep8 resented at the NEC or NCC that is to be con9 structed. 

10 (2) An analysis of the tradeoffs between risk 

11 and the needs of United States Government policy 

12 conducted as part of the most recent Vital Presence 

13 Validation Process, if applicable. 

14 (3) Reasonable assumptions about the strategic 

15 importance of the NEC or NCC, as the case may be, 

16 over the life of the building at issue. 

17 (4) Any other data that would be helpful in pro18 jecting the future growth of NEC or NCC. 

19 (b) OTHER AGENCIES.—Each Federal agency rep20 resented at an embassy or consulate shall provide to the 

21 Department of State, upon request, growth projections for 

22 the personnel of such agency over the estimated life of 

23 such embassy or consulate, as the case may be. 

24 (c) BASIS FOR ESTIMATES.—The Department of 

25 State shall base growth assumption for all NECs and 
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1 NCCs on the estimates required under subsections (a) and 

2 (b). 

3 (d) CONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION.—Any congres4 sional notification of site selection for a NEC or NCC sub5 mitted after the date of the enactment of this Act shall 

6 include the growth assumption used pursuant to sub7 section (c). 

8 SEC. 7. LONG-RANGE PLANNING PROCESS. 

9 (a) PLANS REQUIRED.— 

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 

11 after the date of the enactment of this Act and an12 nually thereafter for 5 years, the Secretary of State 

13 shall develop— 

14 (A) a comprehensive 6-year Long-Range 

15 Overseas Buildings Plan (LROBP) docu16 menting the Department of State’s overseas 

17 building program for the replacement of over18 seas diplomatic facilities taking into account se19 curity factors under the Secure Embassy Con20 struction and Counterterrorism Act of 1999 

21 and other relevant statutes and regulations, as 

22 well as occupational safety and health factors 

23 pursuant to the Occupational Safety and 

24 Health Act of 1970 and other relevant statutes 

25 and regulations, including environmental factors 
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1 such as indoor air quality that impact employee 

2 health and safety; and 

3 (B) a comprehensive 6-year plan detailing 

4 the Department’s long-term planning for the 

5 maintenance and sustainment of completed fa6 cilities, known as a Long-Range Overseas Main7 tenance Plan (LROMP), which takes into ac8 count security factors under the Secure Em9 bassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act of 

10 1999 and other relevant statutes and regula11 tions, as well as occupational safety and health 

12 factors pursuant to the Occupational Safety 

13 and Health Act of 1970 and other relevant 

14 statutes and regulations, including environ15 mental factors such as indoor air quality that 

16 impact employee health and safety. 

17 (2) INITIAL REPORT.—The first plan developed 

18 pursuant to paragraph (1)(A) shall also include a 

19 one-time status report on existing small diplomatic 

20 posts and a strategy for establishing a physical dip21 lomatic presence in countries in which there is no 

22 current physical diplomatic presence. Such report, 

23 which may include a classified annex, shall include 

24 the following: 
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1 (A) A description of the extent to which 

2 each small diplomatic post furthers the national 

3 interest of the United States. 

4 (B) A description of how each small diplo5 matic post provides American Citizen Services, 

6 including data on specific services provided and 

7 the number of Americans receiving services over 

8 the previous year. 

9 (C) A description of whether each small 

10 diplomatic post meets current security require11 ments. 

12 (D) A description of the full financial cost 

13 of maintaining each small diplomatic post. 

14 (E) Input from the relevant chiefs of mis15 sion on any unique operational or policy value 

16 the small diplomatic post provides. 

17 (3) UPDATED INFORMATION.—The annual up18 dates of the plans developed pursuant to paragraph 

19 (1) shall highlight any changes from the previous 

20 year’s plan to the ordering of construction and 

21 maintenance projects. 

22 (b) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.— 

23 (1) SUBMISSION OF PLANS TO CONGRESS.—Not 

24 later than 60 days after the completion of the 

25 LROBP and the LROMP, the Secretary of State 
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1 shall submit such plans to the appropriate congres2 sional committees. 

3 (2) REFERENCE IN BUDGET JUSTIFICATION

4 MATERIALS.—In the budget justification materials 

5 submitted to the appropriate congressional commit6 tees in support of the Department of State’s budget 

7 for any fiscal year (as submitted with the budget of 

8 the President under section 1105(a) of title 31, 

9 United States Code), the plans specified in the 

10 LROBP and LROMP shall be referenced to justify 

11 funding requested for building and maintenance 

12 projects overseas. 

13 (3) FORM OF REPORT.—The plans required to 

14 be submitted under paragraph (1) shall be submitted 

15 in unclassified form but may include classified an16 nexes. 

17 (c) SMALL DIPLOMATIC POST DEFINED.—In this 

18 section, the term ‘‘small diplomatic post’’ means any con19 sulate that has employed five or fewer United States Gov20 ernment employees on average over the 36 months before 

21 the date of the enactment of this Act. 

22 SEC. 8. VALUE ENGINEERING AND RISK ASSESSMENT. 

23 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find24 ings: 
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1 (1) Federal departments and agencies are re2 quired to use value engineering (VE) as a manage3 ment tool, where appropriate, to reduce program and 

4 acquisition costs pursuant to OMB Circular A–131, 

5 Value Engineering, dated December 31, 2013. 

6 (2) OBO has a Policy Directive and Standard 

7 Operation Procedure, dated May 24, 2017, on con8 ducting risk management studies on all international 

9 construction projects. 

10 (b) NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.— 

11 (1) SUBMISSION TO AUTHORIZING COMMIT12 TEES.—The proposed allocation of capital construc13 tion and maintenance funds that is required by the 

14 Committees on Appropriations of the House of Rep15 resentatives and the Senate not later than 45 days 

16 after the date of the enactment of an Act making 

17 appropriations for the Department of State, foreign 

18 operations, and related programs shall also be sub19 mitted to the appropriate congressional committees. 

20 (2) REQUIREMENT TO CONFIRM COMPLETION

21 OF VALUE ENGINEERING AND RISK ASSESSMENT

22 STUDIES.—The notifications required under para23 graph (1) shall include confirmation that the De24 partment of State has completed the requisite VE 
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1 and risk management studies described in subsection 

2 (a). 

3 (c) REPORTING AND BRIEFING REQUIREMENTS.— 

4 The Secretary of State shall provide to the appropriate 

5 congressional committees upon request— 

6 (1) a description of each recommendation from 

7 each study described in subsection (a) and a table 

8 detailing which recommendations were accepted and 

9 which were rejected; and 

10 (2) a report or briefing detailing the rationale 

11 for not implementing recommendations made by VE 

12 studies that may yield significant cost savings to the 

13 Department of State, if implemented. 

14 SEC. 9. BUSINESS VOLUME. 

15 Subparagraph (E) of section 402(c)(2) of the Omni16 bus Diplomatic Security and Antiterrorism Act of 1986 

17 (22 U.S.C. 4852(c)(2)) is amended by striking ‘‘in 3 

18 years’’ and inserting ‘‘cumulatively over 3 years’’. 

19 SEC. 10. EMBASSY SECURITY REQUESTS AND DEFI20 CIENCIES. 

21 The Secretary of State shall provide to the appro22 priate congressional committees, upon request, informa23 tion on security deficiencies at United States diplomatic 

24 posts, including— 
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1 (1) requests made over the previous year by 

2 United States diplomatic posts for security up3 grades; and 

4 (2) significant security deficiencies at United 

5 States diplomatic posts that are not operating out of 

6 a new embassy compound or new consulate com7 pound. 

8 SEC. 11. OVERSEAS SECURITY BRIEFINGS. 

9 Not later than 90 days after the date of the enact10 ment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall revise the 

11 Foreign Affairs Manual to stipulate that the Bureau of 

12 Diplomatic Security of the Department of State shall pro13 vide a security briefing or written materials with up-to14 date information on the current threat environment in 

15 writing or orally to all United States Government employ16 ees traveling to a foreign country on official business. To 

17 the extent practicable, such briefing or written materials 

18 shall be provided to traveling Department employees via 

19 teleconference prior to their arrival at a post. 

20 SEC. 12. CONTRACTING METHODS IN CAPITAL CONSTRUC21 TION. 

22 (a) DELIVERY.—Except in cases in which the Sec23 retary of State determines that such would not be appro24 priate, the Secretary shall make use of the design-build 

25 project delivery system at diplomatic posts that have not 
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1 yet received design or capital construction contracts as of 

2 the date of the enactment of this Act. 

3 (b) NOTIFICATION.—Not later than 15 days after 

4 any determination to make use of a delivery system other 

5 than design-build in accordance with subsection (a), the 

6 Secretary of State shall notify the appropriate congres7 sional committees in writing of such determination, includ8 ing the reasons therefor. 

9 (c) PERFORMANCE EVALUATION.—Not later than 

10 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

11 Secretary shall report to the appropriate congressional 

12 committees regarding performance evaluation measures in 

13 line with GAO’s ‘‘Standards for Internal Control in the 

14 Federal Government’’ that will be applicable to design and 

15 construction, lifecycle cost, and building maintenance pro16 grams of the Bureau of Overseas Building Operations of 

17 the Department of State. 

18 SEC. 13. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

19 There is authorized to be appropriated 

20 $2,314,474,000 for fiscal year 2019 for the purposes of 

21 the ‘‘Embassy Security, Construction, and Maintenance’’ 

22 account of the Department of State, of which 

23 $1,549,015,000 is authorized to be appropriated for the 

24 costs of worldwide security upgrades. 
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1 SEC. 14. DEFINITIONS. 

2 In this Act: 

3 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT4 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com5 mittees’’ means— 

6 (A) in the House of Representatives— 

7 (i) the Committee on Foreign Affairs; 

8 and 

9 (ii) the Committee on Appropriations; 

10 and 

11 (B) in the Senate— 

12 (i) the Committee on Foreign Rela13 tions; and 

14 (ii) the Committee on Appropriations. 

15 (1) DESIGN-BUILD.—The term ‘‘design-build’’ 

16 means a method of project delivery in which one en17 tity works under a single contract with the Depart18 ment of State to provide design and construction 

19 services. 

20 (2) NON-STANDARD DESIGN.—The term ‘‘non21 standard design’’ means— 

22 (A) a design for a new embassy compound 

23 project or new consulate compound project that 

24 does not utilize a standardized embassy design 

25 for the structural, spatial, or security require-
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1 ments of such embassy compound or consulate 

2 compound, as the case may be; or 

3 (B) a new embassy compound project; or 

4 new consulate compound project that does not 

5 utilize a design-build delivery method. 

Passed the House of Representatives September 5, 

2018. 

Attest: 

Clerk. 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4969 

AN ACT 

To improve the design and construction of 

diplomatic posts, and for other purposes.