In the Senate of the United States, 

December 22, 2018. 

Resolved, That the bill from the House of Representatives (H.R. 4969) entitled ‘‘An Act to improve the design and 

construction of diplomatic posts, and for other purposes.’’, do 

pass with the following 

AMENDMENT: 

Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the 

following: 

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Improving Embassy De3 sign and Security Act of 2018’’. 

4 SEC. 2. STANDARDIZATION IN CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION. 

5 (a) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Congress 

6 that the Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Building 

7 Operations (OBO) or successor office should prioritize the 

8 standardization of embassy design and keep customization 

9 to a minimum. 
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1 (b) CONSULTATION.—The Secretary of State shall 

2 carry out any new embassy compound project or new con3 sulate compound project that utilizes a non-standard de4 sign, including those projects that are in the design phase 

5 or pre-design phase as of the date of the enactment of this 

6 Act, only in consultation with the appropriate congres7 sional committees. The Secretary shall provide such com8 mittees, for each such project, the following documentation: 

9 (1) A comparison of the estimated full lifecycle 

10 costs of the project at issue to the estimated full 

11 lifecycle costs of such project if such project were to 

12 use a standard design. 

13 (2) A comparison of the estimated completion 

14 date of such project to the estimated completion date 

15 of such project if such project were to use a standard 

16 design. 

17 (3) A comparison of the security of such com18 pleted project to the security of such completed project 

19 if such completed project were to use a standard de20 sign. 

21 (4) A justification for the Secretary’s selection of 

22 a non-standard design over a standard design for 

23 such project. 

24 (5) A written explanation if any of the docu25 mentation necessary to support the comparisons and 
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1 justification, as the case may be, described in para2 graphs (1) through (4) cannot be provided. 

3 (c) SUNSET.—The consultation requirement under 

4 subsection (b) shall expire on September 30, 2022. 

5 SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 

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

7 of Overseas Building Operations of the Department of State 

8 or its successor office shall continue to balance functionality 

9 and security with accessibility as defined by guidelines es10 tablished by the United States Access Board in constructing 

11 embassies and consulates and shall ensure compliance with 

12 the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 4151 et 

13 seq.) to the fullest extent possible. 

14 SEC. 4. CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION TRANSPARENCY. 

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

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

17 is amended— 

18 (1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘ANNUAL

19 REPORT ON EMBASSY CONSTRUCTION COSTS’’ 

20 and inserting ‘‘QUARTERLY REPORT ON OVER21 SEAS CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS’’; and 

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

23 as follows: 

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

25 date of the enactment of this subsection, and every 90 days 
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1 thereafter until September 30, 2022, the Secretary shall sub2 mit to the appropriate congressional committees a com3 prehensive report regarding all ongoing overseas capital 

4 construction projects and major embassy security upgrade 

5 projects. 

6 ‘‘(b) CONTENTS.—Each report required under sub7 section (a) shall include the following with respect to each 

8 ongoing overseas capital construction project and major em9 bassy security upgrade project: 

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

11 proposed allocation of capital construction and main12 tenance funds required by the Committees on Appro13 priations for Acts making appropriations for the De14 partment of State, foreign operations, and related 

15 programs. 

16 ‘‘(2) The current cost estimate. 

17 ‘‘(3) The value of each request for equitable ad18 justment received by the Department of State to date. 

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

20 the Department of State to date. 

21 ‘‘(5) The value of any usage of the project’s con22 tingency fund to date and the value of the remainder 

23 of the project’s contingency fund. 
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1 ‘‘(6) An enumerated list of each request for ad2 justment and certified claim that remains out3 standing or unresolved. 

4 ‘‘(7) An enumerated list of each request for equi5 table adjustment and certified claim that has been 

6 fully adjudicated or that the Department has settled, 

7 and the final dollar amount of each adjudication or 

8 settlement. 

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

10 in the proposed allocation of capital construction and 

11 maintenance funds required by the Committees on 

12 Appropriations not later than 45 days after the date 

13 of the enactment of an Act making appropriations for 

14 the Department of State, foreign operations, and re15 lated programs. 

16 ‘‘(9) The current date of estimated completion.’’. 

17 (b) INITIAL REPORT.—The first report required under 

18 subsection (a) of section 118 of the Department of State Au19 thorities Act, Fiscal Year 2017 (as amended by this section) 

20 shall include an annex regarding all overseas capital con21 struction projects and major embassy security upgrade 

22 projects completed during the 10-year period ending on De23 cember 31, 2018, including, for each such project, the ele24 ments specified in subsection (b) of such section 118 (as 

25 amended by this section). 
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1 SEC. 5. CONTRACTOR PERFORMANCE INFORMATION. 

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

3 State shall complete by October 1, 2020, all contractor per4 formance evaluations required by subpart 42.15 of the Fed5 eral Acquisition Regulation. 

6 (b) PRIORITIZATION SYSTEM.— 

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

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

9 State shall develop a prioritization system for clear10 ing the current backlog of required evaluations re11 ferred to in subsection (a). 

12 (2) ELEMENTS.—The system required under 

13 paragraph (1) should prioritize such evaluations as 

14 follows: 

15 (A) Project completion evaluations should be 

16 prioritized over annual evaluations. 

17 (B) Evaluations for relatively large con18 tracts should have priority. 

19 (C) Evaluations that would be particularly 

20 informative for the awarding of government con21 tracts should have priority. 

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

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

24 brief the appropriate congressional committees on the De25 partment of State’s plan for completing all evaluations by 
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1 October 1, 2020, and the prioritization system developed 

2 pursuant to this section. 

3 (d) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Congress 

4 that— 

5 (1) contractors deciding whether to bid on De6 partment of State contracts would benefit from great7 er understanding of the Department as a client; and 

8 (2) the Department should develop a forum 

9 through which contractors can rate the Department’s 

10 project management performance. 

11 SEC. 6. GROWTH PROJECTIONS FOR NEW EMBASSIES AND 

12 CONSULATES. 

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

14 project (NEC) and new consulate compound project (NCC) 

15 in or not yet in the design phase as of the date of the enact16 ment of this Act, the Office of Management Policy, 

17 Rightsizing, and Innovation of the Department of State 

18 shall project growth over the estimated life of the facility 

19 at issue using all available and relevant data, including 

20 the following: 

21 (1) Relevant historical trends for Department 

22 personnel and personnel from other agencies rep23 resented at the NEC or NCC that is to be constructed. 

24 (2) An analysis of the tradeoffs between risk and 

25 the needs of United States Government policy con-
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1 ducted as part of the most recent Vital Presence Vali2 dation Process, if applicable. 

3 (3) Reasonable assumptions about the strategic 

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

5 over the life of the building at issue. 

6 (4) Any other data that would be helpful in pro7 jecting the future growth of NEC or NCC. 

8 (b) OTHER AGENCIES.—Each Federal agency rep9 resented at an embassy or consulate shall provide to the 

10 Department of State, upon request, growth projections for 

11 the personnel of such agency over the estimated life of such 

12 embassy or consulate, as the case may be. 

13 (c) BASIS FOR ESTIMATES.—The Department of State 

14 shall base growth assumption for all NECs and NCCs on 

15 the estimates required under subsections (a) and (b). 

16 (d) CONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION.—Any congres17 sional notification of site selection for a NEC or NCC sub18 mitted after the date of the enactment of this Act shall in19 clude the growth assumption used pursuant to subsection 

20 (c). 

21 SEC. 7. LONG-RANGE PLANNING PROCESS. 

22 (a) PLANS REQUIRED.— 

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

24 the date of the enactment of this Act and annually 
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1 thereafter for five years, the Secretary of State shall 

2 develop— 

3 (A) a comprehensive six-year Long-Range 

4 Overseas Buildings Plan (LROBP) documenting 

5 the Department of State’s overseas building pro6 gram for the replacement of overseas diplomatic 

7 facilities taking into account security factors 

8 under the Secure Embassy Construction and 

9 Counterterrorism Act of 1999 (22 U.S.C. 4865 

10 note) and other relevant statutes and regulations, 

11 as well as occupational safety and health factors 

12 pursuant to the Occupational Safety and Health 

13 Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 651 et seq.) and other rel14 evant statutes and regulations, including envi15 ronmental factors such as indoor air quality that 

16 impact employee health and safety; and 

17 (B) a comprehensive six-year plan detailing 

18 the Department’s long-term planning for the 

19 maintenance and sustainment of completed fa20 cilities, known as a Long-Range Overseas Main21 tenance Plan (LROMP), which takes into ac22 count security factors under the Secure Embassy 

23 Construction and Counterterrorism Act of 1999 

24 and other relevant statutes and regulations, as 

25 well as occupational safety and health factors 
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1 pursuant to the Occupational Safety and Health 

2 Act of 1970 and other relevant statutes and regu3 lations, including environmental factors such as 

4 indoor air quality that impact employee health 

5 and safety. 

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

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

8 one-time status report on existing small diplomatic 

9 posts and a strategy for establishing a physical diplo10 matic presence in countries in which there is no cur11 rent physical diplomatic presence. The report, which 

12 may include a classified annex, shall include the fol13 lowing: 

14 (A) A description of the extent to which 

15 each small diplomatic post furthers the national 

16 interest of the United States. 

17 (B) A description of how each small diplo18 matic post provides American Citizen Services, 

19 including data on specific services provided and 

20 the number of Americans receiving services over 

21 the previous year. 

22 (C) A description of whether each small 

23 diplomatic post meets current security require24 ments. 
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1 (D) A description of the full financial cost 

2 of maintaining each small diplomatic post. 

3 (E) Input from the relevant chiefs of mis4 sion on any unique operational or policy value 

5 the small diplomatic post provides. 

6 (3) UPDATED INFORMATION.—The annual up7 dates of the plans developed pursuant to paragraph 

8 (1) shall highlight any changes from the previous 

9 year’s plan to the ordering of construction and main10 tenance projects. 

11 (b) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.— 

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

13 later than 60 days after the completion of the LROBP 

14 and the LROMP, the Secretary of State shall submit 

15 such plans to the appropriate congressional commit16 tees. 

17 (2) REFERENCE IN BUDGET JUSTIFICATION MA18 TERIALS.—In the budget justification materials sub19 mitted to the appropriate congressional committees in 

20 support of the Department of State’s budget for any 

21 fiscal year (as submitted with the budget of the Presi22 dent under section 1105(a) of title 31, United States 

23 Code), the plans specified in the LROBP and 

24 LROMP shall be referenced to justify funding re-
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1 quested for building and maintenance projects over2 seas. 

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

4 submitted under paragraph (1) shall be submitted in 

5 unclassified form but may include classified annexes 

6 (c) SMALL DIPLOMATIC POST DEFINED.—In this sec7 tion, the term ‘‘small diplomatic post’’ means any consulate 

8 that has employed five or fewer United States Government 

9 employees on average over the 36 months before the date 

10 of the enactment of this Act. 

11 SEC. 8. VALUE ENGINEERING AND RISK ASSESSMENT. 

12 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following findings: 

13 (1) Federal departments and agencies are re14 quired to use value engineering (VE) as a manage15 ment tool, where appropriate, to reduce program and 

16 acquisition costs pursuant to OMB Circular A–131, 

17 Value Engineering, dated December 31, 2013. 

18 (2) OBO has a Policy Directive and Standard 

19 Operation Procedure, dated May 24, 2017, on con20 ducting risk management studies on all international 

21 construction projects. 

22 (b) NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.— 

23 (1) SUBMISSION TO AUTHORIZING COMMIT24 TEES.—The proposed allocation of capital construc25 tion and maintenance funds that is required by the 
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1 Committees on Appropriations of the House of Rep2 resentatives and the Senate not later than 45 days 

3 after the date of the enactment of an Act making ap4 propriations for the Department of State, foreign op5 erations, and related programs shall also be submitted 

6 to the appropriate congressional committees. 

7 (2) REQUIREMENT TO CONFIRM COMPLETION OF

8 VALUE ENGINEERING AND RISK ASSESSMENT STUD9 IES.—The notifications required under paragraph (1) 

10 shall include confirmation that the Department of 

11 State has completed the requisite VE and risk man12 agement studies described in subsection (a). 

13 (c) REPORTING AND BRIEFING REQUIREMENTS.—The 

14 Secretary of State shall provide to the appropriate congres15 sional committees upon request— 

16 (1) a description of each recommendation from 

17 each study described in subsection (a) and a table de18 tailing which recommendations were accepted and 

19 which were rejected; and 

20 (2) a report or briefing detailing the rationale 

21 for not implementing recommendations made by VE 

22 studies that may yield significant cost savings to the 

23 Department of State, if implemented. 
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1 SEC. 9. BUSINESS VOLUME. 

2 Subparagraph (E) of section 402(c)(2) of the Omnibus 

3 Diplomatic Security and Antiterrorism Act of 1986 (22 

4 U.S.C. 4852(c)(2)) is amended by striking ‘‘in 3 years’’ and 

5 inserting ‘‘cumulatively over 3 years’’. 

6 SEC. 10. EMBASSY SECURITY REQUESTS AND DEFI7 CIENCIES. 

8 The Secretary of State shall provide to the appropriate 

9 congressional committees, upon request, information on se10 curity deficiencies at United States diplomatic posts, in11 cluding— 

12 (1) requests made over the previous year by 

13 United States diplomatic posts for security upgrades; 

14 and 

15 (2) significant security deficiencies at United 

16 States diplomatic posts that are not operating out of 

17 a new embassy compound or new consulate com18 pound. 

19 SEC. 11. OVERSEAS SECURITY BRIEFINGS. 

20 Not later than one year after the date of the enactment 

21 of this Act, the Secretary of State shall revise the Foreign 

22 Affairs Manual to stipulate that information on the current 

23 threat environment shall be provided to all United States 

24 Government employees under Chief of Mission authority 

25 traveling to a foreign country on official business. To the 

26 extent practicable, such material shall be provided to em-
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1 ployees prior to their arrival at a post or as soon as possible 

2 thereafter. 

3 SEC. 12. CONTRACTING METHODS IN CAPITAL CONSTRUC4 TION. 

5 (a) DELIVERY.—Unless the Secretary of State notifies 

6 the appropriate congressional committees that the use of the 

7 design-build project delivery method would not be appro8 priate, the Secretary shall make use of such method at dip9 lomatic posts that have not yet received design or capital 

10 construction contracts as of the date of the enactment of 

11 this Act. 

12 (b) NOTIFICATION.—Before executing a contract for a 

13 delivery method other than design-build in accordance with 

14 subsection (a), the Secretary of State shall notify the appro15 priate congressional committees in writing of the decision, 

16 including the reasons therefor. The notification required by 

17 this subsection may be included in any other report regard18 ing a new diplomatic facility that is required to be sub19 mitted to the appropriate congressional committees. 

20 (c) PERFORMANCE EVALUATION.—Not later than 180 

21 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec22 retary shall report to the appropriate congressional commit23 tees regarding performance evaluation measures in line 

24 with GAO’s ‘‘Standards for Internal Control in the Federal 

25 Government’’ that will be applicable to design and construc-
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1 tion, lifecycle cost, and building maintenance programs of 

2 the Bureau of Overseas Building Operations of the Depart3 ment of State. 

4 SEC. 13. COMPETITION IN EMBASSY CONSTRUCTION. 

5 Not later than 45 days after the date of the enactment 

6 of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to the appro7 priate congressional committee a report detailing steps the 

8 Department of State is taking to expand the embassy con9 struction contractor base in order to increase competition 

10 and maximize value. 

11 SEC. 14. DEFINITIONS. 

12 In this Act: 

13 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT14 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional commit15 tees’’ means— 

16 (B) the Committee on Foreign Relations 

17 and the Committee on Appropriations of the 

18 Senate; and 

19 (A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 

20 the Committee on Appropriations of the House of 

21 Representatives. 

22 (2) DESIGN-BUILD.—The term ‘‘design-build’’ 

23 means a method of project delivery in which one enti24 ty works under a single contract with the Department 

25 of State to provide design and construction services. 
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1 (3) NON-STANDARD DESIGN.—The term ‘‘non2 standard design’’ means— A design for a new em3 bassy compound project or new consulate compound 

4 project that does not utilize a standardized design for 

5 the structural, spatial, or security requirements of 

6 such embassy compound or consulate compound, as 

7 the case may be. 

Attest: 

Secretary. 
115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H.R. 4969 

AMENDMENT