I 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4969 

To improve the design and construction of diplomatic posts, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 7, 2018 

Mr. MCCAUL introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Improving Embassy 

5 Design and Security Act of 2018’’. 

6 SEC. 2. IMPROVING EMBASSY CONSTRUCTION. 

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that the decision by 

8 the Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings 

9 Operations (‘‘OBO’’) to transition from Standard Em10 bassy Design to Design Excellence has in many cases— 


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1 (1) increased the cost of building new embassies 

2 and consulates; 

3 (2) delayed the move of thousands of staff from 

4 facilities that do not meet current security standards 

5 to new, secure facilities; 

6 (3) exacerbated certain deficiencies in the qual7 ity of the Bureau’s program management; 

8 (4) been a factor in reduced competition for 

9 capital construction projects; and 

10 (5) been a complicating factor in achieving the 

11 Department’s own security requirements. 

12 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con13 gress that the OBO should give appropriate consideration 

14 to Standard Embassy Design, in which each new embassy 

15 and consulate starts with a standard design and keeps 

16 customization to a minimum. 

17 (c) DELIVERY.— 

18 (1) DESIGN-BUILD PROJECT DELIVERY.—Ex19 cept in cases in which the Secretary of State deter20 mines that such would not be appropriate, the Sec21 retary shall make use of the design-build project de22 livery system at diplomatic posts that have not yet 

23 received design or construction contracts as of the 

24 date of the enactment of this Act. 


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1 (2) STANDARD DESIGN.—The Secretary of 

2 State shall give preference to the use of a standard 

3 design, together with design-build delivery under 

4 paragraph (1). 

5 (3) VERTICAL STANDARD DESIGN.—The Sec6 retary of State shall develop a vertical standard de7 sign that can be implemented according to the De8 partment of State’s requisite security and spatial 

9 needs for diplomatic posts that are to be situated on 

10 a smaller plot of land. 

11 (4) BRIDGING.—The Secretary of State shall 

12 make use of bridging to adapt the standard design 

13 under paragraph (2) with design-build project deliv14 ery under paragraph (1) at diplomatic posts that re15 quire a more customized design due to climatic, geo16 graphic, or functional requirements. 

17 (5) OTHER APPLICATION.— 

18 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of State 

19 may make use of design-bid-build delivery with 

20 non-standard design in limited instances of par21 ticular diplomatic importance as determined by 

22 the Secretary. 

23 (B) LIMITATION.—The Secretary of State 

24 may not delegate the authority of the Secretary 


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1 under subparagraph (A) to make use of design2 bid-build delivery with non-standard design. 

3 (d) CONSULTATION REGARDING NON-STANDARD

4 DESIGNS.—The Secretary of State shall carry out any new 

5 diplomatic post project that is in the design phase or pre6 design phase as of the date of the enactment of this Act 

7 and that utilizes bridging or non-standard design under 

8 subsection (c) only after notification to and consultation 

9 with the appropriate congressional committees. Such noti10 fication and consultation shall include provision to the ap11 propriate congressional committees, for each such project, 

12 of the following documentation: 

13 (1) A comparison of the estimated full lifecycle 

14 costs of the project at issue to the estimated full 

15 lifecycle costs of such project if such project were to 

16 use a standard design. 

17 (2) A comparison of the estimated completion 

18 date of such project to the estimated completion 

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

20 standard design. 

21 (3) A comparison of the security of such com22 pleted project to the security of such completed 

23 project if such completed project were to use a 

24 standard design. 


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

2 of a non-standard design over a standard design for 

3 such project. 

4 (e) PERFORMANCE EVALUATION.—Not later than 

5 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

6 Secretary of State shall report to the appropriate congres7 sional committees regarding performance evaluation meas8 ures in line with GAO’s ‘‘Standards for Internal Control 

9 in the Federal Government’’ that will be applicable to the 

10 Bureau of Overseas Building Operations of the Depart11 ment of State. 

12 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

13 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT14 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com15 mittees’’ means the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 

16 the House of Representatives and the Committee on 

17 Foreign Relations of the Senate. 

18 (2) BRIDGING.—The term ‘‘bridging’’ means a 

19 delivery method for construction projects that is a 

20 hybrid of the traditional ‘‘design-bid-build’’ and the 

21 ‘‘design-build’’ methods, whereby the Bureau of 

22 Overseas Building Operations of the Department of 

23 State first contracts with a design firm to develop a 

24 project-specific, partial design that a construction 

25 contractor and its design firm then complete, the obVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:28 Feb 10, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4969.IH H4969

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1 jective of which is to retain the best features of the 

2 design-bid-build and design-build methods for the 

3 project owner and eliminate those aspects of each 

4 such method that often cause problems for such 

5 owner. 

6 (3) DESIGN-BID-BUILD.—The term ‘‘design-bid7 build’’ means a method of project delivery in which 

8 a design entity is first contracted to provide a design 

9 and a construction entity is subsequently contracted 

10 to build the awarded design contract. 

11 (4) DESIGN-BUILD.—The term ‘‘design-build’’ 

12 means a method of project delivery in which one en13 tity, such as the design-build team, works under a 

14 single contract with the project owner to provide de15 sign and construction services. 

16 (5) NON-STANDARD DESIGN.—The term ‘‘non17 standard design’’ means a new diplomatic post de18 sign that does not utilize a standardized design tem19 plate for the structural, spatial, and security require20 ments of such post. 

21 (6) STANDARD DESIGN.—The term ‘‘standard 

22 design’’ means a diplomatic post design that utilizes 

23 a standardized design template for the structural, 

24 spatial, and security requirements of such post. 

Æ 


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