I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1282 

To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish Acquisition Review 

Boards in the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 1, 2017 

Mr. GARRETT (for himself and Mr. MCCAUL) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security 

A BILL 

To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish 

Acquisition Review Boards in the Department of Homeland Security, 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 ‘‘DHS Acquisition Re5 view Board Act of 2017’’. 

6 SEC. 2. ACQUISITION REVIEW BOARD. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle D of title VIII of the 

8 Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 391 et seq.) 

9 is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 836. ACQUISITION REVIEW BOARD. 

2 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish an 

3 Acquisition Review Board (in this section referred to as 

4 the ‘Board’) to— 

5 ‘‘(1) strengthen accountability and uniformity 

6 within the Department acquisition review process; 

7 ‘‘(2) review major acquisition programs; and 

8 ‘‘(3) review the use of best practices. 

9 ‘‘(b) COMPOSITION.—The Under Secretary for Man10 agement shall serve as chair of the Board. The Secretary 

11 shall also ensure participation by other relevant Depart12 ment officials, including at least two component heads or 

13 their designees, as permanent members of the Board. 

14 ‘‘(c) MEETINGS.—The Board shall meet regularly for 

15 purposes of ensuring all acquisitions processes proceed in 

16 a timely fashion to achieve mission readiness. The Board 

17 shall convene at the Secretary’s discretion and at any 

18 time— 

19 ‘‘(1) a major acquisition program— 

20 ‘‘(A) requires authorization to proceed 

21 from one acquisition decision event to another 

22 throughout the acquisition life cycle; 

23 ‘‘(B) is in breach of its approved require24 ments; or 


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1 ‘‘(C) requires additional review, as deter2 mined by the Under Secretary for Management; 

3 or 

4 ‘‘(2) a non-major acquisition program requires 

5 review, as determined by the Under Secretary for 

6 Management. 

7 ‘‘(d) RESPONSIBILITIES.—The responsibilities of the 

8 Board are as follows: 

9 ‘‘(1) Determine whether a proposed acquisition 

10 has met the requirements of key phases of the acqui11 sition life cycle framework and is able to proceed to 

12 the next phase and eventual full production and de13 ployment. 

14 ‘‘(2) Oversee whether a proposed acquisition’s 

15 business strategy, resources, management, and ac16 countability is executable and is aligned to strategic 

17 initiatives. 

18 ‘‘(3) Support the person with acquisition deci19 sion authority for an acquisition in determining the 

20 appropriate direction for such acquisition at key ac21 quisition decision events. 

22 ‘‘(4) Conduct systematic reviews of acquisitions 

23 to ensure that such acquisitions are progressing in 

24 compliance with the approved documents for their 

25 current acquisition phases. 


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1 ‘‘(5) Review the acquisition documents of each 

2 major acquisition program, including the acquisition 

3 program baseline and documentation reflecting con4 sideration of tradeoffs among cost, schedule, and 

5 performance objectives, to ensure the reliability of 

6 underlying data. 

7 ‘‘(6) Ensure that practices are adopted and im8 plemented to require consideration of trade-offs 

9 among cost, schedule, and performance objectives as 

10 part of the process for developing requirements for 

11 major acquisition programs prior to the initiation of 

12 the second acquisition decision event, including, at a 

13 minimum, the following practices: 

14 ‘‘(A) Department officials responsible for 

15 acquisition, budget, and cost estimating func16 tions are provided with the appropriate oppor17 tunity to develop estimates and raise cost and 

18 schedule matters before performance objectives 

19 are established for capabilities when feasible. 

20 ‘‘(B) Full consideration is given to possible 

21 trade-offs among cost, schedule, and perform22 ance objectives for each alternative. 

23 ‘‘(e) ACQUISITION PROGRAM BASELINE REPORT RE24 QUIREMENT.—If the person exercising acquisition decision 

25 authority over a major acquisition program approves such 


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1 program to proceed into the planning phase before such 

2 program has a Department-approved acquisition program 

3 baseline, the Under Secretary for Management shall cre4 ate and approve an acquisition program baseline report 

5 regarding such approval, and the Secretary shall— 

6 ‘‘(1) within seven days after an acquisition deci7 sion memorandum is signed, notify in writing the 

8 Committee on Homeland Security of the House of 

9 Representatives and the Committee on Homeland 

10 Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate of 

11 such decision; and 

12 ‘‘(2) within 60 days after the acquisition deci13 sion memorandum is signed, submit to such commit14 tees a report stating the rationale for such decision 

15 and a plan of action to require an acquisition pro16 gram baseline for such program. 

17 ‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

18 ‘‘(1) ACQUISITION.—The term ‘acquisition’ has 

19 the meaning given such term in section 131 of title 

20 41, United States Code. 

21 ‘‘(2) ACQUISITION DECISION AUTHORITY.—The 

22 term ‘acquisition decision authority’ means the au23 thority, held by the Secretary acting through the 

24 Deputy Secretary or Under Secretary for Manage25 ment to— 


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1 ‘‘(A) ensure compliance with Federal law, 

2 the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and De3 partment acquisition management directives; 

4 ‘‘(B) review (including approving, pausing, 

5 modifying, or cancelling) an acquisition pro6 gram through the life cycle of such program; 

7 ‘‘(C) ensure that acquisition program man8 agers have the resources necessary to success9 fully execute an approved acquisition program; 

10 ‘‘(D) ensure good acquisition program 

11 management of cost, schedule, risk, and system 

12 performance of the acquisition program at 

13 issue, including assessing acquisition program 

14 baseline breaches and directing any corrective 

15 action for such breaches; and 

16 ‘‘(E) ensure that acquisition program man17 agers, on an ongoing basis, monitor cost, sched18 ule, and performance against established base19 lines and use tools to assess risks to an acquisi20 tion program at all phases of the life cycle of 

21 such program to avoid and mitigate acquisition 

22 program baseline breaches. 

23 ‘‘(3) ACQUISITION DECISION EVENT.—The term 

24 ‘acquisition decision event’, with respect to an acqui25 sition program, means a predetermined point within 


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1 each of the acquisition phases at which the acquisi2 tion decision authority determines whether such ac3 quisition program shall proceed to the next acquisi4 tion phase. 

5 ‘‘(4) ACQUISITION DECISION MEMORANDUM.— 

6 The term ‘acquisition decision memorandum’, with 

7 respect to an acquisition, means the official acquisi8 tion decision event record that includes a docu9 mented record of decisions, exit criteria, and as10 signed actions for such acquisition, as determined by 

11 the person exercising acquisition decision authority 

12 for such acquisition. 

13 ‘‘(5) ACQUISITION PROGRAM.—The term ‘acqui14 sition program’ means the process by which the De15 partment acquires, with any appropriated amounts, 

16 by contract for purchase or lease, property or serv17 ices (including construction) that support the mis18 sions and goals of the Department. 

19 ‘‘(6) ACQUISITION PROGRAM BASELINE.—The 

20 term ‘acquisition program baseline’, with respect to 

21 an acquisition program, means a summary of the 

22 cost, schedule, and performance parameters, ex23 pressed in standard, measurable, quantitative terms, 

24 which must be met in order to accomplish the goals 

25 of such program. 


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1 ‘‘(7) BEST PRACTICES.—The term ‘best prac2 tices’, with respect to acquisition, means a knowl3 edge-based approach to capability development that 

4 includes— 

5 ‘‘(A) identifying and validating needs; 

6 ‘‘(B) assessing alternatives to select the 

7 most appropriate solution; 

8 ‘‘(C) clearly establishing well-defined re9 quirements; 

10 ‘‘(D) developing realistic cost assessments 

11 and schedules; 

12 ‘‘(E) securing stable funding that matches 

13 resources to requirements; 

14 ‘‘(F) demonstrating technology, design, 

15 and manufacturing maturity; 

16 ‘‘(G) using milestones and exit criteria or 

17 specific accomplishments that demonstrate 

18 progress; 

19 ‘‘(H) adopting and executing standardized 

20 processes with known success across programs; 

21 ‘‘(I) establishing an adequate workforce 

22 that is qualified and sufficient to perform nec23 essary functions; and 


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1 ‘‘(J) integrating the capabilities described 

2 in subparagraphs (A) through (I) into the De3 partment’s mission and business operations. 

4 ‘‘(8) MAJOR ACQUISITION PROGRAM.—The term 

5 ‘major acquisition program’ means a Department 

6 acquisition program that is estimated by the Sec7 retary to require an eventual total expenditure of at 

8 least $300,000,000 (based on fiscal year 2017 con9 stant dollars) over its life cycle cost.’’. 

10 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

11 in section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 

12 U.S.C. 101 et seq.) is further amended by adding after 

13 the item relating to section 835 the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 836. Acquisition Review Board.’’. 

Æ 


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