IB 

Union Calendar No. 32 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1282 

[Report No. 115–57] 

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 

MARCH 23, 2017 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 

House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on March 1, 2017] 


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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. 


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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.) is 

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

10 ‘‘SEC. 836. ACQUISITION REVIEW BOARD. 

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

12 Acquisition Review Board (in this section referred to as the 

13 ‘Board’) to— 

14 ‘‘(1) strengthen accountability and uniformity 

15 within the Department acquisition review process; 

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

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

18 ‘‘(b) COMPOSITION.—The Under Secretary for Man19 agement shall serve as chair of the Board. The Secretary 

20 shall also ensure participation by other relevant Depart21 ment officials, including at least two component heads or 

22 their designees, as permanent members of the Board. 

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

24 purposes of ensuring all acquisitions processes proceed in 

25 a timely fashion to achieve mission readiness. The Board 


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

2 time— 

3 ‘‘(1) a major acquisition program— 

4 ‘‘(A) requires authorization to proceed from 

5 one acquisition decision event to another 

6 throughout the acquisition life cycle; 

7 ‘‘(B) is in breach of its approved require8 ments; or 

9 ‘‘(C) requires additional review, as deter10 mined by the Under Secretary for Management; 

11 or 

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

13 review, as determined by the Under Secretary for 

14 Management. 

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

16 Board are as follows: 

17 ‘‘(1) Determine whether a proposed acquisition 

18 has met the requirements of key phases of the acquisi19 tion life cycle framework and is able to proceed to the 

20 next phase and eventual full production and deploy21 ment. 

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

23 business strategy, resources, management, and ac24 countability is executable and is aligned to strategic 

25 initiatives. 


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1 ‘‘(3) Support the person with acquisition deci2 sion authority for an acquisition in determining the 

3 appropriate direction for such acquisition at key ac4 quisition decision events. 

5 ‘‘(4) Conduct systematic reviews of acquisitions 

6 to ensure that such acquisitions are progressing in 

7 compliance with the approved documents for their 

8 current acquisition phases. 

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

10 major acquisition program, including the acquisition 

11 program baseline and documentation reflecting con12 sideration of tradeoffs among cost, schedule, and per13 formance objectives, to ensure the reliability of under14 lying data. 

15 ‘‘(6) Ensure that practices are adopted and im16 plemented to require consideration of trade-offs 

17 among cost, schedule, and performance objectives as 

18 part of the process for developing requirements for 

19 major acquisition programs prior to the initiation of 

20 the second acquisition decision event, including, at a 

21 minimum, the following practices: 

22 ‘‘(A) Department officials responsible for 

23 acquisition, budget, and cost estimating func24 tions are provided with the appropriate oppor25 tunity to develop estimates and raise cost and 


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1 schedule matters before performance objectives 

2 are established for capabilities when feasible. 

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

4 trade-offs among cost, schedule, and performance 

5 objectives for each alternative. 

6 ‘‘(e) ACQUISITION PROGRAM BASELINE REPORT RE7 QUIREMENT.—If the person exercising acquisition decision 

8 authority over a major acquisition program approves such 

9 program to proceed into the planning phase before such pro10 gram has a Department-approved acquisition program 

11 baseline, the Under Secretary for Management shall create 

12 and approve an acquisition program baseline report re13 garding such approval, and the Secretary shall— 

14 ‘‘(1) within seven days after an acquisition deci15 sion memorandum is signed, notify in writing the 

16 Committee on Homeland Security of the House of 

17 Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Se18 curity and Governmental Affairs of the Senate of such 

19 decision; and 

20 ‘‘(2) within 60 days after the acquisition deci21 sion memorandum is signed, submit to such commit22 tees a report stating the rationale for such decision 

23 and a plan of action to require an acquisition pro24 gram baseline for such program. 


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1 ‘‘(f) REPORT.—The Under Secretary for Management 

2 shall provide information to the Committee on Homeland 

3 Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee 

4 on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the 

5 Senate on an annual basis through fiscal year 2022 on the 

6 activities of the Board for the prior fiscal year that includes 

7 information relating to the following: 

8 ‘‘(1) For each meeting of the Board, any acquisi9 tion decision memoranda. 

10 ‘‘(2) Results of the systematic reviews conducted 

11 pursuant to paragraph (4) of subsection (d). 

12 ‘‘(3) Results of acquisition document reviews re13 quired pursuant to paragraph (5) of subsection (d). 

14 ‘‘(4) Activities to ensure that practices are 

15 adopted and implemented throughout the Department 

16 pursuant to paragraph (6) of subsection (d). 

17 ‘‘(g) 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 Dep24 uty Secretary or Under Secretary for Management 

25 to— 


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

2 the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and Depart3 ment 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 successfully 

9 execute an approved acquisition program; 

10 ‘‘(D) ensure good acquisition program man11 agement of cost, schedule, risk, and system per12 formance of the acquisition program at issue, in13 cluding assessing acquisition program baseline 

14 breaches and directing any corrective action for 

15 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 documented 

9 record of decisions, exit criteria, and assigned actions 

10 for such acquisition, as determined by the person ex11 ercising acquisition decision authority for such acqui12 sition. 

13 ‘‘(5) ACQUISITION PROGRAM.—The term ‘acquisi14 tion program’ means the process by which the Depart15 ment acquires, with any appropriated amounts, by 

16 contract for purchase or lease, property or services 

17 (including construction) that support the missions 

18 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, expressed 

23 in standard, measurable, quantitative terms, which 

24 must be met in order to accomplish the goals of such 

25 program. 


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1 ‘‘(7) BEST PRACTICES.—The term ‘best prac2 tices’, with respect to acquisition, means a knowledge3 based approach to capability development that in4 cludes— 

5 ‘‘(A) identifying and validating needs; 

6 ‘‘(B) assessing alternatives to select the most 

7 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, and 

15 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 that 

22 is qualified and sufficient to perform necessary 

23 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 ac6 quisition program that is estimated by the Secretary 

7 to require an eventual total expenditure of at least 

8 $300,000,000 (based on fiscal year 2017 constant dol9 lars) over its life cycle cost.’’. 

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

11 section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 

12 101 et seq.) is further amended by adding after the item 

13 relating to section 835 the following new item: 

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


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Union Calendar No. 32 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1282 

[Report No. 115–57] 

A BILL 

To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to 

purposes. partment of Homeland Security, and for other establish Acquisition Review Boards in the DeMARCH 23, 2017 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Comand ordered to be printed mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 


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