I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1252 

To provide for certain construction-related authorities of the Department 

of State, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 23, 2021 

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

Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To provide for certain construction-related authorities of the 

Department of State, 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’’. 

6 SEC. 2. STANDARD DESIGN IN CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION. 

7 (a) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con8 gress that the Department’s Bureau of Overseas Building 

9 Operations (OBO) or successor office should give appro10 priate consideration to standardization in construction, in 


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1 which each new United States embassy and consulate 

2 starts with a standard design and keeps customization to 

3 a minimum. 

4 (b) CONSULTATION.—The Secretary of State shall 

5 carry out any new United States embassy compound or 

6 new consulate compound project that utilizes a non-stand7 ard design, including those projects that are in the design 

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

9 this Act, only in consultation with the appropriate con10 gressional committees. The Secretary shall provide the ap11 propriate congressional committees, for each such project, 

12 the following documentation: 

13 (1) A comparison of the estimated full lifecycle 

14 costs of the project to the estimated full lifecycle 

15 costs of such project if it were to use a standard de16 sign. 

17 (2) A comparison of the estimated completion 

18 date of such project to the estimated completion 

19 date of such project if it were to use a standard de20 sign. 

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

23 project if it were to use a 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 (5) A written explanation if any of the docu5 mentation necessary to support the comparisons and 

6 justification, as the case may be, described in para7 graphs (1) through (4) cannot be provided. 

8 (c) SUNSET.—The consultation requirement under 

9 subsection (b) shall expire on the date that is 4 years after 

10 the date of the enactment of this Act. 

11 SEC. 3. CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION TRANSPARENCY. 

12 Section 118 of the Department of State Authorities 

13 Act, Fiscal Year 2017 (22 U.S.C. 304) is amended— 

14 (1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘AN15 NUAL REPORT ON EMBASSY CONSTRUCTION

16 COSTS’’ and inserting ‘‘BIANNUAL REPORT ON

17 OVERSEAS CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION

18 PROJECTS’’; and 

19 (2) by striking subsections (a) and (b) and in20 serting the following new subsections: 

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

22 the date of the enactment of this subsection and every 180 

23 days thereafter until the date that is four years after such 

24 date of enactment, the Secretary of State shall submit to 

25 the appropriate congressional committees a comprehensive 


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1 report regarding all ongoing overseas capital construction 

2 projects and major embassy security upgrade projects. 

3 ‘‘(b) CONTENTS.—Each report required under sub4 section (a) shall include the following with respect to each 

5 ongoing overseas capital construction project and major 

6 embassy security upgrade project: 

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

8 proposed allocation of capital construction and main9 tenance funds required by the Committees on Appro10 priations for Acts making appropriations for the De11 partment of State, foreign operations, and related 

12 programs. 

13 ‘‘(2) The current cost estimate. 

14 ‘‘(3) The value of each request for equitable ad15 justment received by the Department to date. 

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

17 by the Department to date. 

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

19 contingency fund to date and the value of the re20 mainder of the project’s contingency fund. 

21 ‘‘(6) An enumerated list of each request for ad22 justment and certified claim that remains out23 standing or unresolved. 

24 ‘‘(7) An enumerated list of each request for eq25 uitable adjustment and certified claim that has been 


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1 fully adjudicated or that the Department has settled, 

2 and the final dollar amount of each adjudication or 

3 settlement. 

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

5 in the proposed allocation of capital construction 

6 and maintenance funds required by the Committees 

7 on Appropriations not later than 45 days after the 

8 date of the enactment of an Act making appropria9 tions for the Department of State, foreign oper10 ations, and related programs. 

11 ‘‘(9) The current date of estimated comple12 tion.’’. 

13 SEC. 4. CONTRACTOR PERFORMANCE INFORMATION. 

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

15 State shall complete all contractor performance evalua16 tions outstanding as of the date of the enactment of this 

17 Act required by subpart 42.15 of the Federal Acquisition 

18 Regulation for those contractors engaged in construction 

19 of new embassy or new consulate compounds by April 1, 

20 2022. 

21 (b) PRIORITIZATION SYSTEM.— 

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

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

24 of State shall develop a prioritization system for 


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1 clearing the current backlog of required evaluations 

2 referred to in subsection (a). 

3 (2) ELEMENTS.—The system required under 

4 paragraph (1) should prioritize the evaluations as 

5 follows: 

6 (A) Project completion evaluations should 

7 be prioritized over annual evaluations. 

8 (B) Evaluations for relatively large con9 tracts should have priority. 

10 (C) Evaluations that would be particularly 

11 informative for the awarding of government 

12 contracts should have priority. 

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

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

15 brief the appropriate congressional committees on the De16 partment’s plan for completing all evaluations by October 

17 1, 2021, in accordance with subsection (a) and the 

18 prioritization system developed pursuant to subsection (b). 

19 (d) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con20 gress that— 

21 (1) contractors deciding whether to bid on De22 partment contracts would benefit from greater un23 derstanding of the Department as a client; and 


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1 (2) the Department should develop a forum 

2 where contractors can comment on the Department’s 

3 project management performance. 

4 SEC. 5. GROWTH PROJECTIONS FOR NEW EMBASSIES AND 

5 CONSULATES. 

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—For each new United States em7 bassy compound (NEC) and new consulate compound 

8 project (NCC) in or not yet in the design phase as of the 

9 date of the enactment of this Act, the Department of State 

10 shall project growth over the estimated life of the facility 

11 using all available and relevant data, including the fol12 lowing: 

13 (1) Relevant historical trends for Department 

14 personnel and personnel from other agencies rep15 resented at the NEC or NCC that is to be con16 structed. 

17 (2) An analysis of the tradeoffs between risk 

18 and the needs of United States Government policy 

19 conducted as part of the most recent Vital Presence 

20 Validation Process, if applicable. 

21 (3) Reasonable assumptions about the strategic 

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

23 over the life of the building at issue. 

24 (4) Any other data that would be helpful in pro25 jecting the future growth of NEC or NCC. 


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1 (b) OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES.—The head of each 

2 Federal agency represented at a United States embassy 

3 or consulate shall provide to the Secretary, upon request, 

4 growth projections for the personnel of each such agency 

5 over the estimated life of each embassy or consulate, as 

6 the case may be. 

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

8 State shall base its growth assumption for all NECs and 

9 NCCs on the estimates required under subsections (a) and 

10 (b). 

11 (d) CONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION.—Any congres12 sional notification of site selection for a NEC or NCC sub13 mitted after the date of the enactment of this Act shall 

14 include the growth assumption used pursuant to sub15 section (c). 

16 SEC. 6. LONG-RANGE PLANNING PROCESS. 

17 (a) PLANS REQUIRED.— 

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

19 after the date of the enactment of this Act and an20 nually thereafter for the next five years as the Sec21 retary of State considers appropriate, the Secretary 

22 shall develop— 

23 (A) a comprehensive 6-year plan docu24 menting the Department’s overseas building 

25 program for the replacement of overseas diploVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:54 Mar 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1252.IH H1252

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1 matic posts taking into account security factors 

2 under the Secure Embassy Construction and 

3 Counterterrorism Act of 1999 and other rel4 evant statutes and regulations, as well as occu5 pational safety and health factors pursuant to 

6 the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 

7 1970 and other relevant statutes and regula8 tions, including environmental factors such as 

9 indoor air quality that impact employee health 

10 and safety; and 

11 (B) a comprehensive 6-year plan detailing 

12 the Department’s long-term planning for the 

13 maintenance and sustainment of completed dip14 lomatic posts, which takes into account security 

15 factors under the Secure Embassy Construction 

16 and Counterterrorism Act of 1999 and other 

17 relevant statutes and regulations, as well as oc18 cupational safety and health factors pursuant to 

19 the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 

20 1970 and other relevant statutes and regula21 tions, including environmental factors such as 

22 indoor air quality that impact employee health 

23 and safety. 

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

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


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1 one-time status report on existing small diplomatic 

2 posts and a strategy for establishing a physical dip3 lomatic presence in countries in which there is no 

4 current physical diplomatic presence and with which 

5 the United States maintains diplomatic relations. 

6 Such report, which may include a classified annex, 

7 shall include the following: 

8 (A) A description of the extent to which 

9 each small diplomatic post furthers the national 

10 interest of the United States. 

11 (B) A description of how each small diplo12 matic post provides American Citizen Services, 

13 including data on specific services provided and 

14 the number of Americans receiving services over 

15 the previous year. 

16 (C) A description of whether each small 

17 diplomatic post meets current security require18 ments. 

19 (D) A description of the full financial cost 

20 of maintaining each small diplomatic post. 

21 (E) Input from the relevant chiefs of mis22 sion on any unique operational or policy value 

23 the small diplomatic post provides. 

24 (F) A recommendation of whether any 

25 small diplomatic posts should be closed. 


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1 (3) UPDATED INFORMATION.—The annual up2 dates of each of the plans developed pursuant to 

3 paragraph (1) shall highlight any changes from the 

4 previous year’s plan to the ordering of construction 

5 and maintenance projects. 

6 (b) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.— 

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

8 later than 60 days after the completion of each plan 

9 required under subsection (a), the Secretary of State 

10 shall submit the plans to the appropriate congres11 sional committees. 

12 (2) REFERENCE IN BUDGET JUSTIFICATION

13 MATERIALS.—In the budget justification materials 

14 submitted to the appropriate congressional commit15 tees in support of the Department of State’s budget 

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

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

18 United States Code), the plans required under sub19 section (a) shall be referenced to justify funding re20 quested for building and maintenance projects over21 seas. 

22 (3) FORM OF REPORT.—Each report required 

23 under paragraph (1) shall be submitted in unclassi24 fied form but may include a classified annex. 


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

2 section, the term ‘‘small diplomatic post’’ means any 

3 United States embassy or consulate that has employed five 

4 or fewer United States Government employees or contrac5 tors on average over the 36 months prior to the date of 

6 the enactment of this Act. 

7 SEC. 7. VALUE ENGINEERING AND RISK ASSESSMENT. 

8 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find9 ings: 

10 (1) Federal departments and agencies are re11 quired to use value engineering (VE) as a manage12 ment tool, where appropriate, to reduce program and 

13 acquisition costs pursuant to OMB Circular A–131, 

14 Value Engineering, dated December 31, 2013. 

15 (2) OBO has a Policy Directive and Standard 

16 Operation Procedure, dated May 24, 2017, on con17 ducting risk management studies on all international 

18 construction projects. 

19 (b) NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.— 

20 (1) SUBMISSION TO AUTHORIZING COMMIT21 TEES.—Any operating plan that includes the alloca22 tion of capital construction and maintenance funds 

23 shall be submitted to the Committee on Foreign Re24 lations of the Senate and the Committee on Foreign 

25 Affairs of the House of Representatives. 


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1 (2) REQUIREMENT TO CONFIRM COMPLETION

2 OF VALUE ENGINEERING AND RISK ASSESSMENT

3 STUDIES.—The notifications required under para4 graph (1) shall include confirmation that the De5 partment has completed the requisite VE and risk 

6 management process described in subsection (a), or 

7 applicable successor process. 

8 (c) REPORTING AND BRIEFING REQUIREMENTS.— 

9 The Secretary of State shall provide to the appropriate 

10 congressional committees upon request— 

11 (1) a description of each risk management 

12 study referred to in subsection (a)(2) and a table de13 tailing which recommendations related to each such 

14 study were accepted and which were rejected; and 

15 (2) a report or briefing detailing the rationale 

16 for not implementing any such recommendations 

17 that may otherwise yield significant cost savings to 

18 the Department if implemented. 

19 SEC. 8. BUSINESS VOLUME. 

20 Section 402(c)(2)(E) of the Omnibus Diplomatic Se21 curity and Antiterrorism Act of 1986 (22 U.S.C. 

22 4852(c)(2)(E)) is amended by striking ‘‘in 3 years’’ and 

23 inserting ‘‘cumulatively over 3 years’’. 


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1 SEC. 9. EMBASSY SECURITY REQUESTS AND DEFICIENCIES. 

2 The Secretary of State shall provide to the appro3 priate congressional committees, the Committee on Armed 

4 Services of the House of Representatives, and the Com5 mittee on Armed Services of the Senate upon request in6 formation on physical security deficiencies at United 

7 States diplomatic posts, including relating to the fol8 lowing: 

9 (1) Requests made over the previous year by 

10 United States diplomatic posts for security up11 grades. 

12 (2) Significant security deficiencies at United 

13 States diplomatic posts that are not operating out of 

14 a new embassy compound or new consulate com15 pound. 

16 SEC. 10. OVERSEAS SECURITY BRIEFINGS. 

17 Not later than one year after the date of the enact18 ment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall revise the 

19 Foreign Affairs Manual to stipulate that information on 

20 the current threat environment shall be provided to all 

21 United States Government employees under chief of mis22 sion authority traveling to a foreign country on official 

23 business. To the extent practicable, such material shall be 

24 provided to such employees prior to their arrival at a 

25 United States diplomatic post or as soon as possible there26 after. 


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1 SEC. 11. CONTRACTING METHODS IN CAPITAL CONSTRUC2 TION. 

3 (a) DELIVERY.—Unless the Secretary of State noti4 fies the appropriate congressional committees that the use 

5 of the design-build project delivery method would not be 

6 appropriate, the Secretary shall make use of such method 

7 at United States diplomatic posts that have not yet re8 ceived design or capital construction contracts as of the 

9 date of the enactment of this Act. 

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

11 a delivery method other than design-build in accordance 

12 with subsection (a), the Secretary of State shall notify the 

13 appropriate congressional committees in writing of the de14 cision, including the reasons therefor. The notification re15 quired by this subsection may be included in any other 

16 report regarding a new United States diplomatic post that 

17 is required to be submitted to the appropriate congres18 sional committees. 

19 (c) PERFORMANCE EVALUATION.—Not later than 

20 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

21 Secretary of State shall report to the appropriate congres22 sional committees regarding performance evaluation meas23 ures in accordance with GAO’s ‘‘Standards for Internal 

24 Control in the Federal Government’’ that will be applica25 ble to design and construction, lifecycle cost, and building 


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1 maintenance programs of the Bureau of Overseas Build2 ing Operations of the Department. 

3 SEC. 12. COMPETITION IN EMBASSY CONSTRUCTION. 

4 Not later than 45 days after the date of the enact5 ment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to 

6 the appropriate congressional committee a report detailing 

7 steps the Department of State is taking to expand the em8 bassy construction contractor base in order to increase 

9 competition and maximize value. 

10 SEC. 13. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 

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

12 of Overseas Building Operations of the Department or its 

13 successor office shall continue to balance functionality and 

14 security with accessibility, as defined by guidelines estab15 lished by the United States Access Board in constructing 

16 embassies and consulates, and shall ensure compliance 

17 with the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 

18 4151 et seq.) to the fullest extent possible. 

19 SEC. 14. DEFINITIONS. 

20 In this Act: 

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

22 means a method of project delivery in which one en23 tity works under a single contract with the Depart24 ment to provide design and construction services. 


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1 (2) NON-STANDARD DESIGN.—The term ‘‘non2 standard design’’ means a design for a new embassy 

3 compound project or new consulate compound 

4 project that does not utilize a standardized design 

5 for the structural, spatial, or security requirements 

6 of such embassy compound or consulate compound, 

7 as the case may be. 

Æ 


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