116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2609 

AN ACT 

To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish 

the Acquisition Review Board 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, 
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘DHS Acquisition Re3 view Board Act of 2019’’. 

4 SEC. 2. ACQUISITION REVIEW BOARD. 

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

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

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

8 ‘‘SEC. 836. ACQUISITION REVIEW BOARD. 

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

10 Acquisition Review Board (in this section referred to as 

11 the ‘Board’) to— 

12 ‘‘(1) strengthen accountability and uniformity 

13 within the Department acquisition review process; 

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

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

16 ‘‘(b) COMPOSITION.— 

17 ‘‘(1) CHAIR.—The Under Secretary for Man18 agement shall serve as chair of the Board. 

19 ‘‘(2) PARTICIPATION.— The Secretary shall en20 sure participation by other relevant Department offi21 cials with responsibilities related to acquisitions as 

22 permanent members of the Board. 

23 ‘‘(3) OVERSIGHT.—The Under Secretary for 

24 Management shall designate a full time employee of 

25 the Department to oversee the operations of the 

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

2 purposes of ensuring all acquisitions processes proceed in 

3 a timely fashion to achieve mission readiness. The Board 

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

5 time— 

6 ‘‘(1) a major acquisition program— 

7 ‘‘(A) requires authorization to proceed 

8 from one acquisition decision event to another 

9 throughout the acquisition life cycle; 

10 ‘‘(B) is in breach of its approved require11 ments; or 

12 ‘‘(C) requires additional review, as deter13 mined by the Under Secretary for Management; 

14 or 

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

16 review, as determined by the Under Secretary for 

17 Management. 

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

19 Board are as follows: 

20 ‘‘(1) Determine whether a proposed acquisition 

21 has met the requirements of key phases of the acqui22 sition life cycle framework and is able to proceed to 

23 the next phase and eventual full production and de24 ployment. 
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1 ‘‘(2) Oversee whether a proposed acquisition’s 

2 business strategy, resources, management, and ac3 countability is executable and is aligned to strategic 

4 initiatives. 

5 ‘‘(3) Support the person with acquisition deci6 sion authority for an acquisition in determining the 

7 appropriate direction for such acquisition at key ac8 quisition decision events. 

9 ‘‘(4) Conduct systematic reviews of acquisitions 

10 to ensure that such acquisitions are progressing in 

11 compliance with the approved documents for their 

12 current acquisition phases. 

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

14 major acquisition program, including the acquisition 

15 program baseline and documentation reflecting con16 sideration of tradeoffs among cost, schedule, and 

17 performance objectives, to ensure the reliability of 

18 underlying data. 

19 ‘‘(6) Ensure that practices are adopted and im20 plemented to require consideration of trade-offs 

21 among cost, schedule, and performance objectives as 

22 part of the process for developing requirements for 

23 major acquisition programs prior to the initiation of 

24 the second acquisition decision event, including, at a 

25 minimum, the following practices: 
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1 ‘‘(A) Department officials responsible for 

2 acquisition, budget, and cost estimating func3 tions are provided with the appropriate oppor4 tunity to develop estimates and raise cost and 

5 schedule matters before performance objectives 

6 are established for capabilities when feasible. 

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

8 trade-offs among cost, schedule, and perform9 ance objectives for each alternative. 

10 ‘‘(e) ACQUISITION PROGRAM BASELINE REPORT RE11 QUIREMENT.—If the person exercising acquisition decision 

12 authority over a major acquisition program approves such 

13 program to proceed into the planning phase before such 

14 program has a Department-approved acquisition program 

15 baseline, the Under Secretary for Management shall cre16 ate and approve an acquisition program baseline report 

17 regarding such approval, and the Secretary shall— 

18 ‘‘(1) within 7 days after an acquisition decision 

19 memorandum is signed, notify in writing the Com20 mittee on Homeland Security of the House of Rep21 resentatives and the Committee on Homeland Secu22 rity and Governmental Affairs of the Senate of such 

23 decision; and 

24 ‘‘(2) within 60 days after the acquisition deci25 sion memorandum is signed, submit to such commit-
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1 tees a written explanation of the rationale for such 

2 decision and a plan of action to address acquisition 

3 program baseline requirements for such program. 

4 ‘‘(f) REPORT.—The Under Secretary for Manage5 ment shall provide information to the Committee on 

6 Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and 

7 the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 

8 Affairs of the Senate on an annual basis through fiscal 

9 year 2024 on the activities of the Board for the prior fiscal 

10 year that includes information relating to the following: 

11 ‘‘(1) For each meeting of the Board, any acqui12 sition decision memoranda. 

13 ‘‘(2) Results of the systematic reviews con14 ducted pursuant to paragraph (4) of subsection (d). 

15 ‘‘(3) Results of acquisition document reviews re16 quired pursuant to paragraph (5) of subsection (d). 

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

18 adopted and implemented throughout the Depart19 ment pursuant to paragraph (6) of subsection (d). 

20 ‘‘(g) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

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

22 the meaning given such term in section 131 of title 

23 41, United States Code. 

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

25 term ‘acquisition decision authority’ means the au-
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1 thority, held by the Secretary acting through the 

2 Deputy Secretary or Under Secretary for Manage3 ment to— 

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

5 the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and De6 partment acquisition management directives; 

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

8 modifying, or cancelling) an acquisition pro9 gram through the life cycle of such program; 

10 ‘‘(C) ensure that acquisition program man11 agers have the resources necessary to success12 fully execute an approved acquisition program; 

13 ‘‘(D) ensure good acquisition program 

14 management of cost, schedule, risk, and system 

15 performance of the acquisition program at 

16 issue, including assessing acquisition program 

17 baseline breaches and directing any corrective 

18 action for such breaches; and 

19 ‘‘(E) ensure that acquisition program man20 agers, on an ongoing basis, monitor cost, sched21 ule, and performance against established base22 lines and use tools to assess risks to an acquisi23 tion program at all phases of the life cycle of 

24 such program to avoid and mitigate acquisition 

25 program baseline breaches. 
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1 ‘‘(3) ACQUISITION DECISION EVENT.—The term 

2 ‘acquisition decision event’, with respect to an acqui3 sition program, means a predetermined point within 

4 each of the acquisition phases at which the acquisi5 tion decision authority determines whether such ac6 quisition program shall proceed to the next acquisi7 tion phase. 

8 ‘‘(4) ACQUISITION DECISION MEMORANDUM.— 

9 The term ‘acquisition decision memorandum’, with 

10 respect to an acquisition, means the official acquisi11 tion decision event record that includes a docu12 mented record of decisions, exit criteria, and as13 signed actions for such acquisition, as determined by 

14 the person exercising acquisition decision authority 

15 for such acquisition. 

16 ‘‘(5) ACQUISITION PROGRAM.—The term ‘acqui17 sition program’ means the process by which the De18 partment acquires, with any appropriated amounts, 

19 by contract for purchase or lease, property or serv20 ices (including construction) that support the mis21 sions and goals of the Department. 

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

23 term ‘acquisition program baseline’, with respect to 

24 an acquisition program, means a summary of the 

25 cost, schedule, and performance parameters, ex-
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1 pressed in standard, measurable, quantitative terms, 

2 which must be met in order to accomplish the goals 

3 of such program. 

4 ‘‘(7) BEST PRACTICES.—The term ‘best prac5 tices’, with respect to acquisition, means a knowl6 edge-based approach to capability development that 

7 includes— 

8 ‘‘(A) identifying and validating needs; 

9 ‘‘(B) assessing alternatives to select the 

10 most appropriate solution; 

11 ‘‘(C) clearly establishing well-defined re12 quirements; 

13 ‘‘(D) developing realistic cost assessments 

14 and schedules; 

15 ‘‘(E) securing stable funding that matches 

16 resources to requirements; 

17 ‘‘(F) demonstrating technology, design, 

18 and manufacturing maturity; 

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

20 specific accomplishments that demonstrate 

21 progress; 

22 ‘‘(H) adopting and executing standardized 

23 processes with known success across programs; 
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1 ‘‘(I) establishing an adequate workforce 

2 that is qualified and sufficient to perform nec3 essary functions; and 

4 ‘‘(J) integrating the capabilities described 

5 in subparagraphs (A) through (I) into the De6 partment’s mission and business operations. 

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

8 ‘major acquisition program’ means a Department 

9 acquisition program that is estimated by the Sec10 retary to require an eventual total expenditure of at 

11 least $300 million (based on fiscal year 2019 con12 stant dollars) over its life cycle cost.’’. 

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

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

15 U.S.C. 101 et seq.) is amended by inserting after the item 

16 relating to section 835 the following new item: 

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

Passed the House of Representatives June 11, 2019. 

Attest: 

Clerk. 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2609 

AN ACT 

To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to 

purposes. Department of Homeland Security, and for other establish the Acquisition Review Board in the