I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 193 

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

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 3, 2019 

Mr. MCCAUL (for himself and Ms. KELLY of Illinois) 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’’. 

6 SEC. 2. STANDARDIZATION IN CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION. 

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

9 Building Operations (OBO) or successor office should 


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1 prioritize the standardization of embassy design and keep 

2 customization to a minimum. 

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

4 carry out any new embassy compound project or new con5 sulate compound project that utilizes a non-standard de6 sign, including those projects that are in the design phase 

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

8 this Act, only in consultation with the appropriate con9 gressional committees. The Secretary shall provide such 

10 committees, for each such project, the following docu11 mentation: 

12 (1) A comparison of the estimated full lifecycle 

13 costs of the project at issue to the estimated full 

14 lifecycle costs of such project if such project were to 

15 use a standard design. 

16 (2) A comparison of the estimated completion 

17 date of such project to the estimated completion 

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

19 standard design. 

20 (3) A comparison of the security of such com21 pleted project to the security of such completed 

22 project if such completed project were to use a 

23 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 September 30, 2023. 

10 SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 

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

12 of Overseas Building Operations of the Department of 

13 State or its successor office shall continue to balance 

14 functionality and security with accessibility as defined by 

15 guidelines established by the United States Access Board 

16 in constructing embassies and consulates and shall ensure 

17 compliance with the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 

18 (42 U.S.C. 4151 et seq.) to the fullest extent possible. 

19 SEC. 4. CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION TRANSPARENCY. 

20 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 118 of the Department of 

21 State Authorities Act, Fiscal Year 2017 (22 U.S.C. 304) 

22 is amended— 

23 (1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘AN24 NUAL REPORT ON EMBASSY CONSTRUCTION

25 COSTS’’ and inserting ‘‘QUARTERLY REPORT ON


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1 OVERSEAS CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION

2 PROJECTS’’; and 

3 (2) by amending subsections (a) and (b) to read 

4 as follows: 

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

6 the date of the enactment of this subsection, and every 

7 90 days thereafter until September 30, 2023, the Sec8 retary shall submit to the appropriate congressional com9 mittees a comprehensive report regarding all ongoing over10 seas capital construction projects and major embassy secu11 rity upgrade projects. 

12 ‘‘(b) CONTENTS.—Each report required under sub13 section (a) shall include the following with respect to each 

14 ongoing overseas capital construction project and major 

15 embassy security upgrade project: 

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

17 proposed allocation of capital construction and main18 tenance funds required by the Committees on Appro19 priations for Acts making appropriations for the De20 partment of State, foreign operations, and related 

21 programs. 

22 ‘‘(2) The current cost estimate. 

23 ‘‘(3) The value of each request for equitable ad24 justment received by the Department of State to 

25 date. 


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

2 by the Department of State to date. 

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

4 contingency fund to date and the value of the re5 mainder of the project’s contingency fund. 

6 ‘‘(6) An enumerated list of each request for ad7 justment and certified claim that remains out8 standing or unresolved. 

9 ‘‘(7) An enumerated list of each request for eq10 uitable adjustment and certified claim that has been 

11 fully adjudicated or that the Department has settled, 

12 and the final dollar amount of each adjudication or 

13 settlement. 

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

15 in the proposed allocation of capital construction 

16 and maintenance funds required by the Committees 

17 on Appropriations not later than 45 days after the 

18 date of the enactment of an Act making appropria19 tions for the Department of State, foreign oper20 ations, and related programs. 

21 ‘‘(9) The current date of estimated comple22 tion.’’. 

23 (b) INITIAL REPORT.—The first report required 

24 under subsection (a) of section 118 of the Department of 

25 State Authorities Act, Fiscal Year 2017 (as amended by 


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1 this section) shall include an annex regarding all overseas 

2 capital construction projects and major embassy security 

3 upgrade projects completed during the 10-year period end4 ing on December 31, 2018, including, for each such 

5 project, the elements specified in subsection (b) of such 

6 section 118 (as amended by this section). 

7 SEC. 5. CONTRACTOR PERFORMANCE INFORMATION. 

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

9 State shall complete by October 1, 2021, all contractor 

10 performance evaluations required by subpart 42.15 of the 

11 Federal Acquisition Regulation. 

12 (b) PRIORITIZATION SYSTEM.— 

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

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

15 of State shall develop a prioritization system for 

16 clearing the current backlog of required evaluations 

17 referred to in subsection (a). 

18 (2) ELEMENTS.—The system required under 

19 paragraph (1) should prioritize such evaluations as 

20 follows: 

21 (A) Project completion evaluations should 

22 be prioritized over annual evaluations. 

23 (B) Evaluations for relatively large con24 tracts should have priority. 


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1 (C) Evaluations that would be particularly 

2 informative for the awarding of government 

3 contracts should have priority. 

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

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

6 brief the appropriate congressional committees on the De7 partment of State’s plan for completing all evaluations by 

8 October 1, 2021, and the prioritization system developed 

9 pursuant to this section. 

10 (d) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con11 gress that— 

12 (1) contractors deciding whether to bid on De13 partment of State contracts would benefit from 

14 greater understanding of the Department as a client; 

15 and 

16 (2) the Department should develop a forum 

17 through which contractors can rate the Depart18 ment’s project management performance. 

19 SEC. 6. GROWTH PROJECTIONS FOR NEW EMBASSIES AND 

20 CONSULATES. 

21 (a) IN GENERAL.—For each new embassy compound 

22 project (NEC) and new consulate compound project 

23 (NCC) in or not yet in the design phase as of the date 

24 of the enactment of this Act, the Office of Management 

25 Policy, Rightsizing, and Innovation of the Department of 


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1 State shall project growth over the estimated life of the 

2 facility at issue using all available and relevant data, in3 cluding the following: 

4 (1) Relevant historical trends for Department 

5 personnel and personnel from other agencies rep6 resented at the NEC or NCC that is to be con7 structed. 

8 (2) An analysis of the tradeoffs between risk 

9 and the needs of United States Government policy 

10 conducted as part of the most recent Vital Presence 

11 Validation Process, if applicable. 

12 (3) Reasonable assumptions about the strategic 

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

14 over the life of the building at issue. 

15 (4) Any other data that would be helpful in pro16 jecting the future growth of NEC or NCC. 

17 (b) OTHER AGENCIES.—Each Federal agency rep18 resented at an embassy or consulate shall provide to the 

19 Department of State, upon request, growth projections for 

20 the personnel of such agency over the estimated life of 

21 such embassy or consulate, as the case may be. 

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

23 State shall base growth assumption for all NECs and 

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

25 (b). 


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1 (d) CONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION.—Any congres2 sional notification of site selection for a NEC or NCC sub3 mitted after the date of the enactment of this Act shall 

4 include the growth assumption used pursuant to sub5 section (c). 

6 SEC. 7. LONG-RANGE PLANNING PROCESS. 

7 (a) PLANS REQUIRED.— 

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

9 after the date of the enactment of this Act and an10 nually thereafter for five years, the Secretary of 

11 State shall develop— 

12 (A) a comprehensive six-year Long-Range 

13 Overseas Buildings Plan (LROBP) docu14 menting the Department of State’s overseas 

15 building program for the replacement of over16 seas diplomatic facilities taking into account se17 curity factors under the Secure Embassy Con18 struction and Counterterrorism Act of 1999 (22 

19 U.S.C. 4865 note) and other relevant statutes 

20 and regulations, as well as occupational safety 

21 and health factors pursuant to the Occupational 

22 Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 651 

23 et seq.) and other relevant statutes and regula24 tions, including environmental factors such as 


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1 indoor air quality that impact employee health 

2 and safety; and 

3 (B) a comprehensive six-year plan detailing 

4 the Department’s long-term planning for the 

5 maintenance and sustainment of completed fa6 cilities, known as a Long-Range Overseas Main7 tenance Plan (LROMP), which takes into ac8 count security factors under the Secure Em9 bassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act of 

10 1999 and other relevant statutes and regula11 tions, as well as occupational safety and health 

12 factors pursuant to the Occupational Safety 

13 and Health Act of 1970 and other relevant 

14 statutes and regulations, including environ15 mental factors such as indoor air quality that 

16 impact employee health and safety. 

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

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

19 one-time status report on existing small diplomatic 

20 posts and a strategy for establishing a physical dip21 lomatic presence in countries in which there is no 

22 current physical diplomatic presence. The report, 

23 which may include a classified annex, shall include 

24 the following: 


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1 (A) A description of the extent to which 

2 each small diplomatic post furthers the national 

3 interest of the United States. 

4 (B) A description of how each small diplo5 matic post provides American Citizen Services, 

6 including data on specific services provided and 

7 the number of Americans receiving services over 

8 the previous year. 

9 (C) A description of whether each small 

10 diplomatic post meets current security require11 ments. 

12 (D) A description of the full financial cost 

13 of maintaining each small diplomatic post. 

14 (E) Input from the relevant chiefs of mis15 sion on any unique operational or policy value 

16 the small diplomatic post provides. 

17 (3) UPDATED INFORMATION.—The annual up18 dates of the plans developed pursuant to paragraph 

19 (1) shall highlight any changes from the previous 

20 year’s plan to the ordering of construction and 

21 maintenance projects. 

22 (b) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.— 

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

24 later than 60 days after the completion of the 

25 LROBP and the LROMP, the Secretary of State 


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1 shall submit such plans to the appropriate congres2 sional committees. 

3 (2) REFERENCE IN BUDGET JUSTIFICATION

4 MATERIALS.—In the budget justification materials 

5 submitted to the appropriate congressional commit6 tees in support of the Department of State’s budget 

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

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

9 United States Code), the plans specified in the 

10 LROBP and LROMP shall be referenced to justify 

11 funding requested for building and maintenance 

12 projects overseas. 

13 (3) FORM OF REPORT.—The plans required to 

14 be submitted under paragraph (1) shall be submitted 

15 in unclassified form but may include classified an16 nexes. 

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

18 section, the term ‘‘small diplomatic post’’ means any con19 sulate that has employed five or fewer United States Gov20 ernment employees on average over the 36 months before 

21 the date of the enactment of this Act. 

22 SEC. 8. VALUE ENGINEERING AND RISK ASSESSMENT. 

23 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find24 ings: 


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1 (1) Federal departments and agencies are re2 quired to use value engineering (VE) as a manage3 ment tool, where appropriate, to reduce program and 

4 acquisition costs pursuant to OMB Circular A–131, 

5 Value Engineering, dated December 31, 2013. 

6 (2) OBO has a Policy Directive and Standard 

7 Operation Procedure, dated May 24, 2017, on con8 ducting risk management studies on all international 

9 construction projects. 

10 (b) NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.— 

11 (1) SUBMISSION TO AUTHORIZING COMMIT12 TEES.—The proposed allocation of capital construc13 tion and maintenance funds that is required by the 

14 Committees on Appropriations of the House of Rep15 resentatives and the Senate not later than 45 days 

16 after the date of the enactment of an Act making 

17 appropriations for the Department of State, foreign 

18 operations, and related programs shall also be sub19 mitted to the appropriate congressional committees. 

20 (2) REQUIREMENT TO CONFIRM COMPLETION

21 OF VALUE ENGINEERING AND RISK ASSESSMENT

22 STUDIES.—The notifications required under para23 graph (1) shall include confirmation that the De24 partment of State has completed the requisite VE 


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1 and risk management studies described in subsection 

2 (a). 

3 (c) REPORTING AND BRIEFING REQUIREMENTS.— 

4 The Secretary of State shall provide to the appropriate 

5 congressional committees upon request— 

6 (1) a description of each recommendation from 

7 each study described in subsection (a) and a table 

8 detailing which recommendations were accepted and 

9 which were rejected; and 

10 (2) a report or briefing detailing the rationale 

11 for not implementing recommendations made by VE 

12 studies that may yield significant cost savings to the 

13 Department of State, if implemented. 

14 SEC. 9. BUSINESS VOLUME. 

15 Subparagraph (E) of section 402(c)(2) of the Omni16 bus Diplomatic Security and Antiterrorism Act of 1986 

17 (22 U.S.C. 4852(c)(2)) is amended by striking ‘‘in 3 

18 years’’ and inserting ‘‘cumulatively over 3 years’’. 

19 SEC. 10. EMBASSY SECURITY REQUESTS AND DEFI20 CIENCIES. 

21 The Secretary of State shall provide to the appro22 priate congressional committees, upon request, informa23 tion on security deficiencies at United States diplomatic 

24 posts, including— 


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1 (1) requests made over the previous year by 

2 United States diplomatic posts for security up3 grades; and 

4 (2) significant security deficiencies at United 

5 States diplomatic posts that are not operating out of 

6 a new embassy compound or new consulate com7 pound. 

8 SEC. 11. OVERSEAS SECURITY BRIEFINGS. 

9 Not later than one year after the date of the enact10 ment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall revise the 

11 Foreign Affairs Manual to stipulate that information on 

12 the current threat environment shall be provided to all 

13 United States Government employees under chief of mis14 sion authority traveling to a foreign country on official 

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

16 provided to employees prior to their arrival at a post or 

17 as soon as possible thereafter. 

18 SEC. 12. CONTRACTING METHODS IN CAPITAL CONSTRUC19 TION. 

20 (a) DELIVERY.—Unless the Secretary of State noti21 fies the appropriate congressional committees that the use 

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

23 appropriate, the Secretary shall make use of such method 

24 at diplomatic posts that have not yet received design or 


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1 capital construction contracts as of the date of the enact2 ment of this Act. 

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

4 a delivery method other than design-build in accordance 

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

6 appropriate congressional committees in writing of the de7 cision, including the reasons therefor. The notification re8 quired by this subsection may be included in any other 

9 report regarding a new diplomatic facility that is required 

10 to be submitted to the appropriate congressional commit11 tees. 

12 (c) PERFORMANCE EVALUATION.—Not later than 

13 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

14 Secretary shall report to the appropriate congressional 

15 committees regarding performance evaluation measures in 

16 line with GAO’s ‘‘Standards for Internal Control in the 

17 Federal Government’’ that will be applicable to design and 

18 construction, lifecycle cost, and building maintenance pro19 grams of the Bureau of Overseas Building Operations of 

20 the Department of State. 

21 SEC. 13. COMPETITION IN EMBASSY CONSTRUCTION. 

22 Not later than 45 days after the date of the enact23 ment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to 

24 the appropriate congressional committee a report detailing 

25 steps the Department of State is taking to expand the emVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:27 Jan 16, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H193.IH H193

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1 bassy construction contractor base in order to increase 

2 competition and maximize value. 

3 SEC. 14. DEFINITIONS. 

4 In this Act: 

5 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT6 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com7 mittees’’ means— 

8 (A) the Committee on Foreign Relations 

9 and the Committee on Appropriations of the 

10 Senate; and 

11 (B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 

12 the Committee on Appropriations of the House 

13 of Representatives. 

14 (2) DESIGN-BUILD.—The term ‘‘design-build’’ 

15 means a method of project delivery in which one en16 tity works under a single contract with the Depart17 ment of State to provide design and construction 

18 services. 

19 (3) NON-STANDARD DESIGN.—The term ‘‘non20 standard design’’ means a design for a new embassy 

21 compound project or new consulate compound 

22 project that does not utilize a standardized design 

23 for the structural, spatial, or security requirements 


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1 of such embassy compound or consulate compound, 

2 as the case may be. 

Æ 


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