Department of State (DOS) Fiscal Year 2020 Agency Report

1. Please provide a summary of your agency’s activities undertaken to carry out the provisions 

of OMB Circular A-119, “Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary 

Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities” and the National 

Technology Transfer and Advance Act (NTTAA). The summary should contain a link to 

the agency’s standards-specific website(s) where information about your agency’s standards 

and conformity assessment related activities are available.

The U.S. Department of State leads America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and 

assistance by advancing the interests of the American people, their safety and economic prosperity. 

The Department recognizes that standards play an important part in achieving these objectives. Our 

engagement in standards policy, standards development organizations, and our use of standards 

within the agency supports U.S. government’s standards policy, which recognizes the importance of 

Voluntary Consensus Standards and gives great weight to a more flexible “bottom up approach,” 

where the needs of private industry and government agencies drive the choice in standards, rather 

than a “top-down” approach that may be unnecessarily restrictive. 

The Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs 

The Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs (EB) is the Department’s lead negotiator of 

international economic agreements, which shape the global rules of trade and investment and enable 

the United States to maintain a high rate of growth while fostering global prosperity, security, and 

opportunity. EB is the Department’s principal interface with all other economic agencies and 

provides the Secretary of State with a global perspective on economic and business issues; it leads on 

economic engagement with key strategic bilateral and multilateral partners; advises the Secretary on 

Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) grants and International Financial Institution (IFI) 

loans; leads the Department on international trade, transportation, and telecommunications policy; is 

responsible for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), G-7, and G20 engagements, the telecommunications Ministerial of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation 

(APEC), and the regional efforts of the Organization of the American States (OAS) through its InterAmerican Telecommunication Commission (CITEL); is the linchpin for commercial 

advocacy; and is the principal center for designing and implementing economic sanctions. 

The Bureau’s mission is to advance America’s prosperity and other national interests by supporting 

U.S. businesses overseas, fostering good governance through economic transparency, 

accountability, and sustainability, and fostering inclusive economic growth and prosperity.

The Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs houses the Department’s Standards Executive. The 

Standards Executive coordinates standards policy within the agency, represents the agency on the 

Interagency Committee on Standards Policy (ICSP), and works with the interagency to evaluate and 

address domestic and international standards and technical regulations that may impact U.S. 

commitments in international bodies and trade agreements, or harm U.S. commercial interests.

The Office of International Communications and Information Policy (CIP) leads delegations 

to International Telecommunication Union (ITU) international standards development meetings. The 

U.S. delegation is selected from the public and private sector and looks to facilitate the use and 

implementation of Voluntary Consensus Standards where reasonable and appropriate. The ITU, a 

specialized agency of the United Nations, is an intergovernmental organization in which governments 
(currently 193) and non-governmental organizations and entities from the private sector (currently 

over 700) cooperate.

The ITU is made up of three sectors – the Telecommunication Development (ITU-D) sector, the 

Telecommunication Standardization (ITU-T) sector, and the Radiocommunication (ITU-R) 

sector. Telecommunication standards are developed in the ITU-T sector. The resulting standards 

form the basis for much of the technical and policy aspects of international telecommunications and 

provide important input to the development of national regulatory policy. 

As part of its engagement with the ITU, CIP ensures new areas of standardization proposed by the 

ITU-T reflect the needs and interests of the U.S. public and private sector and are within the mandate 

of the ITU-T. CIP coordinates development of the government's technical, policy, and regulatory 

positions based on advice provided by government agencies and U.S. industries. CIP also encourages 

the participation of U.S. companies in these activities. 

Web site: Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs

The Bureau of Overseas Building Operations 

The Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) directs the Department’s worldwide overseas 

building program. Working with other offices and bureaus, foreign affairs agencies, and Congress, 

OBO's challenge is to set worldwide priorities for the design, construction, acquisition, maintenance, 

and use of secure and high-performing embassies and consulates. 

OBO prefers to use industry standard references whenever possible and amend those standards as 

required to suit OBO’s unique mission. Using industry standards saves time for our private sector 

partners (architects, engineers, and contractors, etc.), because they are consistent with industry 

norms. At overseas locations, OBO strives to meet a variety of standards and searches for local 

equivalents that provide a high degree of safety and reliability. 

OBO has used the International Code Council (ICC) Codes as its base code for a number of years, 

with amendments, and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 70 National Electrical Code 

serves as the base code for electrical code provisions.  OBO also utilizes AIA MasterSpec 

specifications, where possible, as the baseline for developing a number of OBO Standard 

Specification sections.  These referenced codes and the OBO Standard Specification sections, in 

turn, identify a much greater number of industry standards (including some cited below). 

These codes and specifications are updated periodically, as appropriate. The Foreign Affairs Manual 

in provision 15 FAM 900 incorporates a number of consensus standards into the overseas safety, 

health, and environmental management program. OBO also applies the Secure Embassy 

Construction and Counterterrorism Act of 1999 (SECCA) statutory requirements and participates on 

the Overseas Security Policy Board (OSPB) as all agencies under Chief of Mission authority must 

comply with OSPB standards set forth in the classified section of the Foreign Affairs Handbook, 12 

FAH-6.

Examples of OBO’s use of standards include: 

• ACGIH TLVs and RELs for occupational exposure limits.

• ANSI/ASHRAE 62 – Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality and ANSI/ASHRAE 55 

– Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy for ventilation design and 

human comfort. 
• The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) standards for 

ventilation for hazard control. 

• ANSI/IWCA I-14.1 for Window Cleaning Safety.

• ANSI/ASSE Z359.1 Personal Fall Arrest Systems. 

• NFPA 70E – Standards for Electrical Safety in the Workplace and TUV, CSA, and UL 

standards for electrical appliances.

• NFPA 1 – Fire Code. 

• NFPA 101 – Life Safety Code.

• NFPA 72 – National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code. 

• NFPA 13 – Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems. 

• NFPA 24 - Standard for the Installation of Private Fire Service Mains. 

• NFPA 25 - Standard for the Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire 

Protection Systems. 

• NFPA 96 - Standard for Ventilation Control and Fire Protection of Commercial Cooking 

Operations. 

• NFPA 70 – National Electrical Code.

• International Building Code and many other International Code Council (ICC) codes. 

• For Building Information Modeling (BIM): Conformity is assessed by BIM managers during 

design reviews.

• National BIM Standard, NBIMS-USTM. 

• National CAD Standard. 

• ISO 15686-4:  Building Construction — Service Life Planning — Part 4: Service Life 

Planning using Building Information Modelling. 

• ISO 16739-1:  Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) for data sharing in the construction and 

facility management industries — Part 1: Data schema. 

• ISO 12006-2:  Building construction — Organization of information about construction 

works — Part 2: Framework for classification. 

• Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) verified as a standard for room air 

purifiers/cleaners. 

• National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) standards for bottled drinking water, water treatment 

chemicals, treatment system components, and coatings, when possible. 

• ISO 17025 for water testing laboratories. 

• For point-of-use water treatment devices, the Department NSF, WQA, CSA and WHO. 

• As hallmarks of quality-bottled drinking water, the Department also uses NSF, IBWA, UL, 

along with approval for U.S. Military purchase.

• ASTM E-1526 – Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments: Phase I 

Environmental Site Assessment Process.

• ANSI/TIA standards (various)

• ANSI/JTC Joint Standard 607 – Generic Telecommunications Bonding and Grounding for 

Customer Premises

• ANSI/BICSI N1 – Installation Practices for Telecommunications and ICT Cabling and 

Related Cabling Infrastructure

• BICSI Telecommunications Distribution Methods Manual

• IEEE C2 – National Electrical Safety Code

• ISO/IEC-1 1180 – Information Technology – Generic Cabling for Customer Premises

• SECCA – collocation and setback requirements for U.S. diplomatic facilities abroad. 

• OSPB –uniform policies and security standards for U.S. diplomatic facilities abroad. 
2.   Please list the government-unique standards (GUS) your agency began using in lieu of voluntary 

consensus standards during FY 2020. Please note that GUS which are still in effect from previous 

years should continue to be listed, thus the total number in your agency's report will include all 

GUS currently in use (previous years and new as of this FY): 1 

(1) Government Unique Standard

General 2020 OBO Design Standards (annual update) 

Rationale

OBO prefers to leverage industry codes and standards to the degree they support OBO’s mission of 

delivering safe, secure, functional, and resilient facilities.  However, in some cases it is necessary to 

amend, modify, or focus industry codes and standards to address considerations such as for coordination 

with Department security requirements and SECCA laws.  In other cases it is useful to transform 

and standardize some U.S. industry provisions into contractual requirements which at the national level in 

the United States are addressed only as guidance for local jurisdictions; this is the case for some 

considerations related to zoning and utilities.  

Approved:EB/TPN/MTA Director Tony Fernandes 

Drafted:EB/TPN/MTA Scott Clayton, ext. 7-8202 and cell: 614-859-5347 

Cleared: EB/TPN/MTA: Carol Henninger  (ok)

EB/CIP/MA: PNajarian (ok)

EB/TPN/IPE: ACorcos (ok)

L/BA:DGhallager (ok)

L/EB: JSimonoff (ok) 

L/EB: MAktipis (ok) 

L/EB: CRusin (ok)

OBO/RM: JReba (ok)