Department of State (DOS) Fiscal Year 2022 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 standards policy, engagement with standards development organizations, and our use of 

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

the importance of voluntary consensus standards and gives weight to a flexible “bottom-up

approach,” in which 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 for 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 G-20 engagements; and is one key agency for designing and 

implementing economic sanctions.

Every day, EB creates jobs at home, boosts economic opportunities overseas, and makes 

America more secure. EB promotes a strong American economy by leveling the playing field 

for American companies doing business in global markets, attracting foreign investors to create 

jobs in America, and deploying economic tools to deny financing to terrorists, human rights 

abusers, and corrupt officials. Economics has become the indispensable foreign policy tool of 

our time. Everything we do is to ensure that the United States remains the world’s strongest and 

most dynamic economy.

EB houses the Department’s Standards Executive. The Standards Executive coordinates 

standards policy within the Department, represents the Department 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.

Web site: Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs 

The Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy 

The Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (CDP) leads and coordinates the Department’s 

work on cyberspace and digital diplomacy to encourage responsible state behavior in cyberspace 

and advance policies that protect the integrity and security of the infrastructure of the Internet, 

serve U.S. interests, promote competitiveness, and uphold democratic values. CDP addresses the 

national security challenges, economic opportunities, and values considerations presented by 

cyberspace, digital technologies, and digital policy and promotes technology standards and 

norms that are fair, transparent, and support our values. 

CDP’s International Information and Communications Policy, Office of Multilateral Affairs 

(CDP/ICP/MA) 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 193 governments and over 900 non-governmental 

organizations and entities from the private sector 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, CDP/ICP/MA 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. CDP/ICP/MA coordinates development of the 

government's technical, policy, and regulatory positions based on advice provided by 

government agencies and U.S. industries. CDP/ICP/MA also encourages the participation of 

U.S. companies in these activities. 

Web site: Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy 

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 (e.g., architects, engineers, and contractors), 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 uses the International Code Council (ICC) Codes, with amendments, as its base codeand 

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. The Foreign Affairs Manual in 

provision 15 FAM 900 incorporates 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. 

Web site: Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations

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 2022. 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):

Current total GUS: 1

(1) Government Unique Standard

General 2022 OBO Design Standards (annual update)

Rationale

The OBO Design Standards incorporates the ICC model building codes by reference to leverage 

industry codes and standards to the degree they support OBO’s mission of delivering safe, 

secure, functional, and resilient facilities. In some cases, it is necessary to amend, modify, or 

focus industry codes and standards to address unique considerations such as for coordination 

with Department security requirements and SECCA laws. This strategy of using “code 

supplements” to modify generic model building codes is consistent with the practice of domestic 
state and local jurisdictions. It is also practical for the Department of State to further 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.